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.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.Storyline 360: Adding Result Slides
Result slides give learners dynamic feedback at the end of quizzes and surveys. They also send reporting and tracking information to learning management systems, including learners' responses and scores. You can use multiple result slides in a Storyline 360 course and even combine them for a composite score. In this tutorial, we'll look at adding result slides to a project and configuring their properties. Add a Result Slide Choose a Quiz Type Identify the Questions to Be Tracked Enable the Quiz Timer (Optional) Name Your Quiz Define the Passing Score (for Graded Results) Score Only Viewed Questions (Optional) Choose Result Slide Features Format Result Slide Buttons Step 1: Add a Result Slide First, do any of the following: Go to the Home tab on the ribbon, click New Slide, and choose Results. Go to the Slides tab on the ribbon and click Results. In Story View, right-click anywhere in the workspace, scroll to New Slide, and choose Results. In Slide View or Form View, right-click anywhere in the Scenes panel, scroll to New Slide, and choose Results. When the Insert Slide window appears, choose the type of result slide you want to add. Use the filters on the left side of the window to narrow your choices. There are four result-slide types: Graded: Choose a graded result slide when you want to track the score for the quiz. You'll have options to show the learner's score, the passing score, and passed/failed feedback. Survey: Choose a survey result slide for non-graded questions. Blank: Choose a blank result slide when you need to send completion data to an LMS/LRS but want to design the slide from scratch. For example, you might want to disguise it as a summary, thank you, or standard content slide. Combined: Choose a combined result slide when you want to combine multiple quiz results into one final result slide where learners must pass all quizzes to pass the course. Tip: As of June 2022, accessible-by-default templates are available in the gallery of result slide templates in addition to legacy and Content Library 360 templates. Click Insert Slide to add the result slide to your course. The Quiz Settings window appears, as shown below, where you can name your quiz, identify the questions you want to track, define the passing score, enable the quiz timer, and more. Step 2: Choose a Quiz Type Use the drop-down list in the upper left corner of the Quiz Settings window to choose one of these quiz types: Final Assessment: Creates a standard “submit results” trigger on the result slide. This is the default quiz type. A final assessment can be scored and tracked by your LMS/LRS, and it’s automatically added to your LMS/LRS tracking options. Pre-Check: Creates a conditional “submit results” trigger, which depends on the learner passing the quiz. A pre-check quiz can be scored and tracked by your LMS/LRS only if the learner passes. If they fail, the quiz won’t get reported to your LMS/LRS, and the learner has an opportunity to pass another quiz later in the course. Pre-checks are automatically added to your LMS/LRS tracking options. (Even though a failed pre-check doesn’t get reported, the question data still gets submitted to the LMS/LRS. Depending on your LMS/LRS, you might be able to see how a learner responded to a failed pre-check.) Knowledge Check: This quiz type isn’t scored or tracked by your LMS/LRS. Therefore, a “submit results” trigger isn’t created. A knowledge check simply gives the learner an opportunity to test their knowledge and reinforce what they learned. Step 3: Identify the Questions to Be Tracked A result slide can track question slides or other result slides. Use the Calculate results for drop-down list to select one of the following, then mark the boxes for the question slides or result slides you want to track. Questions Use this option to track individual question slides and question draws. Result Slides Use this option to combine other result slides into a final result slide. Then decide how you want to score the combined quizzes, using the scoring options that appear: User must pass each quiz: Require learners to pass each child quiz. If they fail any quiz, then they fail the entire course. Combine points from each quiz: Add the points from all child quizzes together as the final score for the course. Then enter a percentage in the Combined Passing Score field at the bottom of the window. In this scenario, a learner could fail one or more quizzes and still pass the overall course. When combining multiple quizzes into a final result slide, learners will need to visit each of the child result slides in order to complete the course. Otherwise, the course status will be marked incomplete. Step 4: Enable the Quiz Timer (Optional) You can set a time limit for your quiz, using the options in the upper right corner of the Quiz Settings window. Mark the Quiz Timer box, then enter the number of minutes you want to allow for the quiz. Click the stopwatch icon to choose when the timer should start counting down and how you want it to display. (Note: The responsive mobile player always uses the time remaining format.) Learners will see the quiz timer in the upper right corner of the player frame. In the modern player, you can hide the quiz timer by turning off the menus and controls. However, there’s no option to hide the quiz timer in the classic player. Step 5: Name Your Quiz As of August 2022, you can assign unique names to quiz result slides, making it easy to identify the corresponding built-in