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How to use online quizzes to enhance learnin

Tips of using online quiz to enhance learning.

We are living in a century that has embraced a lot of digital and technological reforms. Most industries in the world have seen the ripple effect of these transformations, and so the education sector.

It is now important for teachers to transform their methods of engaging their students to fit into this line. The millennials are the generation with easy access to the internet. The knowledge is at their fingertips.

For students to rise to the ever-changing economy globally, educators need to improve their standard of teaching.

Almost everything has moved from the traditional market system to the online market. The internet has everything imaginable under its roof, you name it, and you will get it. From drinks, food, clothes, and even finding love.

With these changing trends in everything, even polling processes, you cannot expect education to be left behind in this transformation. E-Learning has been made possible by the easy access to the internet in the everyday lives of people.

In this post moving forward, we will explore how technology has transformed the education sector and how online quiz can enhance learning.

What are online quizzes?

A quiz can be defined as a brain teaser or a game to test somebody's knowledge of a particular study area or skills. Quizzes can be in the form of competition when people play against each other to achieve some rewards or score. This makes them more engaged.

Generally, a quiz is a short test that does not significantly affect the final grade as a test. However, quizzes are always given to students throughout the course to help keep track of their progress.

It allows students and teachers a moment to reflect on whether they are on the right track of progress. Learners get to know the subject they need to focus on more, and teachers also find the gap in knowledge dispensation.

Both education and companies use quizzes to test a specific area of knowledge rather than general knowledge. This way, quizzes are used as a method of engagement to measure a person's development in knowledge and abilities.

Understanding online examination 

Online examination is the process of conducting exams online to test students' knowledge on a particular topic.

Unlike before when students had to gather in classrooms at the same time to undertake the examinations, online exams have a lot of convenience by allowing the students to take the exams anytime, anywhere at the comfort of where they live.

Once there is access to the internet and a smartphone or a laptop, you are ready to take the exams without having to gather at one place with fellow students.

Importance of online quizzes

There has been a lot of research to determine the effectiveness of online quizzes, tests, and assessments on improving a child's success in learning. And despite the criticism around its use, there are myriad benefits that proved them to be ideal for the learning sector.

Online quizzes have two-fold benefits in the learning environment. They are beneficial for the teacher in measuring the understanding of a specific lesson in class and helps students' engagement and concentration in a given field.

Both of them enjoy the many benefits that come with online quizzes.

Read on to find out more.

• Instant response.

With an online quiz, students do not have to worry if their answer is right or not when as they respond to the questions. Neither do they have to wait until the next lesson, which may be an hour later. Online quizzes give real-time feedback as they answer questions.

This benefit helps the students reduce the anxiety of waiting for the result without being sure whether you are right or wrong. It also allows them enough time to attempt the question more and more until they understand it.

• Improves knowledge retention.

Everyone remembers somethings quickly if they can relate it to a picture or image of something, places are known with the landmark that it has, either a building or a geographical feature like a mountain or a hill.

Similarly, online quizzes include pictures and images, which students can use to memorize the answers they give. This alone confirms how online quiz can enhance learning.

Being visually pegging, learners can easily relate any useful information to a picture, thus boosting that information. Online quizzes also include entertaining videos, which further increase the students' memory.

• Ample time to improve and understand.

With instant feedback, an online quiz allows learners to immediately find out if they are correct with their answers or not. This instant time will enable students to retake the practice quiz as much as possible to improve their results.

The online quiz provider can set the program to store the highest score to encourage learners to achieve as high scores as possible.

Suppose the quizzes are set to be too formative. In that case, it means that no grading will be done, and students will be required to demonstrate their abilities in class and on the accumulative tests.

Benefits of the online quiz to teachers 

To further demonstrate how online quiz can enhance learning, it is crucial to outline the benefits of the online quizzes to the teacher too.

• Allows for experiments.

Teachers are continually looking for ways to improve their teaching skills to enhance students' success. Including online quizzes in their teaching mechanism is an ideal way to diversify from their ordinary teaching methods and make the learning fun for students.

Online quizzes have several forms of testing, such as fill-in-the-blank, true or false, essay questions, and multiple tests that the teacher can experiment with to determine which one best fits his class.

It is best to use various materials and tools to keep everyone engaged and have fun in an online class. This should be done without compromising the ultimate target of knowledge dispensation.

• Hassle-free feedbacks and grading.

