Pimp Your Quiz

How to design next-level course activities which 10X learner motivation & achievement (whatever your platform)

This week, I finished an audit of the 100 highest performing courses on Udemy, Teachable, Udacity, LinkedIn Learning, EdX, Futurelearn & Coursera.

One thing which immediately sets high performing courses* apart are the activities that they set for their learners.

*courses which are a) designed using strategies likely to lead to more substantial learning and b) receive 4 or 5 stars from learners

The Typical Approach

In most online courses, learners consume content - usually a video - and then complete a quiz before receiving automated, text-based feedback.

Problems with this approach:

• It fails to push the learner beyond basic recall / remembering (only the first of six levels of learning - see the DOMS™️ Activity Builder, below)

• As a “one off” test of recall, it is unlikely to lead to long term retention of information

• It soon becomes repetitive, which impacts learner motivation

• It delivers generic feedback via text, which is sub-optimal for both learning & motivation (learn more about how to optimise feedback here).

A Checkbox Problem on EdX

A Better Approach

In high-performing courses, learners consume content - often a video - and then complete a quiz. After completing the quiz, they also receive:

• pre-recorded verbal feedback (video or audio) on the key concept, e.g. by walking through an example of great and/or;

• 1:many responsive feedback, e.g. as a comment in a discussion

A course discussion on Futurelearn, showing 1:many responsive instructor feedback

In these examples, learners are supported to recall basic facts and concepts better than in a quiz-only approach because:

• verbal feedback (video or audio) is more effective at driving both learning and motivation than text-based feedback;

• responsive feedback drives both learning and motivation by a) responding to the learners’ in-activity performance and b) increasing a sense of instructor presence and support.

An Even Better Approach

In most of the “better” examples like those above, quizzes remain the core tool for delivering recall / remembering activities.

To push your activity design to the next level, think about how you could use beyond-quiz activities + feedback to motivate your learners and drive their growth.

The DOMS™️ Activity Builder is an easy to use framework to help you to start to rethink how you design recall [remember] and other, higher-order activities.

The DOMS™️ Activity Builder

Real-World Example - Gravity 101

Before

• Video lecture (6 mins): What is Gravity?

• Quiz (10 mins): answer true / false questions on the core facts & concepts presented in the video lecture

• Feedback: receive automated text feedback on your quiz responses

After

• Video lecture (6 mins): What is Gravity?

• Explain Activity (10 mins): “explain Gravity to me like I’m five”

• Feedback: watch pre-recorded video feedback which shows [or just tells] a model answer and highlighting common errors; self-assess against a rubric. Option to share and compare in the discussion.

In this example, learners are supported to recall basic facts and concepts better than in a quiz-only approach because:

• verbal feedback (video or audio) is more effective at driving both learning and motivation than text-based feedback;

• explaining activities which require learners to process and structure information received require more cognitive processes and are proven to lead to more substantive recall than “tick the box” activities.

To learn more about how to optimise feedback for learning and motivation, see this post.

I’d love to hear how you design and deliver activities. Please share your thoughts / comments / challenges / questions in the comments below.

Happy designing! 👋

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Want to get hands-on and design a course with me?

Apply for a place on my course design accelerator, a three week, hands-on adventure where we work together to design a course of your choice using my DOMS™️ evidence-based process.

The next cohort kicks off in October and there are 2 places left - I’d love to have you on board!