20+ Tips for Writing Great Quiz Questions and Response Options
If you’ve written quizzes in the past, you know how hard it is to write really great questions and realistic response options. It’s a tricky balance between something that’s an incorrect answer, but still plausible enough that the learner doesn’t dismiss it outright. To make sure you get the best quiz questions and response options possible, refer to this checklist of 20+ tips when writing your quizzes: All questions are related to learning objectives and course content All questions present the learner with feedback that supports the correct answer All questions avoid the use of humor, analogies, and cultural references All questions avoid complex sentences, ambiguous terms, and slang All questions avoid trick responses (this includes multiple correct responses, ambiguous answers, and overly abstract responses) Avoid true-or-false questions, if possible Response options that do not begin with the same word (if so, this word should appear in the question) Consistent number of response options for all questions All questions have at least 3-4 response options All questions and correct responses have been vetted by an SME or expert Avoid use of “all of the above” and “none of the above” in response options All response options are realistic and plausible All response options follow correct sentence structure to fit with the question All response options are approximately the same length All response options are parallel in grammatical structure All response options contain the same amount of detail Response options do not overlap or are too similar Response options avoid the use of negative items (“Which of these items is NOT…”) If response options must include negative items, negative words are all in CAPS All correct response options are covered in the course material Double-check all questions and response options for grammar, punctuation, spelling, formatting, contradictions, and use of active voice. All questions and response options avoid the use of absolute terms like “always” and “only” By checking all of your quiz questions and response options against this checklist, you can greatly improve the quality of your quizzes, and improve your learner’s experience taking your quiz. Do you have any tips you’d like to share about writing more meaningful and relevant quiz questions and responses? If you do, please leave a comment! You can always sign up for a fully functional, free trial of Articulate software. And don’t forget to post your questions and comments in the forums! We’re here to help. For more e-learning tips, examples, and downloads, follow us on Twitter.Elevate Your E-Learning by Prioritizing Accessibility and Usability
As an e-learning developer, you want to create content that engages learners and delivers on the learning objectives you worked hard to define. But what if that engagement and learning can't happen because of issues with accessibility or usability? In this article, you'll find out what accessibility and usability are and how you can apply the principles behind them to design courses that work better for all learners. Then, you'll get tips on reviewing and testing your courses to ensure they meet those standards. Let's get started! Understanding Accessibility Accessibility—also known as a11y—is the practice of making experiences work for everyone, regardless of their ability. In e-learning, accessible content means it's been designed for all learners to access—including those with auditory, visual, mobility, cognitive, or other disabilities. For example, using sufficient color contrast helps learners with low vision or color vision deficiency. Offering textual explanations for visual content is another common accessibility best practice. Focusing on web accessibility allows everyone to perceive, navigate, and interact with content. Guidelines—such as Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)—and laws—like Section 508 (United States)—provide guidance and ensure all learners can access online materials equally. Understanding Usability Usability in e-learning measures how easy content is to use and examines how users experience it. Content should be user-friendly, intuitive, efficient, and effective. For example, if learners must complete a quiz, they should be able to test their knowledge without encountering confusing errors or getting stuck and feeling frustrated with the process. The Nielsen Norman Group is a firm focused on improving the everyday experience of using technology. They've defined five key components of usability that can also be applied when creating e-learning courses: Learnability. Accomplishing basic tasks should be easy, even the first time a learner encounters a course. Efficiency. Barriers that prevent learners from completing courses efficiently should be removed. Memorability. Learners who revisit content shouldn't have to start from scratch. Errors. Encountering errors—and recovering from them—shouldn't derail learning. Satisfaction. Engaging with the content should be enjoyable and pleasant for learners. Benefits of Combining Accessibility and Usability Accessible content enhances everyone's experience. For example, closed captions and transcripts for accessibility not only help learners who are deaf or hard of hearing. They also allow those in a loud environment