History of the Moodle quiz and question bank

This is edited highlights from

   git log mod/quiz question lib/questionlib.php admin/qtypes.php admin/qbehaviours.php

(If you prefer, substitute gitk for git log in that.) Particularly significant changes have be put in bold, but this is somewhat arbitrary.

In several cases, the first commit purporting to add a feature was pretty broken, or minimal, and then more work was done to fix it up and make it actually work. In these cases, generally I have just picked out the first commit mentioning a particular feature.

The headings mark points in time, so the things between the Moodle 1.0 and Moodle 1.1 headings are features that are new in Moodle 1.1. The funny numbers after the date are the commit hashes. They are a link to that change on github.

The changes have been classified according to whether they are primarily P - pedagogic, A - administrative or T - technical.

At the moment, I was inconsistent with attributing credit for features. That is just sloppiness on my part, and hopefully I will fix it some day.--Tim Hunt 04:33, 12 April 2012 (WST)

Does anyone know when Gustav Delius started being quiz maintainer?

Moodle 1.0 release 20 August 2002

• 2002-10-04 730fd187 (PAT) First version of quiz module added by Martin Dougiamas. The first feature that anyone was paid to write for Moodle!
• 2002-10-06 14d8c0b4 (P) First three question types created, Multiple-Choice, Short answer and True/false.
• 2002-10-13 579ddad5 (PA) first, very basic, grades report added.
• 2002-10-14 7bd1aa1d (A) first quiz editing UI
• 2002-10-15 2a2c9725 (A) editing UI for the first three types.
• 2002-10-18 958aafe2 (A) tracking start and end time of attempts.
• 2002-10-20 c74a0ca5 (A) question category editing UI. (Note, categories cannot be nested, but note the the ides of published categories to allow sharing between courses already exists.)
• 2002-10-21 e1c91df0 (A) allow questions to be deleted.
• 2002-10-22 e331eb06 (A) regrading implemented
• 2002-12-09 9307692f (PA) JavaScript confirmation before submitting an attempt.
• 2003-01-01 8e6c87cc (PA) Teachers can enable students to review, but only after the quiz close date.
• 2003-02-16 49220fa7 (A) Framework for quiz import/export formats. Only one real format for now, missingword.
• 2003-02-24 95dbc030 (P) Random short-answer match qtype added.
• 2003-03-30 54a67a59 (P) Matching question type added.
• 2003-04-09 34d52ad7 (P) Random questions added.
• 2003-04-09 4b85b717 (P) Shuffle questions and shuffle answers features added.
• 2003-05-02 c6bcd06a (A) AON and Blackboard import formats added.
• 2003-07-06 401c8de6 (P) Description question type added.
• 2003-07-09 d7c93ec8 (A) Backup and restore added to the quiz.
• 2003-07-10 361f649d (P) Numerical qtype added.
• 2003-07-24 29d5d0b4 (T) Quiz reports made into a sort-of plugin.
• 2003-07-24 c90f563e (PA) simplestat report added.
• 2003-07-28 250e71d9 (A) countdown time when less than 24 hours from the close date.
• 2003-08-01 8b439f8c (P) Multi-answer question type.
• 2003-08-03 0f36ecb9 (P) Each attempt builds on the last added

Moodle 1.1 release 29 August 2003

• 2003-09-10 ed1daaa9 (P) First support for ungraded quizzes.
• 2003-10-15 857e0dfd (A) Course test manager import format.
• 2003-11-20 565e970e (PA) fullstat report by Thomas Robb
• 2003-11-20 7c9c2a8d (P) allow negative grades for multiple-choice.
• 2003-12-01 03159279 (A) Aiken import format.
• 2003-12-12 43bf9fc2 (T) Improved plug-in formation for import/export formats.
• 2003-12-12 43bf9fc2 (A) GIFT format added.
• 2003-12-29 0ce4aa1a (P) Short-answer qtype enhanced to allow wild-cards.
• 2004-01-11 998ebd42 (A) WebCT import format added.
• 2004-01-13 a9981ba6 (A) Matching questions added to GIFT format
• 2004-02-14 831b236f (A) Groups support added to the quiz reports.
• 2004-02-16 bbcbc0fe (P) First version of lesson module added.

