Create Online Quizzes with YQuiz Writer

Computing and Network Services, working with the Centre for the Support of Teaching, has developed an online tool for creating web-based quizzes. YQuiz Writer allows anyone with an account on York's central web server to create quizzes and to track their use.

YQuiz was originally created by York University for use in online tutorials such as the Academic Integrity Tutorial or the Library Research Roadmap Tutorial, available from the Online Tutorials Site. Because some courses require students to use these tutorials, York needed an easy-to-use quiz tool that would reliably record student participation. Faculty members can now create their own quizzes, self-tests and participation activities, all with the simple web-based forms interface provided by YQuiz Writer.

How Do I Create a Quiz?

All that you need to do is:

1. Have YQuiz Writer installed in your central web account.
2. Point your web browser to your own "YQuiz Writer" page.
3. Create a new quiz by answering a series of questions.
4. Add questions to your quiz by filling in some web forms.

YQuiz Writer will build the quiz and provide you with the information you need to direct students to it.

	Figure 1: The quiz creation wizard simplifies the process of setting up a new quiz. The quiz settings you choose in the wizard can be changed later, if needed.

Figure 2: Enter questions (multiple choice, true/false or matching answers) by filling in web-based forms. Now you have a quiz!

You may also choose to add some additional features:

• Create sections to organize groups of related questions within the quiz
• Add comments to be shown to students based on their performance on the quiz
• Set restrictions on access to the quiz

YQuiz Writer Features

While it is simple to create a basic quiz, YQuiz Writer also provides features to allow customization:

• Question Types: Multiple choice, true/false, and matching answers
• Quiz Formatting: Add headers, footers, introductory text, or a border
• Question Formatting: Include links to web pages or images, or use HTML code in the question text
• Quiz Organization: Group related questions together with a common introduction, and change the order of sections and questions within the quiz
• Randomize Questions: Present questions in random order, or present a smaller number of questions randomly selected out of a larger set
• Access Restrictions: Restrict by date and time, or limit the number of attempts a student may make
• Question Feedback: Include comments based on whether the student answered a question correctly or not
• Quiz Feedback: Include comments based on the student's overall score
• Tracking & Reporting: Record each attempt at the quiz so that you can get basic statistics and reports about use of your quiz
• Quiz Administration: Share with others the ability to edit the quiz and to get related statistics and reports

Figure 3: The Quiz Setup page gives you quick access to all of the YQuiz Writer features

YQuiz Statistics & Reports

When students go to your quiz page, they are asked to log in with their Passport York ID and password. If tracking is enabled for your quiz, student names are stored along with the quiz results so that you can track your students’ progress.

You can view basic statistics for the overall course, or get a detailed report that allows you to see individual students’ scores, how many attempts they have made, or even view the answers they gave for each attempt. If your quiz is being used by many classes, you can even restrict your report to a specific group such as one tutorial.

Figure 4: Use the statistics and reports page to track your students’ progress

How to Get YQuiz Writer

Request YQuiz Writer from the Faculty Support Centre (faculty@yorku.ca), giving the username of your central web account (the same as your Passport York username). YQuiz Writer will be installed for you within 2 working days.

CNS also provides user documentation for YQuiz Writer. Technical support is available from the CNS Faculty Support Centre at faculty@yorku.ca.

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