GIFT format

With GIFT format you can write multiple-choice, true-false, short answer, matching missing word and numerical questions in a text editor in a simple format. For large numbers of questions, GIFT is likely to provide the quickest way of bulk loading your questions.

File:Gift.jpg

screen shot from quiz help file documentation

At least one blank line must be left between each question.

Here is an GIFT example for quiz-import, easy to copy and change ...

The file must be correctly encoded in UTF8. Beware of some of Microsoft's "fake" Unicode implementation which is not compatible and may result in strange characters appearing in your quizzes.

Here is a 2-column GIFT format reference sheet I created for a training:

• GIFT Reference Sheet

Hints and Tips

• Use the ::title:: at the beginning of every question to organize this for you (01 - testquestion), otherwise it would be difficult to find the right question for changes, moodle will take the beginning of every question as internal title.
• In the Lesson module, in a question page, correct answers jump by default to Next page and incorrect answers jump to This page (i.e. student has to "try again"). When importing from a GIFT format file, this is exactly the mechanism which is used.
• If you want a student to be taken directly from one question to the next irrespective of their answer being correct or incorrect: in the Lesson Settings, set Maximum number of attempts: to 1. Please note, however, that a message "correct / incorrect" will still be displayed to the student upon answering each question. If you do not want this (default) feedback message to be displayed then enter your own feedback message (i.e. "continue", "---", etc.) In case you want no visible message displayed then enter a non-breaking space as feedback, so you'll have to put a # after the answer which may be ~3 and write & n b s p ; after that.(without spaces between these characters)
• If you want to use curly braces, { or }, or equal sign, =, or # or ~ in a GIFT file (for example in a math question including TeX expressions) you must "escape" them by preceding them with a \ directly in front of each { or } or =. It is possible to use a replace program/macro/editor filter to do this conversion before importing to Moodle.

Word processors and Spreadsheets tools that create GIFTs

Several contributors have used macros to generate GIFT files from a more familiar popular programs.

• There are Word macros available for easily creating GIFT files. See this non-Moodle site for downloads and instructions for use.
• There are several Excel spreadsheets for generating GIFT files. Several people have built upon other contributors work.
  • The latest version was posted on 10 April 2007 and can be found in this thread with this file name: Excel2GIFTv1.1.zip by Timothy Takemoto. There is also a set of instructions Excel2GIFTv1.1_Instructions.rtf by Jeff Shek on the same day in that thread.
  • An earlier version of this Excel spreadsheet for generating multiple choice GIFT files initially created by Olga Forlani and improved by A. T. Wyatt.
• There are Open Office templates for generating GIFT files. These are located in the Quiz forum in theOOo template to write exams and convert to GIFT format thread.
  • The most recent is "OOo2GIFT_Template_05.zip" postes 17 December 2005 by Enrique Castro.
  • An earlier version is "GIFT_template_OOo.zip" posted 22 March 2005 by Enrique Castro.

See also

• Export questions
• Import questions
• Aiken Format
• Moodle XML format