Quizzes are a great way to start or end a lesson. But it's actually really easy to use gamification also in more effective ways. Here are three simple ways for you to turn your quizzes into engaging and motivating lessons.
Step 1. Add feedback to your questions
One very simple and easy way to make your quizz more interesting and meaningful is to add feedback to your questions. With feedback, it’s possible to get the “why” behind the question visible. Feedback is a great possibility to give further information or encourage the players further.
We are more likely to get motivated, engage more in what we are doing, and get better learning results when we get positive reinforcement to our actions. When it comes to quizzes, getting the correct answer or being in the top in the leaderboard can add to our feeling of competency. But what if you just don’t do that well? Or what if you just aren’t that into competition?
When you get meaningful feedback to your answers, you are more likely to feel that it was worth it, and that you’d like to try further, regardless whether you actually got the answers right.
Step 2. Add open ended exercises
Another way to add to simple quizzes is to add open ended questions. These types of questions really make learners think. Creating interviews, making documentaries, even just adding a possibility to form the answer in the players' own words creates a completely different kind of engagement.
Open ended questions also provide possibilities for the learners to feel autonomy and make choices. This is an important aspect in motivation. Suddenly there’s a possibility to choose how to answer the question, what to answer and maybe even if answer at all.
Step 3. Add some movement
Many games and quizzes are virtual only. And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with this. But we’re not living in virtual only environments. And studies show that we sit too much. So why not add some movement to your quizzes?
Adding just a little physical movement inside a lesson has a positive effect on our brain activity and our general mood. And it’s totally possible to combine this with all the triggers that games use to motivate us.
Just making your students stand up and go answer your questions in different locations or maybe asking them to show a dance move as part of an answer has a surprisingly strong impact on students’ enthusiasm, their curiosity to play, and to learn.
Bonus points: Add a narrative
If you really want to make it hardcore, you can even add a narrative to your quizz. But a word of warning, the power of a story can not be underestimated. We relate to and feel more, when we get perspective on things. With a storyline, the individual issues or questions are a part of a bigger whole. There's a meaning behind them. And actually, your quizz is no longer a quizz at all but a full learning game. You’re teaching with a game!
