How to Make Online Quizzes Effective and Engaging for Students

Who does not love quizzes that make you think, challenge, and also are fun? Quizzes are not just for checking knowledge. They are an excellent way for deep learning. In fact, studies by IOWA State University show that quizzes greatly improve the performance of the students. 

So, quizzes are essential if you want to deliver the outcomes your course promises. Yet, how do you make it engaging? How do you get students from “just another quiz” to a memorable learning experience? 

After talking to seasoned course creators, we gathered their best practices, strategies, and tips to help you make your quizzes engaging and effective. 

Why online quizzes are great for student engagement 

If you are running a pre-recorded course or a live course, you know that you can lose your students’ attention easily. And quizzes are a great way to bring them back on track. 

A study on the impact of online quizzes on student engagement found quizzes do stimulate engagement. The respondent student mentioned quizzes made them pay more attention and refer back to the course material. 

In this regard, quizzes turn passive learning into an active experience. Meaning, that students can immediately apply what they've learned. Besides that, quizzes give instant feedback, helping your learners identify gaps in their understanding.

Trainer and course creator Angel Rodriguez mentions, 

“You're going to lose people's attention after some point. And that's another thing you teach, involving you in engagement. You can provide those progress quizzes along the way, and that really does go a long way for engagement”.     
 

Angel Rodriguez

Trainer, Online Course Creator

9 Key tips for making effective quizzes 

So, how do you create truly effective quizzes, not just “check-the-box” activities? Start by focusing on the key takeaways of your course. What do you want students to remember most? Use various question types to keep things fresh and engaging, and try to keep everything simple to not overwhelm your students.

What does this look like in practice? Let’s discuss the details.

1. Focus on key takeaways

One of the key factors when it comes to the quiz questions is that they should reflect the main lessons of your course. So, before thinking about any questions, think about the core ideas you want your students to remember. These usually are reflected in the learning outcomes you set for your course. 

Let’s say your course is about healthy meal planning. And you want the learners to remember they need to balance macronutrients in each meal. In this case, you can ask, "When building a meal that keeps you full and energized, what’s the most important guideline?”. Then, they can choose an answer with your key takeaway. 

“I limited the the quizzes to about five different questions and really focusing on the key points that I want people to be able to take away. So it's really just a repetition of information”.

Helen Hicks

Parenting coach, course creator 

2. Use multimedia elements 

If you do not want to keep your quiz standard and need to provide a more dynamic experience, use multimedia elements. Is there a question you can have pictures as answers? Better to include them. 

For example, if your course is about types of plants, you could include photos of different plants and ask, “Which of these is a ….?” Or, in a language course, you can play a short audio clip of a phrase and ask, “What the speaker meant by saying…?”

3. Incorporate multiple types of questions 

When students see different formats, it keeps them on their toes and encourages them to think and stay engaged. 

So, instead of sticking to just one type of question, such as multiple choice, you can incorporate other types too. For example, you include true or false questions every now and then or scale-type questions. We will discuss more types further in this article. 

“One thing you can do with multiple-choice questions is not make it glaringly obvious which is the right answer. True-and-false questions are great for quick check-ins. Whenever you have scale questions, you can use them as well. I like to use scale-type questions when we're talking about the end as far as the satisfaction scores of the course”. 

Angel Rodriguez

Trainer, Online Course Creator    
 

4. Maintain consistent language

When you offer a quiz, the last thing you want to do is confuse the students. And you might confuse your students without even realizing it when you do not repeat the language you used throughout the online course. 

So, if you used a specific term when describing something, make sure you stick to it in the quiz as well. You know the language you are using. But your students still do not. So, do not make them think, “Well, is this all right, or is it something different?” 

“I think about how I can simplify and make sure that I also repeat the language that I used in the lesson. So it sounds familiar to people. When you're describing things with different words, people get a little bit confused. So make sure that the language matched as well as what was being presented”.

 

Helen Hicks

Parenting coach, course creator 

5. Keep it simple and not too tricky 

When it comes to creating answers for multiple-choice questions, you have to be careful not to make it too obvious. Nor do you want to confuse your learners. 

Your goal is to assess understanding, not to trick students into making mistakes. So, when designing answer options, make them distinct but not deceptive. Here is an example of what we mean.

