A practical guide to creating quizzes: part 4

In part 1, we looked at the characteristics of online quizzes and explored how they could be used to assist or assess learning. In part 2, we explored the various question formats and the types of learning for which they are best suited. In part 3, we moved on to the writing of the questions, in particular the traps to avoid. In this fourth part, we have a little light relief, as we see how quizzes can be presented as games.
Quiz games are still quizzes, in that they can be used assist and assess learning, but they employ gaming techniques to increase learner engagement. We all know how compulsive games can be, so it takes little in the way of imagination to appreciate how much they can add to what would otherwise be a very dry process of drill and practice.
To demonstrate a wide variety of quiz game techniques, I’ve taken examples from a quiz making package called Quizit, unfortunately no longer available. Similar results could be achieved by those with coding skills using Adobe Flash Professional or HTML 5, or by using a number of off-the-shelf quiz game tools.

Ident — Players try to identify as many as possible of the six pictured people, objects or places.

This first example, a classic ‘picture board,’ requires players to type in the name of the pictured object.

Quotient — Players try to get as close as possible to the right answers for each question. Each option is graded as to how right or wrong it is and scored accordingly.

In this variant of a multiple choice quiz, player get rewarded for how close they can get to the right answer. The rather irreverent feedback is delivered randomly from a pool, depending on the accuracy of the answer.

Summit — Players attempt questions of increasing difficulty, with the aim of getting to the highest level that they can (10 being the highest). Players have three ‘lives’, which allow them to have another go when they make a mistake.

Levels are a classic gaming feature. As the player moves up the levels, the questions get correspondingly more difficult.

Guess — Players attempt to guess the identity of a person, object, place or event from the clues provided. The more time they take, guesses they make or clues they ask for, the lower their score.

This game is unusual in that it works entirely as a ‘conversation’ between questioner and player. All input is by natural text. Time pressures add to the level of engagement.

Target — Players demonstrate how well they know the subject of the quiz by estimating a series of percentages relating to the subject’s behaviour. They nearer they get to the actual percentages, the higher their score.

This game works with a slider, which the player uses to make estimates.

Sprint — Players answer a series of questions as fast as they can. They can have as many attempts as they like at each question, but this reduces their score accordingly.

This time players can have multiple attempts at every question, but in the process waste time and points.

Teamplay — Three teams or three individual players each answer a series of questions, to see who can answer the most correctly.

This competitive game can be used with teams of players in a classroom.

faceoff — Two teams or two individual players each answer a series of questions, to see who can answer the most correctly.

This variant on the competitive game pits two players sitting round the same computer against each other.
Coming in part 5: Making your quizzes robust