Writing Quizzes for the WWW
Letitia Bradley
A sub-page of How to Write Web-Based Quizzes.
Introduction
I first became interested in writing quizzes for the WWW in order to give
my students a confidence building, yet controlled EFL web experience.
In this article I will present a brief discussion on the types of web based
quizzes available with suggested points and possible pitfalls, plus the
problems to bear in mind when writing and using them.
The Different Types of Web Based Quizzes
Self-Study Quizzes
If you use Kelly's HTML Quiz Writer http://www.aitech.ac.jp/~ckelly/hc/,
generating different kinds of quizzes for the web using a Macintosh computer is
easy.
The following types can all be written using this HyperCard stack.
- Multiple Choice
- Fill in the blanks
- Sentence Equivalents
- Scrambled Words
- Matching
- Word Order
- Cloze
The Kelly's HTML quiz writer is a straightforward quiz writing
tool with step by step, easy to follow instructions.
Interactive Java Script Quizzes
The Internet TESL Journal staff will translate a plain text
file into the Java Script data statements needed for the multiple-choice
and fill in the blanks quizzes, therefore it is unnecessary to learn
Java Script or HTML in order to start writing quizzes.
To read about how to write the data for the Java Script quizzes go to
http://a4esl.org/q/j/project.html
To see samples of all the quiz templates, on both of the Internet TESL
Journal's quiz projects, go to
http://a4esl.org/q/h/tour.html
Choosing the Quiz Base
There is an infinite range of topics that can be used as a basis for a quiz.
These topics can be broadly divided into the following three groups:
- Seasonal topics including festivals and celebrations such as Christmas
and Thanksgiving.
- Geographical trivia, culture, sports and general knowledge.
- Grammar or vocabulary based topics, including such inexhaustible
subjects as idioms, phrasal verbs and prepositions.
Things to Consider When Writing a Quiz
How will the quiz be used?
The intended use of the quiz often will affect the style in which it is
written. For example, if the quiz is to be used as a grammar
consciousness-raising activity (whereby the students will have to use their
inductive reasoning skills) the questions will be written to support the
intended grammatical point. On the other hand, a quiz designed to give
addition practice or to reinforce a pre-taught point will incorporate a
broader range of questions, possibly including some which are exceptions to
the rule.
Whether to use the quiz online or use it printed out might also affect the
final format selected. For example, a quiz which requires students to
scroll up or down the screen to find the correct answer, can be both time
consuming and confusing, and therefore, is not the best on-line format. However,
the same quiz printed out for homework can be quite successful.
What is the presumed level of the learner using the quiz?
It is important to choose a level of difficulty and then keep all the
questions, instructions and vocabulary broadly within this level. This not
only helps the students see their progress, but ensures that the point of the
quiz is not lost and that the students don't give up through frustration.
It is all too easy with some quizzes to have a long and complicated question just to practice the usage of the determiner "A" or "An".
What is the educational goal of the quiz?
This can be two-fold, such as giving information about an area as well as
the more obvious say, grammar practice. It is often more successful and
less confusing, however, to choose one main goal and remember that
throughout the quiz.
What are the needs, interests and preferences of the target users?
Consistency in the topic and theme of the quiz is also important, so that
the interest of the student is held throughout the quiz. This extends
through to the language standard used. Whether the language standard chosen is American English or British English, it is important to keep the spelling, grammar and usage consistent.
What form should quiz answers take?
A pool of words is one option so that when the quiz is finished all the
words will have been used. However, since most of these quizzes are for
self-study, with little or sometimes no feedback on why an answer may be
wrong there are obvious benefits to showing the correct usage of all the
possible answers.
Ambiguous answers can cause a certain
amount of confusion for learners and are best avoided when ever possible.
There are also different ways of wording the questions which will in turn
affect the answer. Below is an example of this.
- When the air is moving strongly we say it is a ___.
a. snowy day
b. rainy day
c. windy day
- A windy day is when ___.
a. the air is moving strongly
b. the sun is shining brightly
c. there are a lot of clouds
What are the differences between writing easier and more difficult quizzes?
If the quiz is designed to be "easy" then it is important not to use
similar words among the choice of answers as it can lead to confusion.
At a higher level the use of similar but subtlety different words
usually works well.
Often, shorter quizzes with a smaller pool of word choices work better
for lower levels. It also works better for lower levels, if the
questions gradually increase in difficulty.
Higher levels students are also better served by gradually increasing the
difficulty of the questions and a larger and more diverse word pool
is also beneficial.
Based on feedback that I have received from teachers and learner who
have used my quizzes it seems that a series of alphabetized quizzes on a
subject works well with higher level students. Their self-confidence
and desire to learn means that they will systematically work through
a whole series. Some higher level students have also found this kind of
comprehensive quiz to be a good reference source.
Links to Sites with Quizzes
Most web sites with quizzes related to ESL/EFL are listed on the following
page.
http://iteslj.org/links/ESL/Quizzes/
Quizzes I have written can be found at
http://a4esl.org/q/h/lb.html
A sub-page of How to Write Web-Based Quizzes.