Moodle 1.2 release 20 March 2004

• 2004-05-19 56215ed4 (A) Warn teachers if they are editing a quiz with attempts.

Moodle 1.3 release 25 May 2004

• 2004-06-02 f41e824f (PA) Time limit feature added.
• 2004-07-07 88c898f5 (A) Password and subnet restrictions added.
• 2004-07-21 8966a111 (T) Question types made plug-ins, although still within mod/quiz.
• 2004-07-30 8c5a95fa (P) Calculated question type added.
• 2004-07-30 7a82d193 (P) Units added to numerical (and calculate) question types.
• 2004-08-06 bbb4e32d (A) Moodle XML export format added.
• 2004-08-16 9c8047cf (PA) Question preview feature added.

Moodle 1.4 release 31 August 2004

• 2004-12-16 6c83959e (A) 'Secure pop-up' mode added.
• 2004-12-16 d6b3c7b8 (A) Moodle XML export added.
• 2004-12-23 a5c0990e (A) Config page to allow admins to set default quiz options.
• 2005-01-02 34283aa8 (A) 'Show advanced' button added to the quiz settings form. (Copying what is already done in the Resource module.)
• 2005-01-02 34283aa8 (PA) Start of more sophisticated review options.
• 2005-01-02 ac27e47d (A) Hierarchical question categories.
• 2005-01-03 d70ccc49 (P) Multi-page quizzes allowed
• 2005-01-25 16809253 (A) Learnwise question import format
• 2005-02-01 bdfa14dd (PA) Allow blocks on the quiz view page
• 2005-02-14 72036f93 (A) Now a teacher option for number of decimal points to show for grades.
• 2005-02-17 06e273a1 (A) attempt at adding QTI 2.0 export.
• 2005-03-03 c6bfdec3 (AT) attempt at adding question versioning, that never really got anywhere.
• 2005-05-06 ee1fb969 (P) adaptive mode added by Gustav Delius et al of the Serving Mathematics project.
• 2005-05-15 0fc59399 (PA) Item analysis report added by Enrique Castro
• 2005-05-16 691d0611 (A) Examview import format.
• 2005-06-04 7bbe08a2 (AT) simplest and fullstat reports removed.

Moodle 1.5 release 5 June 2005

• 2005-06-26 ed460c8e (P) Essay question type by Mark Nielsen
• 2005-07-22 80ed3fe6 (PA) Responses report added (temporarily)
• 2006-02-08 401c3496 (P) Option for an enforced delay between attempts.
• 2006-02-19 14afbbf0 (A) Tool for re-ordering all the questions in a quiz at once.
• 2006-02-24 516cf3eb (T) Question bank code and question types moved from mod/quiz -> question.
• 2006-03-01 03c8c27e (PA) Option to show students with/without attempts in the quiz reports.
• 2006-03-08 d1c97481 (A) Blackboard 6 question import format.
• 2006-03-22 ead29342 (T) Question types now a proper sort of plugin.
• 2006-03-24 4eda4eec (T) 'Missing' qtype added.
• 2006-03-26 5f9ef821 (AT) Responses report moved from core to contrib (undoing 80ed3fe6b).
• 2006-03-27 31e95855 (T) Quiz report plugin structure improved.
• 2006-04-07 b6e907a2 (PA) Manual grading made applicable to all qtypes, not just Essay.
• July 2006 Tim Hunt takes over as quiz maintainer

Moodle 1.6 release 20 June 2006

• 2006-07-04 a58ffe3f (P) Allow matching questions to have extra distractors.
• 2006-07-12 1fe641f7 (P) Support for matching common wrong, or partially correct, responses to numeric questions, not just one right answer.
• 2006-08-08 bbbf2d40 (AT) Roles and permissions system added to Moodle.
• 2006-08-11 1b8a7434 (P) General feedback added to all types. (It was initially called something else, then renamed in a4514d91d).
• 2006-08-11 613f306d (T) Moodle database code changed to use XMLDB.
• 2006-08-22 212b7b8c (P) Quiz overall feedback added.
• 2006-08-24 307f045f (P) Overall feedback options added to multiple-choice questions.

