Centre for Technology
Enhanced Learning
QUIZZES: SUGGESTIONS FOR USE
Author: Professor Mark Russell
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http://blogs.kcl.ac.uk/CTEL
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Centre for Technology
Enhanced Learning
Quizzes: Suggestions for use
C ONTENTS
Preamble...
3
Using Quizzes: Setting the Scene
3
Using quizzes: Enhancing student engagement/interest/learning
and their time-on-task
3
Using Quizzes: At the start of a module
7
Using Quizzes: Before a teaching session
7
Using Quizzes: After a teaching session
7
Using Quizzes: At the end of a module
8
Using Quizzes: Adding complexity and avoiding answerguessing
8
How to create a Quiz in KEATS
9
Comments?
9
Document Revision History
9
Professor Mark Russell
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Centre for Technology
Enhanced Learning
Quizzes: Suggestions for use
P REAMBLE ...
Learning is an active endeavour; an endeavour that is helped by engagement, exploration of ideas and an
opportunity to practice and test-out emerging conceptions. In this regard quizzes are a useful part of a
teaching strategy and can gainfully help with the testing of ideas, provide students with practice
opportunity as well offer additional opportunities for feedback. Used well quizzes provide an additional
stimulus for learning and provide teachers too with useful data to help shape teaching.
These notes offer a few ideas of how you might use quizzes to support your ongoing teaching, learning
and assessment strategy. For consistency reference will be made to the quizzing activity in KEATS. The
quiz function in KEATS can be found as an activity. Separate resources are already available that offer
advice on setting-up quizzes (including a quiz check list), and how use different question types. This
document is purposely focused on suggestions for the use of quizzes.
Some of the examples offered mirror those presented in a separate document ‘Using Discussion Fora'.
Discussion fora are likely to lead to more dialogic interactions whereas quizzes are typically a more
personalised and individualised experience. Hence, in addition to thinking about your questions, you
should also consider the nature of the interactions you are seeking to create.
U SING Q UIZZES : S ETTING THE S CENE
Rather than simply 'creating and activating and a quiz’ you might consider first offering an overview (to
your students) as to why you are creating and using the quizzes. Hence be sure you are clear of the
purpose and intent for the quiz and advise the students of such too.
Think of this as setting the scene and making explicit why the use of quizzes is important to the module,
you and ultimately students' learning. Link this 'scene setting' to any teaching, learning and assessment
strategy you have established too.
Depending on why you might use quizzes you might usefully refer to your module evaluation activities,
teaching strategies and intended learning outcomes.
You might also use the overview to set out your expectations of student engagement for the module. Not
all of which will take place in traditional (face-to-face) settings.
The following suggestions will help stimulate student engagement and allow students to benefit from your
quiz creations.
As with all our suggestions, consider carefully which best supports your needs, the programme/module
aims and other planned interactions and learning activities. In addition to offering suggestions you may
wish to adopt, this document may trigger some of your own ideas on using quizzes for your context and
discipline.
U SING QUIZZES : E NHANCING STUDENT ENGAGEMENT / INTEREST / LEARNING AND THEIR
TIME - ON - TASK
Consider a weekly, two hour lecture as shown below.
Professor Mark Russell
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Centre for Technology
Enhanced Learning
Quizzes: Suggestions for use
Axis of student Engagement /
Interest / Learning (E/I/L)
Weekly Lecture
Weekly Lecture
Figure 1: Time line of two hour, weekly lecture
Although unique to each learner, we might conjecture the following engagement / interest / learning profile
as stimulated by the weekly lectures (coloured green).
E/I/L stimulated by
weekly lecture
On-going but low levels of
E/I/L outside lecture
Figure 2: Possible Engagement profile (motivated by one, two hour, weekly lecture)
What if we now wish to increase this Engagement / Interest / Learning profile?
A caveat: Although it is useful to conjecture the activity versus Engagement /
Interest / Learning profile I am not suggesting any linear correlation between E/I/L. It
is the nature of the activity that is important not the fact one exists.
Professor Mark Russell
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Centre for Technology
Enhanced Learning
Quizzes: Suggestions for use
Lecture
Post-lecture quiz, looking-back over
the lecture. Personal and (possibly)
reflective activity.
Figure 3: A quiz the day after the lecture
Such might lead to the following E/I/L profile…
Original E/I/L profile
More E/I/L in lecture due to
awareness of upcoming (postlecture)
Lecture
Additional E/I/L stimulated by
the quiz
Post lecture quiz activity
Professor Mark Russell
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Centre for Technology
Enhanced Learning
Quizzes: Suggestions for use
Original E/I/L profile
More E/I/L in lecture due to awareness of
upcoming (post-lecture) quiz
Decaying E/I/L due to nonimmediate testing, but higher
levels (than without quiz?) due to
upcoming quiz
Post-lecture quiz, looking
back over lecture - A
two/three day gap between
lecture and quiz
Additional E/I/L stimulated by
the quiz itself
Figure 4: A quiz a few days after the lecture
Pre-lecture quiz, exploring
students’ conceptions of
upcoming topic area(s)
Original E/I/L profile
Additional E/I/L stimulated by
the quiz itself
Possibly limited additional E/I/L
Lecture
Figure 5: A quiz a few days before a lecture
In summary, engaging students outside of the class is likely to lead to increased time-on-task, and
increased student interest and learning. Indeed, connecting a quiz to a teaching session may also help
the E/I/L in the teaching session itself. What is important now is the purpose and intent of the out of class
quiz. The following offer specific ideas as to why you might use a quiz.