where audio can't be heard or in a public space that requires silence to access content. Captions and transcripts improve understanding for foreign-language learners as well. However, ensuring that your e-learning content conforms to accessibility guidelines like captioning and transcripts doesn't mean your course automatically provides a usable learning experience for all. Conversely, while usability centers user experiences, usable content isn't necessarily accessible to people with disabilities. For example, a visually stunning course might be engaging for some learners. However, if it uses colors and other visuals alone to convey information or move the learner through, the content won't be accessible to those with low vision or color vision deficiency. To ensure truly equal access to digital content, apply accessibility and usability practices in tandem during the course development process. Testing for Accessibility and Usability The best way to find out if the content you're creating is accessible and usable is to test it. If you're new to this process, you might feel intimidated. But don't worry! We'll introduce you to some trusted accessibility testing tools and give you tips for usability testing to get you started in the next section. Accessibility Testing Accessibility testing can be done with automated tools or manually—both of which have advantages and disadvantages. For the most optimal results, combine both types of accessibility testing. Automated Testing Automated accessibility testing tools scan content for accessibility issues. They're easy to run and don't require in-depth accessibility knowledge to detect minor problems. Examples of automated accessibility testing tools include: Deque axe DevTools® WebAIM WAVE® TPGi ARC Toolkit ANDI (Accessible Name & Description Inspector) While automated accessibility testing tools boost speed and efficiency, they don't catch all accessibility issues. They also sometimes report false positives or misunderstand accessibility requirements. Additionally, your results might vary depending on the testing tool. Manual Testing Given the limitations described above, automated testing can be a practical place to start but usually won't finish the job. Manually reviewing your published course one slide at a time offers the most complete results. If that sounds overwhelming, don't panic. We've got you covered! Here's a checklist of universal design basics for text, multimedia, images, and interactivity elements in e-learning: Accessible E-Learning Checklist. Examples include: Check the accuracy of automated tests. Ensure learners can easily navigate content—such as hyperlinks, alternative text (alt text), menus, and closed captions—with a keyboard and screen reader. Make sure your course has plain and inclusive language appropriate for your audience and provides accessibility instructions wherever user input is required. While manual testing requires you to learn about accessibility requirements and standards, it's the best way to ensure everyone can access your content. Here are multiple resources to support you on your accessibility learning journey: Articulate 360 Accessibility Index of Support Articles Storyline 360: How to Design an Accessible Course Rise 360: How to Design an Accessible Course How To Test Your E-Learning Course with a Screen Reader My Course Isn’t Accessible! Now What? Usability Testing Usability testing is conducted by real people who scan content for usability problems. You can improve your usability testing and boost accessibility at the same time by including people with disabilities and those who use assistive devices and technology when you recruit and engage usability test participants. For example, organizations like Fable connect digital teams with people with disabilities to do usability testing. Wrap-Up We hope this article inspires you to provide accessible and usable e-learning experiences for all learners. What did you find most interesting? Is there anything we missed? Let's discuss! Share your thoughts in the comments below. For more help creating accessible courses, check out these helpful resources: All About Accessibility Articulate 360 Training Videos About Accessibility7 Most Popular Storyline 360 Examples & Downloads of 2023
E-Learning Heroes Community is the perfect place to get inspired by examples from both our amazing community members and our Articulate staff members. Below are the top seven Storyline 360 examples from 2023. 1. Storyline Comics Style Communication: Branched Scenario See how you can use interactive storytelling elements and branching techniques to teach learners the skills they need in this cool example. 2. Power of Self-Motivation Scrolling Experience Check out this completely unique interactive example that engages learners right from the start. 3. Office Safety Training Template Want to teach workplace safety in a memorable and interactive way? Check out this downloadable template to help kickstart your project. 4. Interactive Storytelling Template Learn how to leverage storytelling in Storyline 360 to help your learners apply their skills in a real-life scenario with this inspiring example. 5. Room Exploration Interaction Template Make searching an office, home, warehouse, store, or any other 2D environment feel more cinematic with this downloadable interaction. With the help of hotspots, triggers, and layers, learners can use the on-screen flashlight to help them discover clues. 