Moodle 1.7 release 7 November 2006

• 2006-11-29 ee259d0c (A) Support for including category information in GIFT and Moodle XML export files.
• 2006-12-19 a23f0aaf (T) Moodle converted to use formslib.php, rather than hand-coded forms.
• 2006-12-21 77c7f0f5 (A) Open Office format support added to quiz report downloads.
• 2007-02-20 624cbc9c (A) Option to display the question text when browsing the question bank.

Moodle 1.8 release 30 March 2007

• 2007-04-13 3e0647ff (P) Options for how multiple choice choices are numbered.
• 2007-06-15 294e63ea (PT) First attempt to allow students to upload files during attempts. (Gets broken in the changes to 2.0, and was never completely working, e.g. backup and restore never worked.)
• 2007-06-19 7a6f4066 (A) Course reset implemented for quizzes.
• 2007-06-26 ac48e43a (A) Email notification/confirmation of submitted quiz attempts.
• 2007-07-21 e8825e72 (A) Support for essay and description qtypes added to GIFT.
• 2007-07-22 42ff9ce6 (A) Support for the new gradebook added to the quiz.
• 2007-07-30 00719c02 (PA) Separate review option for quiz overall feedback.
• 2007-08-08 a41e3287 (T) Allow third-party qtype plugins to participate in GIFT and Moodle XML import export.
• 2007-08-09 271e6dec (AT) New question bank by Jamie Pratt. Cleaner code. Many problems with sharing questions between courses fixed. Finer-grained capabilities.
• 2007-08-27 5ada3c8e (A) Support for Groupings added to the quiz.
• 2007-10-11 14e66f3b (A) Overridden grades from the gradebook shown in the quiz UI.

Moodle 1.9 release 3 March 2008

• 2008-03-06 05866d85 (T) Code for all the different different rules about whether a student can attempt the quiz now moved into separate classes. Not yet a proper plugin type.
• 2008-05-07 8b87ab00 (PA) Summary graph added to the quiz overview report. (This is the start of a set of major improvements to the quiz reports for Moodle 2.0, done by Jamie Pratt for the OU.)
• 2008-05-15 aad5b0fc (PA) Group and course averages added to the overview report.
• 2008-05-15 f33e1ed4 (T) Moodle database connection changed to use the new global $DB.
• 2008-05-23 a59eb2b6 (A) Groups support added to the Manual grading report.
• 2008-06-10 0c1c764e (PA) Quiz statistics report added.
• 2008-06-27 36e413e3 (P) Quiz attempt UI greatly improved, with new navigation panel and summary page.
• 2008-07-11 98f38217 (T) Regrading UI merged into overview report. Dry run of regrades made possible, before doing it for real.
• 2008-07-20 7f29a7db (PA) Responses report moved back out of contrib, and in to standard Moodle.
• 2008-07-24 17f1782c (T) cron support added to quiz reports.
• 2008-08-15 f88fb62c (AT) rounding of quiz and question grades before they are displayed is made consistent everywhere.
• 2008-08-15 f9a2cf86 (T) Quiz grades are now consistently stored in the database as NUMEBER(10,5), and question grades as NUMBER(12,7).
• 2008-08-29 62e76c67 (P) Let students flag questions during quiz attempts.
• 2008-09-09 8df96354 (AT) Admin page for managing the installed question types.
• 2008-09-11 c308138f (AT) Item analysis report removed.
• 2008-11-20 fa583f5f (T) New editing UI for quizzes. Finnish Summer of Code project by Olli Savolainen.
• 2008-11-28 f24493ec (P) Allow essay questions to be selected by random questions.
• 2009-01-07 a733c4b9 (A) Add an option to display the user's photo and name on the quiz attempt page.
• 2009-01-14 96c7d771 (AT) mod/quiz:reviewmyattempts capability separated from mod/quiz:attempt.
• 2009-01-20 46795afc (T) refactoring of the code that displays the question bank, to eliminate duplication between the quiz editing and question bank display code.
• 2009-02-25 cd120b23 (AT) New YUI pop-up for selecting the question type when adding a new question, replacing the old select menu.
• 2009-05-06 6bf44482 (T) Moodle 2.0 $PAGE and $OUTPUT changes applied to the quiz.
• 2009-05-29 83a15d02 (P) New question type 'Simple calculated' by Pierre Pichet.
• 2009-06-05 aa9c6ecf (A) Highlight the last question you edited in the question bank like. A small, but very useful change.
• 2009-06-12 cf615522 (T) require_js replaced by $PAGE->requires everywhere.
• 2009-06-19 17da2e6f (T) The concept of 'subplugins' is born. Quiz report, within the quiz, are one of the early examples. (Regrettably, the prefix quiz_, not quizreport_ is chosen.)
• 2009-09-30 7d4dfc48 (A) Integration with 'Safe Exam Browser' added.
• 2010-02-07 2d279432 (P) New question type 'Calculated multiple choice' by Pierre Pichet.
• 2010-03-08 990650f9 (A) Different open and close dates, etc., for different groups or individuals. Implemented by Matt Petro of the University of Wisconsin - Madison Engineering School.
• 2010-05-20 9df209c1 (T) Moodle events now triggered for starting and finishing quiz attempts.
• 2010-05-21 56ed242b (PA) New quiz option 'Show blocks during quiz attempts' by Sam Hemelryk.
• 2010-08-06 d39ba35c (A) Make it clearer in the quiz grades report when essay questions need to be graded.
• 2010-08-10 fe6ce234 (T) Quiz and question bank converted to the Moodle 2.0 Files API.
• 2010-10-24 41941110 (T) Quiz and question bank converted to the Moodle 2.0 Backup and restore system.
• 2010-10-30 92b36005 (P) Grading of units in numerical and calculated questions changed to work the way people would expect.