Professor Mark Russell
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Centre for Technology
Enhanced Learning
Quizzes: Suggestions for use
U SING Q UIZZES : A T THE START OF A MODULE
1. Create a quiz that explores the student’s prior knowledge of the upcoming module. This might
include exploring the student’s…
• demonstrable knowledge of the foundational concepts / ideas / structures,
• ability to integrate and take a holistic view of the foundational concepts.
2. Create a quiz that explores the student’s reasons for taking the module – (assuming the module
is an elective).
3. Create a quiz that outlines the module and its topic areas. Ask students to respond to questions
telling you how confident / knowledgeable they are in the different topic areas. You could do this
by asking directly about their levels of confidence or set them questions and use confidencebased marking.
Figure 6: An example question asking students directly to rate their confidence level about one
aspect of the module
4. Set a quiz that asks students to tell you what they are expecting to gain from the module. Include
questions relating to the content of the module and their personal development.
U SING Q UIZZES : B EFORE A TEACHING SESSION
1. Create a quiz that requires students to demonstrate their knowledge of the topics in the upcoming
teaching session.
2. Create a quiz, with options, asking students to rank (or select) a couple of areas they want more
help on.
3. Create a quiz that explores student’s understanding of any pre-reading (or other out-of-class
preparatory activities) for the upcoming teaching session. This reinforces the importance of the
preparatory activities and provides you with an opportunity to explore their understanding of such.
4. Create a quiz on topics of the module are often known to be troublesome – this will help the
students see (first hand) their gaps and hence allows you to offer more pointed (and gap-filling)
examples in class.
5. Contrasting the above suggestion, create a quiz that develops the student’s confidence in
aspects of the module. Hence now, with their confidence developed, you will be able to overlay
more complex ideas
U SING Q UIZZES : A FTER A TEACHING SESSION
1. Create a quiz that invites students to tell you what of the areas covered in the teaching session
were the most and least problematic – perhaps via a ranked question (or essay / short essay
question)
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Centre for Technology
Enhanced Learning
Quizzes: Suggestions for use
Figure 7: An example question asking students directly to rank the relative complexity (from their
perspective) of three topic areas
2. Create a quiz that requires students to demonstrate what they have learned from the teaching
session. Think too about the questions you will ask them. Are the questions asking students to
demonstrate knowledge or are the questions seeking to gain sight of their students ability to apply
the knowledge?
3. Create a quiz that explores student’s ability to abstract some of the ideas covered in class to
unfamiliar situations. This will stimulate their broader thinking and reinforce the importance of
abstracting their learning from the teaching session to a different, yet-linked, problem / topic /
concept.
U SING Q UIZZES : A T THE END OF A MODULE
1. Create a quiz that invites students to share the most complex aspects of the module.
2. Create a quiz that explores the student’s integrative understanding of the module’s topics.
3. Create a quiz that explores the student’s confidence levels in the topic areas now they have
completed the module.
4. Create a quiz that re-explores the student’s understanding of questions presented at the start of
the module. You will obviously be looking for ‘learning gains’.
5. Create a quiz comprising questions the majority of the students struggled with in earlier quizzes.
Here you can review student learning and the students use of feedback from previous quizzes
U SING Q UIZZES : A DDING COMPLEXITY AND AVOIDING ANSWER - GUESSING
Rather than trivialising learning or student engagement think carefully about the ways in which you seek
to deepen student’s approaches to learning and their subsequent knowledge of the module (and related
modules). Good question design (and feedback) is helpful here.
1. To explore the students confidence in their answer consider the use confidence based marking (CBM).
This asks students to offer their response and also note how confident they are with the correctness of
their answer.
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Centre for Technology
Enhanced Learning
Quizzes: Suggestions for use
2. To avoid students guessing an answer, consider the use of ‘I don’t know’ as an answer choice. That
way, guessing an answer leads to little / no reward.
3. Create seemingly separate-yet-linked questions that explore student’s understanding of a concept. Here
multiple questions explore the students understanding of a single idea
4. Create a quiz that uses free text responses to explore the student’s descriptions (using essay / short
essay questions). For example…
• General questions
o What area of this week’s lecture did you find the most difficult and why?
o What one thing, area, topic would you like more help on?
o Look back, what have you learnt so far in this module?
• Topic specific questions included
o In your own words describe Bernoulli’s Equation.
o Often in manometry we ignore the density of the fluid in one of the limbs, why is this?
o In your own words, please identify the meaning of 'minor losses' and describe in your own
words 'how you calculate them?
H OW TO CREATE A Q UIZ IN KEATS
Having offered some advice on why you might use Quizzes, the links below take you to the KEATS Staff
Support Page and show How to create quizzes.
•
In Portable Document Format (PDF)
http://keats.kcl.ac.uk/pluginfile.php/61206/mod_resource/content/2/addingQuizzesAndQuestions.pdf
•
In Video format
http://keats.kcl.ac.uk/pluginfile.php/72787/mod_resource/content/2/addQuiz.mp4
C OMMENTS ?
Should you have any comments on this document, or wish to make some additions, please email them to
[email protected]
D OCUMENT R EVISION H ISTORY
Version
1.0
1.1
Revisions
NA
Changed Document Template
Professor Mark Russell
Status
Draft
For circulation / use
Name
MBR
VS
Date
7/02/14
24/02/2014
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