The MoodleReader Module is a freeware, open-source module has been developed over the past two years as a means for teachers of English as a second language to share a database of quiz material for “Graded Readers” and to make them easily accessible to their students. The module went online in April of 2008 and is currently being used by over 5000 students worldwide. Until this module was developed instructors had no means of testing, in an electronic form, their students’ comprehension of this reading material as a means of verifying that they had actually read the claimed material. The sheer bulk of graded readers available precluded any teacher or school from developing a comprehensive set of online tests for their library of graded readers. Some publishers maintain websites with downloadable quizzes in PDF format, but these are not secure and are in a single, fixed format, which is conducive to cheating. The Reader module allows quizzes to be randomly generated from a larger set of items for each book. The module allows teachers to easily install the module on their own Moodle system, download the quiz material for those textbooks in their graded reader library and configure its operation to their own preferences. The database is password protected to keep the contents out of the reach of students, and currently contains quizzes for some 500 popular titles, including all of the Oxford Bookworms series from Starter through Stage 6. Other publishers represented include Cambridge, Macmillan, Cengage/Heinle and Penguin. Student target goals can be set by points (1 point per book of average length) or by word count. The student report page displays a table showing all books read with their word and point count, as well as a colored progress bar showing the number of words read. For teachers who do not have their own Moodle available, free courses that include the module are available on the moodlereader.org site. Contact the maintainer, Tom Robb for access.