Moodle 2.0 release 24 November 2010

• 2010-12-20 d1b7e03d (PT) New moodle question engine, a major development by Tim Hunt, introduces the concept of Question behaviour, to handle the difference between adaptive, deferred feedback, and manually graded questions.
• 2010-12-20 d1b7e03d (P) This also allows new behaviours like Certainty based marking, Immediate feedback, and Interactive with multiple tries.
• 2010-12-20 d1b7e03d (T) Also in this change, many more unit tests for questions, and all questions now use renderers for output.
• End Dec 2010 Moodle development moves from CVS to git.
• 2011-02-11 fd214b59 (PT) Code to preserve the scroll position when submitting a question in the quiz, or editing the quiz.
• 2011-03-10 894e8b4e (P) New essay features: Use the HTML editor or not; control the size of the response area; allow attachments; and information to be shown to the person grading.
• 2011-03-16 217f9a61 (T) As part of this, handling files are part of question responses now works properly, finally doing what 294e63ead tried.
• 2011-04-26 606e07d5 (T) Student-visible parts of the quiz converted to use a renderer, mostly thanks to Dean Lennard.
• 2011-05-25 1da821bb (PT) Introduce the concept of 'question variants' as a first-class concept in the question engine.
• 2011-06-01 4b2da7ce (A) Ability to restore 1.9 backups added to the quiz and question bank.
• 2011-06-15 fde4560d (A) Admin page for managing the installed question behaviours.
• 2011-06-16 2a6c5c52 (PT) Ability to have images in multiple choice answers restored. (It was broken since 2.0.)

Moodle 2.1 release 1 July 2011

• 2011-10-03 a28a5d74 (T) Make the Quiz access rules (from 05866d85d) become proper sub-plugings of the quiz.
• 2011-10-28 2dc54611 (AT) Unmaintained qti_two export format removed.
• 2011-11-02 75a31c90 (T) Plugin API made more standard in areas like cron, languages strings, for the question-related plugins.

Moodle 2.2 release 5 December 2011

• 2011-12-07 c2f5e2ab (T) Plugin API made more standard in areas like cron, languages strings, for the quiz-related plugins.
• 2012-01-08 5db82949 (P) Quiz attempt tracks the page the student is currently on, and takes them back there if they leave the attempt and come back later. (By Charles Fulton)
• 2012-03-07 88eca3cd (A) New mod:quiz/addinstance lets you control which teachers can add a quiz to a course. (The same sort of capability is added to each activity.)
• 2012-01-20 33c8d37b (P) An option to force students to answer questions strictly in order, rather than letting them navigate around the quiz as they please. (By Charles Fulton)
• ... hopefully much more yet to come.

Last updated 11th April 2012. This summary currently contains 148 items, whereas the full git log command at the top of this page lists 4777 commits.

See also

• Question API