6. Reset Drag-and-Drop Incorrect Choices Template Ever wanted to reset only the incorrect drag choices in Storyline 360? Use this starter template and supporting video tutorial to learn how to reset your own drag-and-drop interactions. 7. Employee Health and Wellness Check out this stunning example to see some of the immersive and custom learning experiences you can create with Storyline 360. Wrap-Up We hope these examples inspire you as you work on your next e-learning projects! Did we miss any of your favorites? Be sure to let us know in the comments below. You can view more article recaps from 2023 by checking out our latest compilation of articles here: All the Best E-Learning Heroes Content from 2023 in One Place. Subscribe to our newsletter to get the latest e-learning inspiration and insights directly in your inbox. You can also find us on LinkedIn and X (formerly Twitter). And if you have questions, please share them in the comments.2 Reasons to Use Storyline 360 for Software Simulations
Software simulations are a great way to teach learners how to use a new app or system. They allow you to record a process on your screen and give learners the opportunity to interact with the content by doing things like clicking on specific areas of the application or entering text or data, just like they would in real life. A lot of thought and preparation goes into creating software simulations—you have to identify which steps to show learners, hide any clutter on your screen, set the recording area size, and work with fake data or a testing environment. Because getting your screen ready for recording can be so time-consuming, it can be a real pain if you end up making a mistake and needing to re-record. Luckily, Storyline 360 gives you everything you need to avoid rework. Let’s take a peek at two of the benefits of using Storyline 360 that make it quick and easy to repurpose and adjust interactive software simulations. 1. Record Once and Reuse as Needed Some screen recording apps make you decide on the output format—a video tutorial or a simulation—before you record. This means once you’ve recorded your screen, if you were to change your mind about how you want to use it, you would have to re-record the entire thing in a new format. With Storyline 360, you can avoid those snags. You can record your entire process and then choose the format afterward. You have the option to insert it as a video or convert it into a series of slides (which include both demo and simulation modes). This means you can reuse your recording in different formats without having to start over—saving you tons of time. 2. Make Quick Edits Picture this: You’re almost done recording your screen when an unwanted pop-up notification appears. You don’t want learners to see that in your screen recording, so what do you do? Depending on the app you’re using, you might have to either start your recording all over again or edit it after the fact in a separate video editing app. Thankfully, that isn’t the case if you’re creating screen recordings with Storyline 360. If you want to make quick edits to a step-by-step slide, simply right-click on it and select the Action Fine-Tuning option from the menu. This will open up a window that lets you edit things like the start and end frames of a step. With this handy feature, you can avoid redoing your recording or opening another app to make edits. Check out this user guide to learn more: Storyline 360: Editing Screen Recordings. Wrap-Up As you can see, thanks to these two powerful features, screen recording in Storyline 360 is super fast and easy. It helps you avoid rework by allowing you to make decisions and adjustments after you record. Such a timesaver! Want to learn more about using this powerful feature? Check out these helpful articles: Follow These 5 Steps to Record Your Screen in Storyline 360 5 Tips for Creating Effective Software Simulations with Storyline 360 Follow This Process to Create Software Simulations and Systems Training Like a Pro Do you have any tips of your own about using Storyline 360 to develop software simulations? Leave them in a comment below! Want to try something you learned here, but don’t have Articulate 360? Start a free 30-day trial, and come back to E-Learning Heroes regularly for more helpful advice on everything related to e-learning.Articulate Receives Security Certification From US Federal Government—FedRAMP®
Security is a priority for us, which is why we’re excited to share that Articulate is officially FedRAMP® authorized! If you’re not familiar with FedRAMP, basically this means that the US federal government has done a thorough security and risk assessment of Articulate apps and determined they meet their strict cloud security requirements and are safe to use. If you work for an agency of the US government, this also means you can use Articulate 360 without worry, knowing that they’re FedRAMP authorized. Head over to the FedRAMP marketplace for more details on our authorization. And for those of you in the private sector, it means you can rest easy knowing you’re in good hands with Articulate. Of course, if you want more information on our approach to security and data protection, check out our Trust Center. Want to try out our apps but don’t have an Articulate 360 subscription? Start a free 30-day trial today. And if you have any questions, please share them in the comments.Why AI Could Turbocharge L&D Professionals
