To quiz or not to quiz, that is the question.
Shakespeare might have phrased it differently but for instructional designers, the conundrum is the same. Should you include quizzes in e-learning courses? Will adult learners see the benefit of testing their knowledge? Do quizzes and other short assessments really matter?
Savvy e-course developers know it’s important to answer these questions. But, are quizzes right for your course? Like so much in consumer learning the answer is “It depends.” Tests, quizzes and other assessment tools are often included in e-learning programs. But, like most online learning tools, the tool is often only good as the course developer. Before you rush off and draft a bunch of quiz questions, stop and ask yourself, “What’s the purpose of this quiz?”
For quizzes to be effective, they need to serve a real purpose and be meaningful to the learner. Quizzes can be used to motivate people; to encourage learners to review course material; and to help assess how well people have mastered the content.
Motivate Learners with a Sneak Peek Pre-test
Pre-tests are a great way to give learners a taste of what’s coming up. These types of quizzes help people measure what they already know and figure out what they still need to learn. Use them to tap into adult learners’ motivation and prime them for new material. So what does a pre-test for a consumer learning course look like? Say you’re creating a personal fitness course and one module has a video that shows people how to properly use a kettle ball.
Since you’re teaching a process, a sequencing quiz is probably the most suitable. Before the video launches you could have learners drag and drop the steps into what they believe is the correct order. Then they can watch the video and see if they’re right.
Set The Course Tone & Approach
Kick-off quizzes are also a great way to familiarize learners with your teaching approach. If you’re planning to test learners at the end of the course, you can tell them that you’ll be using similar questions in the final quiz. That way you give your students a heads-up on the new information and you encourage them to pay attention so they don’t miss any questions again.
Use Test-Teach-Test to Assess Learning
Used judiciously, quizzes can help you find out what learners know coming into your course so that you can create relevant and useful content and activities. For example, say you’re teaching a three-part series on weight loss. You’ve sketched out your curriculum and you know that you’ll be covering the food pyramid and making healthy choices.
In the pre-test you could use a combination of multiple choice, true-false, and open-ended question types that will help you find out what your students already know about nutrition. What’s more, the quiz can serve as a self-assessment; individual students will get an idea of where they have gaps in their knowledge.
Make Learning Stick with Fun and Relevant Quizzes
People need time and practice to really process and absorb what they’ve learned. A quiz can be an opportunity to do that. When you’re designing your course, look for points when you can pause and let the learner review. This is especially helpful when your course includes a lot of information or teaches a new skill.
For example, a basic sewing course might include hot spot enabled images of a sewing machine, a list of supplies, and a slideshow with step-by-step sewing instructions.
Before launching into the demo portion of the course, you might create a multiple choice quiz where students have to identify the parts and features of the sewing machine.
Then you could introduce and transition to the demo with a few open-ended questions, like, “Why do you want to learn how to sew? What’s one goal you have for your sewing? What’s something you’d like to make this year?”
To Quiz or Not to Quiz
Thinking of creating a quiz for your next course? Here’s a checklist of guiding principles:
- Remember to match the quiz with your course objectives.
- As you build your course, take note of “quizzable moments” when you can pause and let learners review what’s been covered.
- Make sure your quiz does what you intended it to do. Does the quiz really help people measure their progress? Or are you merely asking the learner to recall information?
- Keep it simple and avoid an endless barrage of questions that leave your learners confused, frustrated, or worse, annoyed.
- Remember: People enroll in your courses because they want to learn, not jump through hoops. Or revisit grade school.
So, before you go all quiz crazy, ask yourself, “What are the learning objectives for each stage of my course? And is a quiz the best method to achieve them?” Once you can answer those questions, your quiz will pass with flying colors.
