eLearning quizzes: 5 top benefits
Not all elearning quizzes are created equal, and your Learners’ success depends on how well you are able to help them assess their progress and develop their knowledge. When developing an eLearning course, you can leave no stone unturned, as all these pieces fit together to make or break the learning experience.
At TheLearning LAB in Geneva, we carefully construct courses from all the bricks that make up its foundation, and then some. Underpinning all of this course-building is the strategy we develop with our clients when they approach us with their digital training needs.
You may be wondering: How much of a difference can a quiz really make? The short answer would be that it can make all the difference. The long answer would be … well, this article!
Developing effective eLearning quizzes benefits both the Learners and the educators, and although it may appear to be a straightforward concept on the surface - after all, it’s as simple as asking some questions, right? - there is a lot more to making a great eLearning quiz than you may have thought. There’s real value in the quiz results, for Learners and educators alike, and there are real benefits to the Learners from taking well-designed quizzes. To show you exactly what these benefits are, our TheLearning LAB team has put together a shortlist of the 5 top benefits of using quizzes in digital training!
We are an all-around digital training service, and we have what it takes to bring every aspect of your eLearning vision from concept to creation. Interested in what we can do? Contact us for an in-person consultation, to set up a free workshop, or just for a chat about what our team can do for you!
Benefits of quizzes:
1. They augment Learner knowledge retention.
The human brain is capable of incredible feats of knowledge retention, but only when given the right tools. Completing a quiz at the end of a module helps Learners commit the course content to their long-term memory by revisiting the topics. Generally, after just one hour, people retain less than half of the information that was presented to them - this serves us well in daily life, as we do not need to retain every single thing we see, do, hear or learn.
After all, would it really be useful to remember every detail of what you had for dinner three weeks ago on Wednesday? Taking a quiz at the completion of a module encourages the recall of the information, settling it comfortably into long-term memory as the brain deems it useful to hang on to.
2. They engage and motivate Learners.
When Learners pass a quiz and receive that virtual pat-on-the-back from the ‘Well done!’ message that accompanies their score, they feel motivated and experience a sense of achievement. This is vital in the learning process, as it is this achievement and positive reinforcement which breeds a continued interest in learning and continually engages the Learner with the materials. When they don’t pass, they can be shown an equally motivating message offering resources for them to revisit, and encouraging them to try again. Not only do quizzes offer Learners and educators a sense of the level of performance, but they also provide a change of pace in the learning process. After taking on the more passive role of watching videos or reading a text, a well-designed quiz or test-based mini-game is a welcome chance for the Learner to have an interactive experience.
3. They provide course developers with KPIs.
How to make appropriate use of the KPIs available to you is another ballgame entirely, but at the root of the issue is the fact that quizzes provide some of the most valuable KPIs a course developer could wish for. Course attendance, completion, and engagement with, e.g. discussions are all highly significant indicators of how well your course is being received by the Learners, which types of content they prefer interacting with, and other valuable information, and their importance cannot be minimised.
What quizzes bring to the table, however, is a detailed insight into the actual retention of the information that your course offers, and how much your Learners’ knowledge and ability to make use of the information you provide is developed by the various modules within your course. This can then, in turn, advise you on best practice concepts for any additional modules you may wish to provide. Setting up a pre-course assessment to establish the Learner’s previous knowledge level allows for a comparison to their progress throughout the course, and for a direct comparison to the same quiz taken at the end of their learning journey.
4. They develop critical thinking in Learners.
Critical thinking is what will allow Learners to shape their theoretical learning into a genuine foundation of knowledge, figuring out how to apply learned facts to the real world. Open-answer questions and scenario-based questions force Learners to approach their learned knowledge from a new angle, preparing them to transform their knowledge into practical skills. When not confronted with having to make actual use of their learning, there may be very little motivation for Learners to commit to the content and make a bona fire effort of not only clicking through a course but actually engaging with it and working to retaining information.
Naturally, there are many other, complementary, ways of ensuring that your Learners both engage and develop critical thinking skills, but quizzes are an unmistakable frontrunner in this effort!
5. They assess the attainment of Learning Goals.
When producing an eLearning course, you begin with a framework of Learning Goals that inform the general framework your course is built on. But what is the point of having Learning Goals if you are unable to demonstrate if (and how) they are being met? When a well-designed quiz is taken by the Learner, their answers reflect how well the Learning Goals are being understood by them. Let’s take the simple example of a Learning Goal that revolves around wanting your Learners to be aware of the organisation’s core values and philosophy; your quiz can directly assess the Learner’s understanding through an open-ended question, a drag-and-drop question, or even a simple multiple-choice task! If they are able to correctly identify the core values, your course is having the desired effect.
If a significant number of your Learners fail to answer correctly, however, it may well be time to consult the professionals and have them find out what is standing in the way of the Learner’s success!
When organisations decide to produce eLearning content, they start from the vantage point of their area of expertise, and the fact is: they know their niche best. Which is why, here at TheLearning LAB, we are human-sized and client-focussed, ensuring that our clients know that their expertise and ours complement one another. We work closely with our clients, and the resulting eLearning course is an expert-guided realisation of their needs and vision.
Making the most of your organisation’s potential in the world of eLearning is our purpose, and our team consists of passionate people specialised in various aspects of design, content creation, strategy and management. We don’t leave any stone unturned when it comes to ensuring that the courses we create for our clients tick every single box, and provide an unrivalled experience for the Learners.