Create Choice guide

The Choice activity allows students to select one option from a choice of multiple responses. This can be useful as a quick poll to stimulate thinking about a topic or to enable students to vote on module issues. As you can set the Choice to only allow a certain number of students to make a particular selection, a Choice can also be used to facilitate student tutorial sign-ups.

You can also allow students to select more than one option in the Choice activity. This feature can be useful for when you want to come to a consensus on a module issue so that students can provide, for example all dates when they might be available to attend a revision lecture and then the lecturer can choose the most popular date.

Turn Edit mode on. Open the relevant section. Select Add an activity or resource. Select Choice from the Activities tab.

General

1. Provide a meaningful Choice name.
2. Provide instructions for your students in the Description input field.Check the Display description on course page checkbox if you want to display the Description on the module page below the link to the activity.
3. From the Display mode for options drop-down menu, select how you want to display the choices. We recommend horizontally if you  have three or four choices; choose vertically if you have a large number of choices.

Options

1. From the Allow choice to be updated drop-down menu, decide if students can update the choice after making an initial selection. Set to Yes if you want students to update their choice and No if you want students to stay with their original choice.

2. From Allow more than one choice to be selected, you can manage if students can select one or more choices. If this is set to Yes then students can select more than one option. The checkboxes display differently according to whether this setting is set to Yes or No.

3. Limit the number of responses allowed allows you to limit the number of responses for each option provided. This can be useful for managing sign-ups to tutorial groups. Set to Yes to Limit the number of responses allowed. If set to No, any number of students can select each option.
4. Label each choice option and enter the number limit if you have set Limit the number of responses allowed to Yes, (Full) is displayed when the number is reached. A limit of 0 means nobody can select that option.
5.  If you set Limit the number of responses allowed to Yes, but don't add a number of responses in the Limit field then your students won't be able to select any options.

   

6. If you need more options, select Add 3 fields to provide more options.
7. The Availability settings allow you to set dates that students can make their choices from and until. Check Enable to the right of the Allow responses from and/or the Allow responses until and set the dates as required.

   

8. Check Show preview to allow students to preview the available options before the choice activity is open for submission.

Results

1. The Publish results setting determines whether (and when) the students will be able to view the results of the choice activity. Select how you want to manage the results from the drop-down list.
   • Do not publish results to students.
   • Show results to students after they answer.
   • Show results to students only after the choice is closed.
   • Always show results to students.
2. If you choose to display results to students, the Privacy drop-down menu is unlocked. Select how you want to publish results. 
   • Publish anonymous results, do not show student names
   • Publish full results, showing names and their choices.
3. The Show column for unanswered controls the view of students who have not selected a choice. Set to Yes to display a column in the results panel showing how many students have not selected a choice. If set to No, the results panel will only include the students who have already voted.
4. Manage your view of responses if your module contains inactive users from the Include responses from inactive/suspended users setting. If set to No, only responses from active students will be displayed in the choice activity.
5. Do not use Group mode from Common module settings with a Choice activity as it will override any limits that you set. 
6. Select Save and display to save and view your Choice activity.

You can use the Restrict access settings to control the availability of content and activities based on one or more conditions, including date and group. 

Activity completion allows you to set completion criteria for a specific activity or resource.

Activities or resources with a completion criteria display a circle next to them in the Module index. The circle turns green (and is filled in) when the student meet the criteria. On the main module page, a tick and the word "done" appears against the item when the student meets the criteria. This helps students manage their progress on a module and staff can easily review student engagement and progress against key activities.

You can combine Restrict access and Activity completion to provide structured pathways through your module.

Apply the settings

1. Open the activity or resource.
2. Select Settings from the contextual navigation menu above the module name. This opens the activity settings.
3. Change the settings required.
4. Select Save and return to module to save any changes made.

Related guidance