This article covers the cloze type response task type.
For a general overview of tasks and what they can do, see An introduction to tasks and for general instructions on how to add them to your course, see How to add a task to your course.
Overview of the cloze type response task
The cloze type response task lets learners type their responses into empty response boxes within a block of text.
When should I use cloze type response?
Often when people think of a fill in the blanks exercise, they think of taking a descriptive sentence and removing some key words (just like the example above) and that's great - cloze type response works well for this. But... it can do much more than that. This task type is incredibly open, so you can use the structure to set up a number of different scenarios.
Example 1 - Free-form association
You could set up a free-form association.
You might choose to set up a cloze type response as a free-form association if you feel like using a regular association (matching) would be too "easy" or you want to allow learners a bit more freedom.
Example 2 - Six degrees of separation
You could use the blanks as structure for a chain.
As with the previous example this allows for more open answers (or greater difficulty) than a sort task.
Example 3 - Terms and definitions
You could use it for quick recall in one space.
In this example using this structure means we don't have to repeat the stem ("Fill in the...") and make learners read it over and over again. It means we've effectively asked a number of short answer responses in the space of one.
How do I create a close type response?
All tasks load with an example task to give an idea of what each field is for. To add your own task details, you can type over the existing content in the fields or select Clear task content, to start completely fresh.
Standard fields
This task has the standard fields/options that all tasks have.
At the top:
Question: Where you set the main question/task which tells learners what to answer or do.
And at the bottom:
Hint: Add a hint to give pointers or clues to give learners extra guidance to complete the task. Learners can choose to See hint so it allows them to get this help “on demand”.
Feedback: Add feedback to give learners an automated response when they submit the task. See Writing feedback for tasks for pointers and ideas.
Feedback per response: Add specific feedback for a given response a learner could chose.
In between the top and bottom standard fields we have the following areas and fields.
Text
Under Text, add thetext you want your learners to add responses to.
Add your response boxes using the Insert Response button in the text formatting toolbar in the text editor. You can also use the keyboard short cut, double underscore.
How to set the correct answer
Under Correct, type the answers in to the response box(es).
Cloze type response might need more than one correct answer. You can use the + to add alternative answers. Setting up alternative answers is especially important where the answer could have multiple spellings or involves a phrase, rather than just one word.
Tips for setting up automarking in a cloze type response task
Cloze type response tasks are intended for one-word clozes. So, where possible, have one word per response box. This can reduce the amount of complexity in setting up additional answers.
If entire phrases are needed for a cloze, consider using the Short text task instead. If Short text isn't suitable, add clear guidance to the task itself on what learners should/shouldn't use in their responses. e.g. "Remember, to be marked as 'correct' don't use any punctuation in your responses."
Add additional answers for each response item e.g. and tick Match all possible responses.
Make use of the Ignore trailing and leading spaces options and leave Case sensitive unticked (see image below).
You can also choose to not set a correct answer. Just do not type anything into the blank(s). In this case, the task will not be automarked and the task will be allocated the complete/incomplete with feedback marking template to allow facilitators to manually mark the task (if desired).
Other options
Case sensitive means learners need to enter the response using the correct mix of lower and uppercase characters.
Maximum length (characters) limits learners to a maximum character count for their answer.
Match all possible responses means that learners will be marked correct if their response(s) appear in any of the correct or alternative correct responses (for more detail read our article on match all possible responses).
