Tutorial

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CREATING AN ONLINE QUIZ
USING JS QUIZ MAKER

Dr. Richard L. Bowman
Academic Computing, Bridgewater College, Bridgewater, VA, USA 22812

I. Introduction

Online quizzes or self-tests can be a useful addition to the repertoire of tools available for an instructor who wishes to web-enhance a course. This tutorial gives directions for creating online quizzes from the modules in the JS Quiz Maker package.

JS Quiz Maker can make quizzes:

• that have true-false and/or multiple-choice questions
• that are graded immediately upon completion by the person taking the quiz
• that email the user's answers and grade to a designated instructor
• that are randomly selected from a pool of similar quizzes

If you are using version 1.13 or an earlier version of JS Quiz Maker, including an un-numbered or un-named version of JS Quiz Maker, please update your files to version 3. Versions 2 introduced a more flexible and reliable quiz engine and a more user-friendly interface for producing the quizzes. Version 3 provides updated directions and allows the use of randomly selected quizzes from a group of similar quizzes constructed by the instructor.

CAUTIONS

1. An online quiz is inherently an insecure method of obtaining grades, unless it is conducted only in a proctored situation. However, I have discovered that such online quizzes do have a lot of motivational power. When I teach in a computer classroom, I actually make the quizzes "live" only right before  I enter the class, and proctor the quizzes myself at the beginning of class. I then do not accept quiz answers that are submitted later. As another example, one professor has made extensive use of these online quizzes as practice tests for students who will later take a certification exam.
    
2. In addition, the procedure used by JS Quiz Maker to construct these quizzes or self-tests is not completely secure. The vast majority of students will not know how to get to the list of correct answers, but a student with extensive experience in JavaScript authoring can probably locate and examine the questions and the answers before taking the self-test. So use these quizzes only as a motivation to read the assigned readings and to be prepared for class discussions. Thus the instructor should only make these online quizzes a minor part of any grading scheme.

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