Create a Multiple Choice Activity - OLI Torus

Start Here: Create a Multiple Choice Activity

In This Article

Learn how to:
  1. Use Groups to contain activities on the page
  2. Add a multiple choice activity to a page
  3. Add and edit answer choices
  4. Select the correct answer
  5. Customize feedback for students
Multiple choice is one of the most commonly used question types in Torus. In a multiple choice activity, students choose one correct answer from a list of answer choices. Authors can add as many answer choices as needed, within the supported limits. The correct answer is selected in the Answer Key tab.

Torus Terminology Quick Guide

OLI Torus uses some common terms in specific ways. The following terms are used throughout this article.

Blocks

Torus pages are organized into blocks. Blocks hold different types of content and activities. They appear in the Content Types and Question Types menus.

Content blocks are used for static content, such as text, images, videos, and other instructional materials. For example, a Paragraph block is commonly used to add text and images to a page.

Question blocks are used for interactive activities that students complete.

Activities

In Torus, activity refers to interactive content that students respond to. This term is used instead of “question,” “assignment,” or “assessment” in many places. Activities support Torus’s active learning approach and can provide student response data to instructors.

Activities can be added to Practice pages for formative assessment and Scored pages for summative assessment. 
Info

In some cases, the activity students see may be selected an Activity Bank. Activity banks are most commonly used on scored pages to provide different versions of an assessment for different students or for different attempts by the same student.

This article focuses on adding activities directly to a page. It does not cover adding activities to activity banks.


Before adding activities to a page, consider adding a Group and placing the activities inside that group.

Idea
Groups are highly recommended because individual activities cannot be copied or moved around on a page. If you need to reorganize the page later, groups make editing easier because the entire group can be dragged to a new location.

Groups also add a visible header that helps students understand the purpose or type of learning activity they are completing. When students encounter the same visible header throughout the course, they know what to expect.

Once groups are added to a page, they appear in the left-side page outline. You can drag groups in the outline to change the order of content on the page.



Types of Groups

The default group type is Learn by Doing.

The most common group types for Practice pages are:

  • Learn by Doing for practice activities
  • Did I Get This? for review activities

Depending on the course, other common group types may include Example and Walkthrough. Checkpoint and Quiz are commonly used for Scored pages.

Using consistent group types helps students recognize the kind of content or activity they are about to complete. 



Add A Multiple Choice Activity

Multiple choice activities can be added to both practice pages for formative assessment and scored pages for summative assessment.

  1. Open the page where you want to add the activity.
  2. Consider adding a group to contain the activity.
  3. Hover below an existing block. 
  4. When the Add Content bar with the + (plus sign) appears, click the plus sign.
  5. In the Content Types / Question Types menu, select MCQ.
This Add Content bar with a plus sign on the left bar denotes where content blocks begin and end and where new ones can be added.


The question type menu may vary depending on the settings enabled for your project. If various advanced question types are or are not enabled, your menu may have different choices.

Selecting the MCQ icon adds a new block to the page.



Edit the Activity Title

Editing the activity title is optional but recommended for data collection.

New multiple choice activities are titled Multiple Choice by default.

Torus does not require unique activity titles. However, unique titles make it easier to identify activities in data collection, insights, and data downloads. Authors are encouraged to give each activity a clear, unique title during course authoring.

To edit the activity title, click Edit Title next to the current activity title.

Tag Learning Objectives

To implement learning design into the OLI Torus project, each activity should be tagged with a learning objective both for design and for later reporting and data analytics.

Edit the Question and Answers

Enter the question prompt

The student-facing question and answer choices are added in the Question tab.

Enter the question prompt in the Question box. This text appears as the question students will answer.

Enter answer choices

Multiple choice activities automatically include two answer choice fields.

To add another answer choice, select Add choice.

Torus multiple choice activities require at least two answer choices and support up to seventeen answer choices.

To remove an answer choice, select the X to the right of the answer choice field.

Assign the correct answer

Correct answers are configured in the Answer Key tab.

The answer choices entered in the Question tab appear in the Answer Key tab with a selection button to the left of each choice.

Select the button next to the correct answer.

Customize feedback

OLI Torus automatically provides default feedback text:

  • Correct for correct answers
  • Incorrect for incorrect answers

To customize this feedback, replace the default text in the appropriate feedback box.

Add targeted feedback (optional)

Targeted feedback allows authors to provide specific feedback for individual answer choices. This can help explain why a student may have selected a particular answer.

To add targeted feedback:

  1. In the Answer Key tab, locate the Targeted Feedback option under the feedback box for incorrect answers.
2. Select the answer choice you want to provide feedback for.
3. Enter the feedback in the provided input box.

You can add targeted feedback for multiple answer choices. To add another targeted feedback item, select Add targeted feedback again.

Summary

To create a multiple choice activity:

  • Add an MCQ block from the Content / Question Types menu.
  • Enter the question prompt in the Question tab.
  • Add answer choices in the Question tab.
  • Select the correct answer in the Answer Key tab.
  • Customize general feedback as needed.
  • Add targeted feedback to provide answer-specific guidance.