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Question Types Supported by Community Quiz

Community Quiz includes 32 question types, grouped into eight families. This guide explains each one in plain language — what the learner does, when to use it, and how it is marked.

Audience: Anyone creating quizzes, exams, or surveys. No technical knowledge needed.

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You set up questions in the Question Studio (see the Quiz Builder guide). Every type also has a built-in "How to use this type" panel with tips while you author it.

How questions are marked

There are three marking styles, referenced throughout this guide:

  • Auto — marked instantly by the system (most types).
  • Auto, partial credit — multi-part questions can award part-marks (e.g. 2 of 3 correct = 2 marks). You control this on the Scoring tab; the Scoring Guide explains it in full.
  • Manual — a human reviewer grades the response (essays, uploads, spoken answers, observations). These wait in a grading queue.
  • Not scored — collected for information only (surveys, psychometric scales, and the stimulus that frames other questions).

Overview

FamilyQuestion types
ChoiceSingle choice, Multiple response, True / False, Yes / No, Audio, Video, Confidence, Survey
TextFill in the blank, Cloze, Short answer, Essay
MatchingMatch, Order, Classify
InteractiveDrag-and-drop text, Drag-and-drop image, Hotspot, Matrix, Dropdown
NumericNumeric, Calculated
CodeCode, SQL
MediaFile upload, Oral recording
SpecialisedAssertion–Reason, Case study, Reading, Observation, OSCE, Psychometric

Choice questions

Single choice (MCQ)

The learner picks one correct option from a list.

  • Best for: straightforward knowledge checks with a single right answer.
  • Marking: Auto.

Tip: four or five options is a good balance — too few is easy to guess, too many overwhelms.

Multiple response

The learner selects every correct option (more than one is right).

  • Best for: "select all that apply" questions.
  • Marking: Auto, partial credit (credit per correct choice; wrong picks can be penalised if you turn on negative marking).

True / False and Yes / No

The learner chooses between two options.

  • Best for: quick fact checks and confirmations.
  • Marking: Auto.

Audio

The learner listens to an audio clip, then answers a multiple-choice question.

  • Best for: language listening, music, call-handling, or pronunciation checks.
  • Marking: Auto (like a single choice).
  • You provide: the audio file URL plus the options.

Video

The learner watches a video clip, then answers a multiple-choice question.

  • Best for: technique demonstrations, safety scenarios, or case footage.
  • Marking: Auto.
  • You provide: the video URL plus the options.

Confidence

The learner picks an answer and rates how confident they are (Low / Medium / High).

  • Best for: measuring genuine understanding and discouraging blind guessing.
  • Marking: Auto with confidence weighting — being confident and right earns the most; being confident and wrong loses marks; low confidence is the safe middle. A question never scores below zero.

Survey

A poll with no right answer.

  • Best for: opinions, feedback, course evaluations.
  • Marking: Not scored — responses are collected and reported.

Text questions

Fill in the blank

The learner types a short answer that is matched against your list of accepted answers.

  • Best for: key terms, single values, or short facts.
  • Marking: Auto (exact match; you can make it case-insensitive).

Cloze

The learner fills several blanks embedded in a sentence or passage.

  • Best for: completing a paragraph, definitions, or step descriptions.
  • Marking: Auto, partial credit (one mark per blank).

Short answer

The learner types a brief phrase matched against accepted answers.

  • Best for: one- or two-word responses.
  • Marking: Auto (borderline wording may need a quick manual check).

Essay

The learner writes an extended response.

  • Best for: explanations, arguments, and analysis.
  • Marking: Manual. You can set minimum/maximum word counts and grade against a rubric.

Matching questions

Match

The learner pairs each item on the left with its correct partner on the right.

  • Best for: term-to-definition, cause-to-effect, country-to-capital.
  • Marking: Auto, partial credit (one mark per correct pair).

Tip: add one or two extra options on the right so the last pair can't be guessed.

Order

The learner arranges items into the correct sequence.

  • Best for: processes, timelines, rankings.
  • Marking: Auto, partial credit (one mark per item in the right place).

Classify

The learner sorts items into labelled buckets.

  • Best for: grouping into categories, types, or eras.
  • Marking: Auto, partial credit (one mark per item in the correct bucket).

Interactive questions

Drag-and-drop text

The learner drags word tokens into blanks in a sentence.

  • Best for: completing sentences from a word bank.
  • Marking: Auto, partial credit (one mark per blank). Add a few extra words so guessing is harder.

Drag-and-drop image

The learner drags labels onto the correct points on an image.

  • Best for: labelling diagrams, maps, or equipment.
  • Marking: Auto, partial credit (one mark per correctly placed label).

Hotspot

The learner clicks the correct spot on an image.

  • Best for: "point to the…" tasks on photos or diagrams.
  • Marking: Auto (correct if the click lands in a correct zone).

Matrix

The learner answers several rows that share the same set of columns (a grid).

  • Best for: Likert banks, or several related multiple-choice rows.
  • Marking: Auto when you provide an answer key; or leave it unscored to just collect responses.

The learner chooses from dropdown menus embedded in a passage.

  • Best for: in-context choices within a sentence.
  • Marking: Auto, partial credit (one mark per dropdown).

Numeric questions

Numeric

The learner enters a number, checked against your answer within a tolerance.

  • Best for: calculations and measurements (with an optional unit label).
  • Marking: Auto (set a tolerance, e.g. ±0.05; 0 means an exact match).

Calculated

The learner solves a formula whose numbers are randomised for each attempt.

  • Best for: practising calculations where every learner gets different values.
  • Marking: Auto (the system computes the expected answer per attempt and checks within tolerance).
  • You provide: the formula and each variable's range.

Code questions

Code

The learner writes code in a syntax-highlighted editor.

  • Best for: programming practice (JavaScript, Python, Java, and more).
  • Marking: Auto by keyword coverage — the system checks the submission contains the required keywords. It does not execute the code.

SQL

The learner writes a SQL query against a described schema.

  • Best for: database query practice.
  • Marking: Auto by required-clause coverage (not executed).

Media questions

File upload

The learner uploads one or more files.

  • Best for: worked solutions, documents, designs, or projects.
  • Marking: Manual. Set how many files and which file types are allowed.

Oral recording

The learner records a spoken response in the browser.

  • Best for: pronunciation, viva exams, presentations.
  • Marking: Manual. Set a prompt and a maximum recording length.

Specialised questions

Assertion–Reason

The learner reads two statements (an assertion and a reason) and judges their relationship.

  • Best for: rigorous reasoning checks common in science and medical exams.
  • Marking: Auto (the standard relationship options are pre-filled and editable).

Case study & Reading

A scenario (with optional exhibits) or a reading passage that the following questions refer to.

  • Best for: grouping several questions around shared material.
  • Marking: Not scored on their own — they present the material; the questions after them carry the marks.

Observation & OSCE

An assessor marks the learner against a checklist of criteria while watching them perform — OSCE adds a named clinical "station".

  • Best for: practical skills, clinical exams, and workplace assessment.
  • Marking: Manual — an assessor scores the criteria; the learner is not asked to type an answer.

Psychometric

The learner rates a statement on a scale (e.g. Strongly disagree → Strongly agree).

  • Best for: personality, attitude, and self-assessment profiles.
  • Marking: Not right-or-wrong — responses roll up into subscale scores (you can reverse-score negatively-worded items).