For instructors who teach with Moodle

Moodle Quiz Generator: Create Moodle Quizzes and Question Banks from Your Course Files

Moodle has the richest question import of any major LMS. What it does not have is anything that writes the questions. Upload your reading, chapter, or slide deck and get a full question set with an answer key, ready for your Moodle question bank.

Your files are processed securely and deleted automatically after your quiz is built.

Upload your course material and generate your questions

Click to upload or drag and drop

PDF, DOCX, PPTX, TXT, JPG, JPEG, PNG, HEIC, ODP, ODT, BMP, or TIFF

up to 20MB

Please wait, your quiz is being created...

Uploading...

A Moodle quiz generator writes quiz questions from your own course material so you can import them into a Moodle question bank instead of typing each one. Moodle natively imports GIFT, Moodle XML, Aiken, Blackboard, Course Test Manager, Cloze, and Missing Word, and the file has to be UTF-8. Moodle itself cannot read a PDF and produce questions, so the writing step happens before the import. PDFQuiz turns a reading, chapter, manual, or deck into multiple choice, true or false, fill in the blank, and short answer questions with a separate answer key, which you then paste in or convert to GIFT or Aiken.

Last updated July 2026

Moodle question import formats, and when to use each

Moodle accepts more question formats than Canvas and Blackboard combined, which is a real advantage once you know which one to pick. Here is the practical breakdown.

Format Native? Best for
Moodle XMLYesFull fidelity, every question type, images and feedback
GIFTYesPlain text covering most question types, easy to hand-edit
AikenYesFastest route for plain multiple choice only
Cloze (embedded answers)YesPassages with several blanks inside one item
Missing WordYesMultiple choice and short answer, similar to GIFT
BlackboardYesMoving pools over from a Blackboard course
Word table formatPlugin requiredImporting from structured tables in a .docx file
CSV or ExcelNoNot a Moodle import format at all

One detail sinks more imports than any other: encoding. Moodle's documentation is explicit that the imported file must be UTF-8. Curly quotation marks pasted out of Word are a common cause of a failed Aiken import, because Aiken rejects non-ASCII characters. Generate a question set from your own file and format it from there.

Source files
PDF, Word, slides
Answer key
Included
Native formats
7 supported
Encoding
UTF-8

GIFT or Aiken? Pick by what your questions need

Both are plain text files you can write in any editor, and both are native. The difference is reach. Aiken does one thing and does it with almost no syntax to remember. GIFT covers nearly every question type Moodle supports, at the cost of learning a handful of symbols.

Aiken, in one rule

Question on one line. Each option starts with a single uppercase letter, then a period or a bracket, then a space. The line straight after the options reads ANSWER: followed by the correct letter. The letters and the word ANSWER must be capitalized or the import fails. Multiple choice only, with no feedback and no partial credit.

GIFT, in one rule

Answers live in curly braces. An equals sign marks a correct answer, a tilde marks a wrong one, and a hash introduces feedback. So "What is 2+2? {=four ~three ~five}" is a complete multiple-choice item. It also handles true/false, short answer, matching, numerical with a tolerance, and essay, and you can set percentage weights for partial credit.

If you are importing a straight multiple-choice quiz and nothing else, Aiken gets you there in a minute. If you want a mixed test with short answer and matching items, or you want feedback attached to wrong answers, use GIFT or Moodle XML instead.

From course file to Moodle question bank in four steps

Draft here, format as GIFT or Aiken, import into Moodle.

1
Upload the material
Add the PDF reading, textbook chapter, lecture slides, or notes the quiz needs to cover.
2
Pick types and count
Choose multiple choice, true or false, fill in the blank, short answer, or a mix, and set the number of items.
3
Review and format
Edit anything that misses your emphasis, then save the questions as a UTF-8 text file in GIFT or Aiken layout.
4
Import into Moodle
Open the question bank, go to the Import tab, choose the format and target category, upload the file, and add the questions to a quiz.

Who uses a Moodle quiz generator

Moodle is common in US community colleges, professional training providers, and any organization that wanted to self-host its LMS. The question bank is the feature people build their courses around.

Community college faculty

Build a categorized question bank from each unit's reading, then let a Moodle quiz pull a random selection per attempt so students can practice repeatedly.

Training providers

Turn a course manual into knowledge checks for each module, with categories that mirror your syllabus so reporting lines up with the learning objectives.

Moodle administrators

Seed a shared question bank for a department from existing course documents, so instructors start from a pool instead of an empty category.

Certification and CE programs

Convert study guides and standards documents into practice items for continuing-education courses that need a graded assessment on record.

Running more than one platform? There is a matching workflow for the Canvas quiz generator and the Blackboard test generator.

Moodle quiz generator questions, answered

How do I import questions into Moodle?
Go to the question bank in your course, open the Import tab, choose the file format, pick the category the questions should land in, then select your file and import. Moodle documents this as using the Questions link in course administration and selecting the import option. You can reach the same import screen while editing an existing quiz.
What formats does Moodle accept for question import?
Moodle natively imports GIFT, Moodle XML, Aiken, Blackboard, Course Test Manager, Embedded Answers (Cloze), and Missing Word. Moodle XML is the recommended full-fidelity format. H5P, Hot Potatoes, and Word table format need plugins rather than shipping enabled. The imported file must be encoded in UTF-8.
What is Aiken format in Moodle?
Aiken is the simplest plain-text way to write multiple-choice questions for Moodle import. The question sits on one line, each option starts with a single uppercase letter followed by a period or bracket and a space, and the next line reads ANSWER: followed by the correct letter. It handles multiple choice only, with no feedback and no answer weighting.
What is GIFT format in Moodle?
GIFT is Moodle's own plain-text question format and it covers far more than Aiken: multiple choice, true/false, short answer, matching, missing word, numerical, and essay. Answers sit in curly braces, an equals sign marks the correct answer and a tilde marks a wrong one, and a hash adds feedback. Files must be UTF-8 with a blank line between questions.
Can I create a Moodle quiz from a PDF?
Not inside Moodle, because Moodle has no feature that reads a PDF and writes questions from it. You generate the questions from the PDF first, review them, then bring them into the Moodle question bank by pasting them in or importing them in GIFT, Aiken, or Moodle XML format. The writing step happens outside Moodle.
Can Moodle export QTI for Canvas or Blackboard?
Not on any current version. Moodle 2.1 and newer no longer export QTI packages, so the old route of exporting from Moodle and importing into Canvas does not work anymore. There is no single question file that all three major systems accept natively, which is why it is easier to generate questions from the source document for each platform.

Related quiz tools

Build a reusable pool with the question bank generator, start from any file with the PDF to quiz converter, turn a deck into questions with the slides to quiz tool, or set up a full course assessment with the quiz maker for teachers.

Build your Moodle question bank

Upload the reading, chapter, or deck you teach from and get a full question set with an answer key in under a minute.

Start Generating Questions