Amid all the excitement surrounding artificial intelligence (AI), there’s one glaring fear: “Is AI going to replace me?” It’s a reasonable concern. After all, generative AI can work a whole lot faster than we mere mortals. But here’s the deal: AI is a tool. And a tool is only as good as the person who wields it. At Articulate, we think of AI as an accelerator of human capability, not a replacer of human ingenuity. Let’s unpack why AI can’t do everything alone and how—when used effectively—it doesn’t take away potential but unlocks it. AI Has Limitations On the surface, AI-generated content truly feels like it could’ve been written by a human. But mimicking a human isn’t the same as being a human, and that makes all the difference. Courses built solely with AI are prone to the following hurdles: Inaccuracies. AI is a people-pleaser. If it can’t give you a correct answer, it will still produce a reasonable “something”—but that something might be riddled with half-truths or outright “hallucinations.” Without a human validating output, AI might deliver wholly fabricated content. Biases. Generative AI was trained on the internet, making it highly susceptible to biases. Take away ethical human input and guidance, and AI may reinforce stereotypes, spread misinformation, and deliver inequitable training with unapologetic conviction. Ineffectiveness. AI can’t independently create complex, engaging learning experiences like the L&D pros. It can work quickly, but only a human course creator knows the nuance that goes into helping learners wrap their heads around tough topics, develop complex skills, and work through real-world practice scenarios. AI Requires Guidance AI’s limitations remind us that it can’t work alone. The sidekick is only as good as the hero. And AI is only as good as the e-learning heroes who use it. High-quality training requires humans in the driver’s seat. If you don’t have professionals consulting with stakeholders, discerning learning needs, setting directions, iterating with AI, and validating outputs, you end up with training that misses the mark. What Can AI Do? So, if AI isn’t replacing L&D professionals, what is it doing? If you’re a course creator, think of AI as another tool in your kit—and a mighty valuable one at that. Use AI mindfully, and you can: Collate information quickly. Have several dense documents to sift through? Consider using AI to pull and synthesize the information—kick-starting your course-creation process. Get a first draft. Debating how to start a lesson or course? AI solves the notorious “blank page” problem by giving you a first draft. Then all you have to do is fine-tune it. Brainstorm. Need to toss some ideas around? Your AI helper is an excellent creative thought partner. For example, you might use AI to think through course outlines, come up with industry-relevant examples, and surface themes within your work. Modify and personalize your work. Want to change direction or adapt your training for a different audience? No problem! AI can switch up your tone or writing style in a flash. Accelerate monotonous tasks. Have a lot on your plate? You might free up your day by using AI to speed through time-consuming, repetitive work. For example, you could ask AI to generate a summary, knowledge check, or full-course quiz based on your content. Well-Guided AI Unlocks L&D Superpowers Ultimately, with course creators at the wheel, an AI sidekick helps course creators do more, work smarter, and achieve their goals faster. The result? Instead of replacing L&D pros, AI gives them superpowers. Learning teams who leverage AI have more time, freedom, and mental space to use their specialized expertise, dig deeper, innovate, and home in on the creative side of course creation and design. Wrap Up The scary robot takeover isn’t happening anytime soon. AI is an invaluable asset. But it only works if we keep humans at the center. As Articulate’s own Chief Technology Officer Kerry Munz puts it, “AI gives you time; it lets you go deeper. But it’s your magic that helps people grow.” For more information about AI, check out these helpful resources: Build Compelling Courses Up to 9x Faster with Articulate’s AI Assistant 4 AI Basics Every E-Learning Creator Needs to Know in 2024 3 Ways AI Transforms Workforce Skill-Building Is Your Organization Ready for AI? How Articulate AI Safeguards Your Data You can stay in the loop by subscribing to our newsletter and finding us on LinkedIn and X (formerly Twitter). Want to try out our apps but don’t have an Articulate 360 subscription? Start a free 30-day trial today. And if you have any questions, please share them in the comments.How to Randomize Quiz Questions in Storyline 360