variables for each quiz. For example, a quiz named Time_Management generates variables such as Time_Management.PassPercent and Time_Management.ScorePoints . Use letters, numbers, and underscores to name your quizzes. Spaces, hyphens, and special characters aren't allowed. Quiz names won't show in your published course. They're only visible in your project file. Step 6: Define the Passing Score (for Graded Quizzes) If you're tracking graded questions, enter a percentage in the Passing Score field at the bottom of the Quiz Settings window. Step 7: Score Only Viewed Questions (Optional) As of September 2020, you can allow learners to skip quiz questions without negatively affecting their score by grading only the questions they view. Simply check the box to Only score viewed questions. For example, you might branch learners to different questions based on their answers to previous questions, which means they could skip some questions along the way. Unviewed Questions vs. Unanswered Questions Unviewed questions and unanswered questions are treated differently. When you score only the questions learners view, they won’t be penalized for questions they don’t see. However, if learners visit questions and then skip them without answering, those questions will count against their quiz score. Step 8: Choose Result Slide Features Finally, choose the features you want to display on your result slide. If the Quiz Settings window is open, click OK to close it, then go to the Result Tools—Design tab on the ribbon. Choose from the following features, and click the slide where you want them to appear. You can add features to the base layer of the result slide or to the success/failure layers. For example, you might add a review button to the base layer so learners can review the quiz whether they pass or fail. And you might add a print button to the success layer so learners who pass the quiz can print their results. You could also add a retry button to the failure layer so they can retake the quiz if they fail. Passing Percent Add a placeholder that displays the percentage required to pass. Format the text box any way you like. User Percent Add a placeholder to your slide that displays the percentage the learner achieved. Format the text box any way you like. Passing Points Add a placeholder that displays the number of points required to pass. Format the text box any way you like. User Points Add a placeholder to your slide that displays the number of points the learner earned. Format the text box any way you like. Review Button Add a Review Quiz button to your result slide, which lets learners go back and review the answers they submitted (but they can't change their answers). To give learners visual feedback on their performance, double-click the Review results trigger in the Triggers panel and mark the box to Show correct/incorrect responses when reviewing. To let learners review only the questions they got wrong, mark the box to Review only incorrect questions. Note: The review button is disabled for combined result slides. Print Button Add a Print Results button to your result slide, which lets learners print out a summary of their results. To include the learner's name on the printed report, double-click the Print results trigger in the Triggers panel and mark the box to Prompt the user for their name. Pro Tip: Learners can choose Save as PDF from the print dialog's Destination drop-down list to make the text searchable. Retry Button Add a Retry Quiz button to your result slide, which gives learners an unlimited number of attempts to retake the quiz. (To limit the number of quiz attempts, review this user guide.) If the quiz drew a subset of questions from a question bank, learners will see a different subset of questions each time they retake the quiz. To let learners retry only the questions they got wrong, double-click the Reset results trigger in the Triggers panel and mark the box to Reset only incorrect questions. Note: The retry button is disabled for combined result slides. Tip: You can adjust the passing score and timer settings on the ribbon or in the Quiz Settings window, as described above Step 9: Format Result Slide Buttons You can format buttons on your result slide to match the rest of your course design. Select a button on your slide, go to the Button Tools—Format tab on the ribbon, and make your design selections. You can add icons, change the button style, adjust the colors, and add effects. To learn more about working with buttons, review this user guide. Can I Edit My Result Slide Later? Absolutely! Open your result slide in Slide View. Then go to the Result Tools—Design tab on the ribbon and click Quiz Settings.Storyline 360: Adding Form-Based Questions
Storyline 360 has 20 types of graded and survey questions. They're form-based, which makes them quick and easy to assemble. (If you'd like more flexibility to create your own interactive questions, see Adding Freeform Questions.) Insert a Question Slide Enter Question Text and Answer Choices Customize Question Properties Create Form-Based Questions with AI Assistant Want to create form-based questions even more easily? AI Assistant can help you generate form-based questions in no time! Learn how to use AI Assistant to level up your course authoring game. Step 1: Insert a Question Slide Here's how to insert a form-based question slide into your course: First, do any of the following to open the Insert Slide window: Press Ctrl+Q. Go to the Home tab on the ribbon, click New Slide, and choose Graded Question or Survey Question. Go to the Slides tab on the ribbon and click Graded Question or