A staple you’ll find in most every training is a quiz. A homage to high school days, what we call a “quiz” may or may not actually resemble what you may remember from the classroom.
I hear the term “quiz” or “knowledge check” from learning and development professionals in reference to any time we ask a learner a question about any content that’s been covered so far in a training. However, I see a lot of quizzing that isn’t packing a punch, or creating any real meaning for the designer or the learner. Stuck in a quiz conundrum? Not seeing the data or results you want? Not to worry, here are my three keys to designing quiz questions that actually work.
1. Decide whether you actually want the learner to be quizzed (meaning, test their knowledge as a metric or a gate to proceed) or instead, if you really want them to reflect or self-assess.
This is an important distinction and directly impacts how you position a question, script the question itself, and script feedback. If you’re looking to gain a metric, prevent the learner from moving ahead if they haven’t mastered a behavior, or need them to demonstrate an understanding of a concept, then you’ve got a quiz on your hands, and you should design accordingly. This means you’ll need to consider number of attempts, how you’re scripting the question to adequately test the learner (see number 2), and how you’re scripting feedback across their attempts (see number 3).
If, conversely, you want to ask the learner a question so that they can have an “a-ha!” moment, or reflect on/assess their own understanding of a concept, then you’re really not looking for a quiz, and the design elements associated with that are less important. However, you do want to consider a few things. Do they need customized feedback or remediation based on their self-discoveries? Are these revelations something the learner would want to record, or compare against later after learning more? Really think about not only the experience you’re trying to create, but the needs and wants of the learner.
2. Put it in context.
If you’ve decided you actually are creating a quiz that acts as a metric or gate to proceeding through to the next bit of information in your training, you need to make sure the question is in the context of a real-life experience for the learner. This brings the information to life—literally pulling a concept from the content and putting it into a scenario or case study that is directly relatable to the learner. This process presents a much more realistic picture of your learners’ understanding of the concepts and allows you to test their behavior in a quasi-simulation situation.
3. Give them feedback that says something.
Correct! Or Incorrect! Just isn’t cutting it. In fact, it can be extremely frustrating for a learner (after how ever many attempts) to not understand why their answer was incorrect. This may not be plausible in a cumulative final examination, but in shorter quizzes, you need to give remediation so that the learner can understand what parts of the puzzle they’re missing. Feedback is one of the most impactful pieces of scripting in your entire training—are you making the most of it?
