Learning design

Quizzes

Before you build a quiz online, it is important to work out what the quiz questions will be and to test them out with colleagues.

The primary purpose of quiz questions is for learners to check their understanding of the course materials and concepts. It can be quite difficult working out how to ask robust and useful questions that can be answered without asking learners to provide an essay response – it is usually possible to find a way to write a quiz for most topics but not possible to use quizzes for all types of knowledge.

It is a good idea to select one or two question types and get used to how they work before you extend the range of question types you use, especially if you are new to creating quizzes.

The following checklist is a guide to creating robust and effective quizzes:

• Identify the topics you want to cover in the quiz and write them down. You may do this as you are writing the course and the material is fresh in your mind.
• For each topic, draw up possible ways to ask the question, referring to examples of the different question types in use.
• Decide on the feedback type for each question.
• Draft questions for each topic in the question formats you have chosen.
• Write some hint text if you want your learners to have multiple tries at each question, and some feedback with the correct answers.
• Compile all the questions and organise them into a logical order.
• Ask colleagues to review the questions and feedback text. 
• Review and if necessary revise the questions, feedback text and assessment strategy in light of comments from colleagues.

Once you are happy with the questions, you can set up the quiz in your online course.