“I like to have two options that are very close. If it's if the answer is one and it should have been 2, I want to give them the answer of one two, ten, and twenty. That way, we can throw two of them out right away. But now these other two tell me if they really learn the subject”.     
 

Angel Rodriguez

Trainer, Online Course Creator    

 

6. Watch the number of questions

No one would like to answer hundreds of questions for a quiz in one take. 

To better know how many questions you want to include, consider the purpose of the quiz.

Depending on the type of quiz you want to have, you can include up to 30 questions. If it is just a progress quiz your students take between modules, you can even include 3 of the main questions you covered in that module. Yet, if it is for assessment, you can aim for 10-15 questions for a standard quiz. 

What is more important is making sure your questions are valuable and reflect on the key takeaways, as we discussed in point one. 

7. Randomize the questions and answers

When we create a final quiz, we want to give students a chance to take the quiz multiple times. Yet, the problem is we also want to preven them from memorizing the questions and answers. 

That is why you can always shuffle the questions and customize it. This option is especially great if you want to provide a differen set of questions to different students for individual assessment. 

How Uteach helps: If you create your online course quiz with the help of Uteach, you can customize the way questions appear. For example, you can select the number of questions that can be randomized. There is also an option to add tags to the questions so that you can classify the questions by difficulty levels and create a quiz by including questions from various levels. 

8. Add a time limit 

Adding a time limit is a hot topic among lots of course creators. Some believe it only overwhelms the students. Others think the performance is better when there is time limit. 

Depending on what you want to achieve with your quiz you can  also add that time limit. Of course, this does not apply to the cases where you include the quiz between modules as a check-in point. Yet, with final quizzes for assessment adding a time limit to encourage students work efficiently. 

Just be sure to communicate the time expectations earlier, so they feel prepared and confident when taking the quiz. Also, make sure that the limit is reasonable and your students have enough time to reflect on the answers.  

How Uteach helps: When creating a quiz you can set the duration beforehand. There is also an opportunity to limit the number of times a student can take the quiz and set a the minimum percent they need to get right to pass the quiz successfully. 

9. Provide additional context if needed 

Sometimes, questions require a bit more background information to ensure students fully understand it. That is why it is always a great idea to provide brief context or explanations alongside certain questions. 

It can also serve as a prompt for the students to understand better. So, this way you are able to guide the student along the quiz without giving away too much. 

How Uteach helps: You can easily do this with Uteach as you select the Lateral format for your quizzes. This provides an additional window where you can elaborate on your question and let students know what you mean.     

 

Examples of engaging online quiz formats 

As mentioned before, mixing up different question types for your quiz helps to make your quiz engaging. Here are a few popular examples you can consider. 

• Multiple choice

Probably the most popular choice for many course creators. In this case, you offer several answer options, with only one correct answer. This type is great for assessing specific knowledge. 

• True or false 

These questions help reinforce essential concepts, making them ideal for check-ins on basic understanding. There are lots of tools you can use to make this type of question even more interactive. For example, you can create a maze, and the only way they get out of it is by answering all true or false questions right. 

• Fill in the blanks

This is a great way to test recall. Here, students type in a missing word or phrase, which is perfect for reinforcing key terms and definitions. You can use these type of question in the context of journeys, where the student gets to fill in the blanks as they proceed with a certain story. 

• Matching questions 

Matching questions get students to pair terms, definitions, or related ideas. Thus, it is an engaging way to build associations. 

• Scale questions 

If you need feedback on something, scale or likert questions are what we go for. Scale questions let students rate their confidence, understanding, or opinions on a 1–5 scale, which is ideal for keeping their engagement. 

All these types offer a certain type of choice for the student to select. But you can also choose open-ended questions, especially for assessment quizzes. 

Create quizzes that enhance student learning 

No matter which format you choose for your quiz, the most important thing is to make the learning experience enjoyable for your students. Make sure your quiz questions focus on the main outcomes you need the students to achieve, keep your language consistent, and include multimedia to make it engaging.  

If you are looking for a platform where you can create and sell online courses easily, consider Uteach. With Uteach, you can also create quizzes and personalize them to create the best learning experience. As students pass the quiz successfully, you can automatically award them with certificates. 

Explore more Uteach features. Get started with your free trial now.