A big part of being an e-learning developer is creating quizzes. Choosing question types, writing plausible choices, crafting meaningful feedback—these all go into building a great quiz. When putting together your quizzes, you might have encountered a situation where you’ve wanted or needed to randomize the questions in your quizzes. Why randomize questions? Perhaps your subject matter expert (SME) has provided you with more questions than you actually need to test learners on, or you might want to ensure that the order of the questions is different every time learners take the quiz, to minimize cheating and keep it interesting. Whatever your reason for randomizing quiz questions, one simple and straightforward way to do so in Storyline 360 is to use question banks. Here are the steps you can follow to randomize questions in a bank: Create a Question Bank Your first step is to create the question bank. To do so, you’ll head to the slides tab on the Storyline 360 ribbon. There you’ll notice the Question Banks button with a small arrow pointing down, indicating there is a dropdown menu. The Question Banks button is located under the slides tab on the ribbon. Click the Question Banks dropdown and select Create Question Bank. Once you’re in the Question Bank view, you can either import existing questions you already have in your .STORY project, or you can create new questions from inside the question bank. Once you’ve got all your questions inside the bank,you can also easily set all of your attempts and points in one fell swoop. A question bank that has been populated with question slides. Keep in mind you can have multiple question banks within one Storyline 360 project. You might create one bank of easy questions and one bank with more advanced questions. Or you might have one bank of questions for customer service reps and a different set of questions banked for sales reps. You can have as many question banks in your project as you need. Insert a Slide Draw Once you’ve set up your question bank, the next step is to insert a slide draw into your project. The slide draw is the slide in your project that displays the question bank to the learner. To insert a slide draw, head to the Question Bank dropdown button once more and click New Draw from Question Bank. The slide draw is inserted into your project and has a question mark on it, as indicated in the image below: Slide draw appears as a slide. Adjust Slide Draw Properties You can now double-click on the slide draw slide you’ve just inserted to open up the Draw Questions from Bank window. From here, you can control all the settings for how the question bank will appear for learners. Question Bank dropdown. If you have multiple question banks, use the Question Bank dropdown field to select the question bank you want to pull from on this slide draw. Edit Question Bank. Click this to open the selected question bank and make changes to the questions and slides contained within it. Draw Questions Randomly. Ding! Ding! Ding! This is the option you will select if you want to randomize the order of your questions. Include X Questions dropdown. From this dropdown you can select “All” or specify the number of questions you want included in the draw. Include in Shuffle dropdown. This can be set to “Randomly,” “Never,” or “Always,” depending on how often you want a question to appear. Here’s an example of how I can customize my question bank settings: I want to create a question bank that randomly draws five of the seven questions included in my bank, but I always want Question A to be included. I would simply set the Include X Questions dropdown at “5” instead of “All,” and I would change the Include in Shuffle option for Question A to “Always.” These settings will randomly draw five questions from the bank. Question A will always be included in the shuffle. Test Your Slide Draw Once you’ve set up your slide draw with all the right options, you’ll want to preview the scene that your question bank is in to test it out and see how it all comes together. Run through your question bank a few times to ensure that the correct number of questions are drawn, and in a random, different order each time. Hopefully these simple steps will help you create your own randomized quizzes. If you want to learn more about using question banks, here are a few additional helpful articles: 5 Things You Should Know About Storyline 360 Question Banks 3 More Tips for Using Question Banks Like a Pro Want to try something you learned here, but don’t have Articulate 360? Start a free 30-day trial, and come back to E-Learning Heroes regularly for more helpful advice on everything related to e-learning. If you have any questions, please share them in the comments.How to Copy Blocks from One Lesson to Another in Rise 360
Have you ever built a course in Rise 360 and realized, later on, that some of the content in one lesson would work great in a different lesson? Or maybe you want to reuse the same content structure? I’ve been there! Luckily, it’s super easy to copy blocks from one Rise lesson to another, thanks to the blocks template feature. Here’s how it works. 1. Open the Blocks Library The first thing you’ll want to do is navigate to the lesson that contains the block you want to copy and open up the block library. You can do that either by clicking the plus sign (+) between two blocks … … or by clicking All Blocks in the blocks shortcut bar. 2. Create a New Template Next, select the templates tab in the block library and click the New Template button. 3. Select the Blocks to Copy Then, select the block or blocks you want to copy by clicking the checkmark for each one. 4. Save Your Template Next, click Save, name your template, and click Save once again. 5. Insert Your Template Finally, navigate to the lesson where you’d like your copied block to go, open up the blocks library, and select your template. Wrap-Up Et voilà! It’s that easy. With blocks templates, you can copy blocks from one lesson to another within the same course and copy blocks to lessons in other courses; you can even share your blocks with members of your team if you have an Articulate 360 Teams subscription. It’s super handy! Want to try block templates out, but don’t have Rise 360? Start a free 30-day trial of Articulate 360. And subscribe to our newsletter to get the latest e-learning inspiration and insights directly in your inbox. You can also find us on LinkedIn and X (Formerly Twitter).8 Business Use Cases for Microlearning