Giving feedbacks and grading is the most time-consuming part of the teaching career. Teachers are tasked with an in-depth analysis of the students' learning curve. They are required to give comments on every learner's strengths and weaknesses.

However, online quizzes simplify this task for teachers by giving instant feedback to participants and grading them according to the answers they provide. Teachers can also trace the scores of each participant since each score is stored in the program.

The online quiz also uses automated systems to generate results for students and teachers, saving them the time of paper and pen listing of the best performers.

• Easy to follow progress.

Keeping track of the students' performance is an essential element of improving their learning abilities. The online quiz offers a great solution in ensuring every bit of tests is tracked.

Since online quizzes and feedbacks are stored in cloud-based technology, it is easier for teachers to compare the previous results with the current ones. This enables them to do a better learning analysis and follow the learner's progress without much hassle.

• A convenient way of giving assessments.

Online quizzes give teachers and instructors a flexible channel for distributing tests. Therefore, it means that, regardless of where they are, or the students are, a test can be conducted anytime and anywhere.

Since the teachers don't have to be around when conducting the test, they can have as many students as possible take the test. They only share the quizzes with students on their respective email addresses and notify them of the results instantly after finishing the test.

• It helps teachers to identify individual potentials.

As a teacher, it becomes easy when teaching a student who you and understand their potential and abilities. Since online quizzes feature several forms of practicing quizzes like essay quiz, fill-in-the-blank, yes or no, tutors get to know which state does a learner likes and performs.

This allows teachers to develop a strategy and way forward in supporting the individual in perfecting whatever art he chooses.

For instance, a student who excels in essay writing can be nurtured into becoming a good writer by exposing him to more writing assignments and workshops.

Another important aspect of online quizzes and tests is the learners' ability to research the web independently and find the answer to whatever problem they are looking for. And due to this, most of the tests should be programmed with such knowledge in mind.

Using an online quiz is also environmentally friendly compared to the conventional pen and paper method of doping test. Online quizzes reduce on costs of materials like stationery, printing, and the many procedures of preparing the test on paper.

How online examinations work

Since online exams do not need students to gather in a classroom to do the exams, the tutor or quiz creator designs an account with the examination software where the questions can be added to the account.

The course builder decides on the type of questions he thinks fits the students and add them to the created exams account. Therefore, the account link is shared with the students where they sign up and get the exams.

The link is protected, and only valid students can access it. Each question is secured in that until you open a question, you will not know its contents. They are further timed, meaning that everybody has an equal time of attending to each question.

All these protections are aimed at reducing the possibility of cheating during tests. The link is protected with secret cameras, which can pick students sharing or copying from each other. Without a doubt, this is an ideal way to confirm how online quiz can enhance learning.

How to use online quizzes to enhance learning and student success.

Suppose you ask anyone who has been through a school system their most dreaded part of the learning experience. In that case, the answer will be during the test periods. This dislike of tests among the learner can be why you may want to avoid the online tests altogether.

However, don't be blinded by the simple hate of tests. It has been proven above that retrieving information has meaningful and long-term learning benefits, enhancing memory and knowledge retention in learners.

If you effectively evaluate your students' knowledge using tests, and they successfully recalled them, chances are, they will excel in their studies.

To prove how online quiz can enhance learning, we provide you with various tips and strategies to boost student success by using online quizzes.

a. Pre-test your learners.

Providing a pre-test to your learners will offer you a general idea of every student's understanding of the course. With such knowledge, you can quickly identify each learner's skills and knowledge during the course period.

Pre-testing will also help the students realize the knowledge gaps before getting down to do the real test. Do not be afraid to create the pre-test a little hard for your student. This will make them understand why they need to take the course.

When the student does not achieve perfect results, it will show them why they need you more in the first place, use pre-tests to make learners see their knowledge gaps themselves.

Assuming they don't perform well in the pre-test, explain to them the importance of covering those knowledge gaps and the benefits that come with filling the gaps. Show them what they should be able to know at the end of the course.

Further, explain to students the various skills they will master and the new knowledge and abilities they will acquire. Doing this will improve the rate of satisfaction in your learners as well as course completion.

b. Quiz often and quiz early.

Unlike the traditional way of dropping a question at the end of a course, today, teachers should quiz their students after every lesson or module to boost their interest and encourage them to carry on with the course.