Survey Question. In Story View, right-click anywhere in the workspace, scroll to New Slide, and choose Graded Question or Survey Question. In Slide View or Form View, right-click anywhere in the Scenes panel, scroll to New Slide, and choose Graded Question or Survey Question. When the Insert Slide window appears, use the search field at the top and the filters along the left edge to locate the question you want to add. The slide browser includes built-in templates as well as professionally-designed Content Library 360 templates. Choose from 11 types of graded questions and 9 types of ungraded survey questions. Graded Question Types Survey Question Types True/False Likert Scale Multiple Choice Pick One Multiple Response Pick Many Fill-in-the-Blank Which Word Word Bank Short Answer Matching Drag-and-Drop Essay Matching Drop-down Ranking Drag-and-Drop Sequence Drag-and-Drop Ranking Drop-down Sequence Drop-down How Many Numeric Hotspot When you click a thumbnail image for a slide, the right side of the window shows a description of that question type. Click Insert Slide to add it to your project. Tip: You can insert multiple questions at the same time by holding down the Ctrl key or the Shift key while clicking thumbnail images. Step 2: Enter Question Text and Answer Choices When you insert a question slide, it'll open in Form View. Type your question into the field at the top of the window and the answer choices below it. For many graded question types, you must also indicate which answer is correct—just select the radio button or check box for the correct response(s). Step 3: Customize Question Properties After inserting a form-based question, you can customize several of its attributes, including shuffling of answer choices, feedback, branching, score, and number of attempts. To learn how, see Working with the Question Editor. If your form-based questions have check boxes or radio buttons, you can format them to match your course design. See these user guides for details: Working with Check Boxes Working with Radio Buttons5 Things You Should Know About Storyline Question Banks
Question banks are one of the really useful, but seldom utilized, quizzing features in Storyline 360. The main reason to use a question bank is to randomize the order of questions in a quiz. Instructional designers do this so learners are less likely to encounter the same quiz twice, which can help avoid cheating. Another reason to use question banks: you can manage and organize related questions in one easy place. With that in mind, here are five things you should know about working with the question bank feature in Storyline 360. Insert Question Banks From The Slides Tab To create and manage existing question banks, you can head on over to the Slides tab on the Storyline ribbon. There you'll see the Questions Banks button, with a small dropdown arrow. From the dropdown, you can create a new question bank or make changes to an existing question bank. Create Questions from Inside a Bank When you create a new question bank, Storyline 360 opens a new tab for that bank. You then have the option of creating new question slides from within the question bank, or importing existing question slides that already exist in your .STORY project. It's important to note that if you create a new question slide from inside the question bank, the question slide won’t exist as an individual slide in your .STORY file. The question slide will only exist within the question bank. In the future if you want to make edits to the slide, you’ll first need to navigate to the question bank and open it in order to access the question slide you want to edit. Copying vs. Moving Questions into a Bank If you created your question slides outside of the bank, you can import existing slides into a question bank. When the Import Questions window opens, a drop-down menu at the top provides the option to either copy or move selected slides into the bank. If you choose to copy, the slides will remain in their original location in the .STORY file, and Storyline 360 will create a duplicate copy of it in the question bank. This means if you copy, you will have two versions of the same slide. If you need to update your slide, you’ll need to do so in both places. If you don’t want duplicate slides, use the Move option to move the slide from its original location into the question bank. Slide Draws Are Used to Display the Bank Questions Once you’ve got a great question bank, the next step is to give learners access. This is done using a slide draw to extract question slides from a bank. To create a slide draw, head to the Slides tab on the Storyline ribbon and click the Question Banks dropdown button. From here you can click New Draw From Question Bank. This will insert a new slide into your project. You can double-click on this slide and then select your question bank, as well as the specific number of questions you want in this quiz, and the order in which you want them displayed. Slide Draws Can Be Fixed or Random Question banks make it really easy to randomize questions. Simply select the Draw questions randomly option in the slide draw window. You can even choose whether each individual question is “Always,” “Never,” or “Randomly” included in your slide draw. If you want the questions to appear in a fixed order, rather than randomly, simply deselect the Draw questions randomly option. These five important points will help you set up and manage your next randomized quiz in a jiffy. Do you have any experience using banks of questions in your own projects? If you do, we’d love to hear your experiences, so please leave a comment. 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.24 Ways to Transform Static Content Into Interactive E-Learning #424
Static to Interactive Makeovers RECAP #424: Challenge | Recap This week’s challenge asked course designers to show ways to transform a static slide into six common types of interactions. Julie Dall Example | Julie Dall Ron Katz Example | Download | Ron Katz | Website Philip Cranston Example | Philip Cranston | Website Samuel Apata Example | Samuel Apata | Website | @afrostem Jonathan Hill Example | Jonathan Hill | Website | @DevByPowerPoint Shannon Page Example | Shannon Page Patty Huynh Example | Patty Huynh Matt Wright Example | Matt Wright Nicole Welter Example | Nicole Welter Kelsey Reading Example | Kelsey Reading Ghazi Zia Example | Ghazi Zia Angie Shertzer Example | Angie Shertzer Sarah Cooper Example | Sarah Cooper Laura Hansen Example | Laura Hansen Talent Gate eLearning Example | Talent Gate eLearning Nhlamolo Moja Example | Nhlamolo Moja Phezulu Dhlodhlo Example | Phezulu Dhlodhlo Kate Golomshtok Example | Kate Golomshtok | Website Catherine Gorman Example | Catherine Gorman Zeta Kilbride Example | Zeta Kilbride Loreta Leko Example | Loreta Leko Ashi (Neha) Tandon Example | Ashi (Neha) Tandon | Website | @ashi_tandon Adessa Condrack Example | Adessa Condrack Hilla Schlegel Example | Hilla Schlegel New to the E-Learning Challenges? The weekly challenges are ongoing opportunities to learn, share, and build your e-learning portfolios. You can jump into any or all of the previous challenges anytime you want. I'll update the recap posts to include your demos. If you have a blog, please write about your challenge example. I'll add links to your blog post so your examples get even more exposure. And for those who share your demos on Twitter or LinkedIn, please include #ELHChallenge so your network (and Articulate!) can track your e-learning coolness. Share Your Static-to-Interactive Makeover Examples! The 2023 static to interactive challenge is still open! If you have one or more ideas you'd like to share, please jump over to the original challenge and post your links in the comments section. I'll update this recap page to include your examples.Using Pre-Test Activities in E-Learning #382
Using Pre-Test Quizzes in E-Learning #382: Challenge | Recap As course designers, we should always look for ways to design better and more meaningful learning experiences. Unfortunately, using a one-size-fits-all approach in e-learning rarely meets the individual needs of the learners. Even in compliance and regulatory courses, there's an opportunity to sprinkle in personalized content and resources that address the individual needs of learners. That's where pre-tests can help. Using Pre-Test Activities Using pre-test activities at the beginning of the course or module, you can personalize the learning by: Identifying areas where learners need more (or less) support Giving learners customized recommendations Letting learners skip ahead to only those topics where they need the most help Pre-tests are like dress rehearsals for a play. They're designed to help the cast and crew figure out what works and what doesn't before the show actually happens. For course designers, figuring out what learners know and don't know can help improve the learning experience. And that's what this week's challenge is all about. Challenge of the Week This week, your challenge is to share a pre-test example to show how they can be used to personalize the learning experience. Resources 4 Ways to Use the New Quiz Tracking Features in Storyline 360Why and How I Created This Pre-Test in Rise 360 Examples Stitch Up a Tailored E-Learning Experience with These 4 Pre-Test Examples 5 Examples That’ll Put Your Knowledge to the Pre-Test Share Your E-Learning Work Comments: Use the comments section below to share a link to your published example and blog post. Forums: Start your own thread and share a link to your published example.. Personal blog: If you have a blog, please consider writing about your challenges. We’ll link back to your posts so the great work you’re sharing gets even more exposure. Social Media: If you share your demos on Twitter or LinkedIn, try using #ELHChallenge so your tweeps can track your e-learning coolness. Last Week’s Challenge: Before you consider testing out of this week's challenge, check out the refreshing beverage-making examples your fellow challengers shared over the past week: Beverage-Making Techniques #381: Challenge | Recap New to the E-Learning Challenges? The weekly e-learning challenges are ongoing opportunities to learn, share, and build your e-learning portfolios. You can jump into any or all of the previous challenges anytime you want. I’ll update the recap posts to include your demos. Learn more about the challenges in this Q&A post and why and how to participate in this helpful article. Quick Note About the Recap Posts on LinkedIn I like to promote the recaps with your examples on LinkedIn. I use the #elhchallenge and #elearningchallenge tags to help others in the community find your examples. And most of the time, I tag you individually in the post. I find it helps boost the posts across your networks. I've recently heard from some folks who felt excluded because I didn't tag them in my LinkedIn recap posts. When that happens, it's because we're not connected or I couldn't find your profile. When that happens, let me know. I'm more than happy to update the post to credit your work. I know these demos take a few hours to make. That's a significant investment, so I like you to get as much mileage as possible from your work.