Are you excited to try out microlearning, but unsure when to use it? Below, we outline eight common workplace situations that benefit from a short-form course. Each situation includes a sample microlearning. At the end, learn how you can customize these templates for your own company and training needs. 1. Create Organizational Alignment To hit a business target, everyone needs to be moving in the same direction. Creating that alignment starts with clear, frequent communication of the shared mission, vision, and values. Microlearning can help. The following editable template shows how you can align employees through regular executive “micro” updates: Executive Update 2. Highlight HR Information, Notices, or Reminders Educating employees about annual events like open enrollment, tax season, and compliance training is a critical function of HR teams. The problem? Important announcements often get missed when they’re embedded in long paragraphs or endless emails. Grab the following templates to see how microlearning makes HR communications more digestible and engaging: A Quick Guide To Open Enrollment Internal Company Newsletter 3. Strengthen Company Culture and DEI Initiatives Fostering an inclusive company culture is a continuous process—not a one-time effort. A series of microlearnings can support your larger culture-building and DEI efforts. Check out the following examples for ideas on how to get started: Are You an Ally? Try Taking on These 5 Roles How To Identify and Stop Using Ableist Language Gossip-Proof Your Workplace 4. Streamline Business Processes You can also use microlearning to document and streamline business processes or workflows—such as employee onboarding or performance management. Notice how the following examples make it easy for employees to work through the steps of a process independently: New Hire Pre-Hire Checklist Performance Review and Feedback 5. Increase Security Awareness Most successful data breaches, phishing attacks, and other cybersecurity incidents are caused by human error. Adding refresher microlearnings throughout the year can fortify your defenses. See an example for safeguarding against phishing attacks below: Spot the Phish 6. Enhance Employee Wellness A successful business needs thriving employees. But employee wellness training often ends up buried under competing priorities. Microlearning makes it easy for employees to fit in short breaks for self-care throughout the workday. Check out these two wellness-related microlearning examples: 3 Desk Stretches to Instantly Improve Your Day 5 Tips for Better Naps 7. Provide Quick-Reference Guides Microlearning is the perfect resource for one-off training questions: Employees can quickly find the answers they need—when they need them. Below, we’ve created templates for product and software training. But you could easily create quick-reference guides for sales, customer service, and other teams. Get To Know [Name of Product] Software Training 8. Reinforce and Assess Key Takeaways Finally, who says you have to choose between a more sizable course and microlearning? Repetition aids retention. Consider following up longer training sessions with a microlearning quiz, scenario, or summary. The examples listed below demonstrate how you might do this: Can You Recover From a Workplace Mistake? Training Refresher Wrap-Up There’s no shortage of creative ways you can use microlearning to achieve your business training objectives. The examples above are just a starter list. You might also check out submissions to one of our weekly community challenges, 40+ Microlearning Examples Created in Rise 360 #407. Interested in customizing one of these examples for your team? If you’re an Articulate 360 subscriber or trialer, you can edit all of the examples linked throughout this post by choosing the course from our Rise 360 microlearning content templates. Here’s a short video showing how to do that: What’s the latest microlearning course you’ve created? Tell us about it in the comments—and feel free to ask any questions you might have! Like this article? Subscribe to our newsletter to get the latest e-learning inspiration and insights directly in your inbox. You can also find us on LinkedIn and Twitter.Your Guide to the Teams Admin Console in Articulate 360
With Articulate 360 Teams, your entire team gets access to Articulate 360 with exclusive features that’ll help them collaborate. Plus, you’ll get simple account management and priority support. Watch this video to see how you can easily manage your Articulate 360 Teams account. You’ll see how to invite users, manage permissions, and more. Take a look: To get started, log in to your Articulate 360 Teams console.