It is essential to be versatile and creative in this case, do not restrict yourself to only one form of quiz such as multiple choices quiz only. Make the questions game-like and open-ended depending on the course unit and your personal preference.

Dropping a quiz or two during a lesson or within a module supports the topics of discussion. Questions during a study encourage your students to sit down and concentrate on the topics instead of playing numbingly with them in the background.

Additionally, interactive and entertaining quizzes periodically create a more authentic learning environment, which usually misses in many online classes.

Doing a simple knowledge assessment at the end of each lesson enables your students to gauge their understanding of the course unit in real-time. They also get to point out where they encounter problems immediately.

For example, suppose a student gets a low score. In that case, they will be compelled to review the lesson later better to understand the current class and the future one. It will also allow them to ask questions that clarify whatever they do not understand immediately from the tutor.

c. Provide immediate feedback

Everything you do, from giving pre-tests and doing course reviews, will only be practical if you offer feedback. By providing correct answers, your students learn and fix the mistakes they made, helping them understand, clarify the confusion, and memorize the procedures.

Explaining why an answer is right or wrong helps enhance the students' focus and attention throughout the course. Exhaustive feedback makes the testing become another learning opportunity for students.

Adopt the habit of giving immediate feedback! Making learners know what they got right or wrong instantly allows them to change their perspective as soon as possible. It encourages them to analyze and fill their knowledge gaps.

It is vital to understand that these online quizzes are on the internet, where students are exposed to many distractive things. Giving immediate feedback will help you set the students on the right track towards learning rather than being distracted elsewhere.

Immediate feedback also helps you as a teacher in gauging the student's attitude towards the course. For instance, if you have a student who scored low and is continuously trying to do correction, you can see a positive attitude in him. This allows you to offer assistance freely.

d. Create action-oriented results.

Your assessments and quiz results should invoke action in your students to make sure there is an effective learning process and a positive outcome.

If the learners perform poorly, the results should compel them to revisit the lesson or search for other references that can prove useful to their improvement. And even if they perform well, the results should inspire them to aim higher than that.

Furthermore, ensure that students share their quiz results. There are possibilities that performing students will take pride in their results and show them to others.

Not only will this bring validation to the performing students, but it will also encourage underperforming students to work extra hard to achieve what fellow students have achieved—students who might have performed poorly on the other tests.

e. Implement gamification.

One of the common shortcomings of online learning is the lack of motivation for students undertaking the course. In order to boost motivation and engagement, it is best to implement various methods that provide external motivation. And one such way is gamification.

Gamification has elements like instant feedbacks and earning badges for finishing tasks. These features can make quizzes much more fun, give learners something to aspire for, and eventually engage them.

Be creative with your test quizzes. Turn the open-ended and multiple-choice questions into fun challenges. You can as well make a friendly competition by developing a point system and a public leaderboard.

Gamification helps in relieving test pressure by turning the learning process into a game-like event. This helps in creating confidence and makes learning fun.

Providing rewards for excellent performance allows participants to track and share their progress, encouraging the low performer to work hard. A high performer also aims higher for the next reward.

Additionally, make value around your rewards or badges. Ensure the badges mean something by using them as a way for your students to show their progress, skills mastery, or ranks.

Finally, below are extra tips to create online quizzes to enhance online learning effectively.

• Have a clear call to action. Explain what they should do differently and what they should keep doing.
• Create positive results.
• Provide helpful recommendations that are based on the answers given. Don't just give "congratulations" or "that is wrong" comments; let the words ignite actions.
• Ensure you include high-quality images and videos to enhance knowledge retention and memory.

Conclusion

The world has changed significantly towards being run by technology. Everything under the sun is taking a shift from physical market presence to the online market, and education is no exception to this.

Therefore, as a tutor or instructor turning your focus into implementing an online quiz in your teaching methods can significantly benefit you and your students. If you have doubted how online quiz can enhance learning, we hope you have the answers here.

Learn how you can improve the course by reviewing the results of your students. A thorough evaluation of your students will give clear feedback on how they grasp and retain the contents of your course. This will make you a better teacher too.

Assessment tests will also draw your attention to students whomight be at risk of lagging or churn out. This will make you reach out to them and assist where necessary.

Additionally, if all the class is performing dismally on a specific topic, it is an indication that they don't understand that lesson. For obvious reasons, you will reach out and correct that too.

Hopefully, if you have been trying to find out how online quiz can enhance learning, applying the strategies discussed herein will indeed confirm everything to you.