6 Tips to Make Amazing Online Quizzes
In this article
Test 1-6 days after the initial lesson
Meta analysis on the goldilocks zone for when to test shows too soon and the lesson is not fully processed by deep memory, too late and the material is forgotten. Test 1-6 days after your initial lesson.
Make it low stakes for students
There is an ever increasing body of research showing just how powerful testing is on improving long term memory and learning. It is important educators let students know the reasons behind frequent testing. Remind your students testing isn't simply an evaluation but is an important part of the learning process. For this reason prominent 'testing effect' researchers Roediger and Karpicke recommend tests be low stakes for students.
Provide quiz results after the test
You have two options when designing your quiz, let the student know if they've answered correctly or incorrectly immediately or let them know when the test is completed. While there still needs to be more research it appears delaying feedback until after the test is completed works best. The theory is that delayed results cue the students memory again which improves subsequent retrieval.
Personality quizzes dominate
77% of the most highly shared viral quizzes are personality quizzes. These are the 'What kind of 'x' are you?' quizzes and they work because they appeal to a sense to learn and share content about ourselves. B2C analysis of 100 quizzes that received 10,000 or more shares found virtually identical title structure 'Which' 'are' 'you'.
A great social share image
Our own research has shown the social media share image attached to your quiz is hugely important in creating viral uptake. This is the preview image displayed when your quiz takers share your quiz. Countless times we've seen double digit increases in click through rate simply by changing the social media share image.
Informal and short
Your quiz should use informal conversational style language. B2C analysis of the most shared quizzes found greater use of personal pronouns in the most viral quizzes. Questions like 'Which is your decade' with images of dress styles in various decades are visually engaging and easy to answer. We've found 6-10 questions total to be optimal.
The Quiz That Made $1.1 Million
How did an online eyewear business use a quiz to generate over $1.1million in 6 months? They created a short 9 question quiz: "What glasses frame matches your personality". This simple personality style quiz assigns a style of eyewear based upon your answers. "What is your favourite decade?" "Pick a celebrity icon" The answers were presented as image options, more Buzzfeed than business. Quiz takers were given the option to signup for the Zenni newsletter as well as their eyewear style and a link to those styles on the Zenni website. Backed with savvy search marketing the quiz generated over $1.1 million dollars in revenue.
20 Million Free Page Views
Love or hate them there is no questioning the unrivalled popularity of quizzes on social media. Quizzes like Buzzfeeds 'What city should you actually live in' have generated over 20 million views almost entirely by social shares. These quizzes see massive organic search traffic as well. Forbes generates 1000 unique lands a week for their 'Which college should you go to' quiz purely through search traffic. Women.com were amongst the top 10 most shared content on facebook last year with their 'Only 1 In 50 People Can Identify These 16 Grammar Mistakes. Can You?' quiz. Quizzes produce metrics that matter, they engage audiences and produce an interaction with your website
Increase Memory and Learning by 50%
Robert Bjork a research psychologist specializing in memory and recall illustrates the power of quizzing students in the following experiment. Two groups of students: Group A is given a lesson 4 times. Group B is given the lesson once and then quizzed 3 times. In a final exam Group B outperforms Group A by 50%. Known as the 'testing effect' or 'test enhanced learning', the process of retrieving memories leads to dramatic improvements in long term memory retention.
Reduce Student Stress
72% of students quizzed regularly reported that quizzing made them less nervous during final exams. The same paper showed that 92% of students believed regular quizzing helped them learn. Quizzes do not have to be high stakes or count towards final grades to be effective. You also won't have to mark them with our integrated auto scoring.