Note: You are currently viewing documentation for Moodle 3.1. Up-to-date documentation for the latest stable version of Moodle is probably available here: Using Choice.

Using Choice

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Revision as of 08:42, 16 April 2012 by Klaus Steitz (talk | contribs) (DE-Link)


What the student sees

  • When a teacher has created a Choice activity, the student is presented with a number of radio buttons. They click one to make their selection.
  • Depending on the teacher's settings, the student may then be able to see the results either anonymously or with names (via the "View xxx responses" link) or not see anything.

Studentchoiceview.png

What the teacher sees

  • Regardless of how it's been set for students, a teacher will always see user names and choices, via the "View xxx responses" link.
  • The teacher is also able to delete selected choices or download them in various formats as in the screenshot below:

Choiceresponses.png

Some ways to use Choice

Thinking about existing knowledge

Pedagogically, the choice activity can be used to provide an opportunity to share starting points through which learners are encouraged to think about and articulate existing knowledge and understandings of a topic. For example, you can ask students to make ‘choices’ about a statement such as “in learning to become a teacher, the most significant issue for me is” (giving the following choices): trust, theoretical underpinnings, communication or delivering materials to students.

This has two benefits: firstly, it forces participants to engage with their choice and think, in advance of a further related activity (you might wish to follow up such a choice activity with a forum discussion or a reflective activity like the online text assignment), about the context and consequences of this choice. Secondly, it allows tutors and students to gain a better understanding of existing views/understandings/knowledge related to the question, idea or concept at hand in the Choice activity.

Assessing understanding

For younger students, the choice activity is a secure way to gauge their understanding of a topic without asking them in public: with a question such as "how well did you understand this module?" students can honestly select from "very well", "OK" or "I stil don't get it", safe in the knowledge only their teacher knows their response and they will not be shamed in front of their peers.

The choice activity in Moodle only allows a participant to select one choice from a variety of options (that you provide), but you may set the activity so that participants can change their choices - thus, as students make progress and gain confidence, they might want to update their choice to reflect this. You can also set the activity so that it ‘closes’ or ‘locks down’ on a specific date, making all choices final from that point on. This allows participants to change their minds several times before a final date.

Selecting groups

Using the choice activity is one way of getting students to put themselves into groups. However in its standard form, it does not add them to the gradebook as a group. There is a contributed module that does this here: Choicegroup

See also

Using Moodle forum discussions: