Engagement quizzes for learning and motivation

Students unprepared for class? Attendance down? Unsure if they’re understanding key concepts? If any of these situations sound familiar, Eyde Olson, senior instructional designer, recommends adding short, low-stakes, impromptu, password-protected Canvas quizzes that are given in class.

When used as part of a larger strategy to space learning events over time, impromptu engagement quizzes improve learning. They act as “retrieval practice,” and function as a way for students to practice recalling and applying knowledge leading to a ‘testing effect” where an assessment is also a learning event (Karpicke and Roediger, 2008).

In his book Small Teaching, James Lang recommends creating small, spaced out, assessments throughout the course that provide opportunities for practice, interleaving, retrieving, connecting, and reflection. Lang says in his article, Small Changes in Teaching: Space It Out, “The more often the students have to retrieve, use, and reflect upon the course material, the more opportunities you are giving them to learn it deeply.”

In their 2010 book How Learning Works, Susan A. Ambrose and her colleagues suggest building multiple opportunities for practice in courses. “Because learning accumulates gradually with practice, multiple assignments of shorter length or smaller scope tend to result in more learning than a single assignment of great length or large scope. With the former, students get more opportunity to practice skills and can refine their approach from assignment to assignment based on feedback they receive.”

Engagement quizzes also give students and their instructors just-in-time opportunities to check learning, allowing instructors to more immediately identify gaps in understanding or misconceptions and address them right away.

Unannounced quizzes also improve attendance and encourage engagement with course content (Kouyoumdjian, 2004), which means students are better prepared for discussions, group work, and other learning activities.

Finally, these impromptu quizzes are also easy for instructors to create and grade. They don’t need to be big or take a lot of work.

However, a key criticism of pop-quizzes is the anxiety provoked in students who feel they are “not ready” and for some students, high levels of anxiety may negate the learning benefits of retrieval practice (Khanna, 2015).

To maximize the benefits of using small engagement quizzes and minimize the potential of anxiety, the quizzes should be low-stakes. Additionally, get students on board by explaining why you have included small reflection quizzes in the course design. Explain the many benefits of these in-class quizzes. Point out that learning in frequent small chunks makes it easier to master and retain content. Emphasize how these impromptu quizzes work to keep them on track with the schedule. Explain that often they can expand on and develop elements of their weekly reflections in larger assignments later in the class. Best, say how an engaged class community makes for an interesting and valuable learning experience for everyone.

So, how do you design and then evaluate your impromptu reflection quizzes? Create your engagement quizzes in Canvas. Set a specific password for each quiz. Give your students each quiz password only in class. Remind students to bring their laptops or other devices to class so they can take the quizzes. Set a short time limit for each quiz; three to five minutes is usually sufficient. Design them as low stakes quizzes; three to five questions worth one point each are ideal for automatically graded multiple choice quizzes. One essay question worth five points works well for instructor-evaluated quizzes. Administer these reflection quizzes regularly, but not on a specific schedule, so students must do their homework and come to class if they want to earn the points.

You can also vary when you administer the quizzes during class periods. You could design them as entrance quizzes at the beginning of class. You could give them midway through a long class period, giving students a break while you quickly review the results and then tailor the following activities accordingly. You could design them as exit quizzes given at the end of class, which can be particularly useful if you have a lot of students leaving early.

Grading can be done automatically by Canvas or by the instructor, depending on the class size and the content to be emphasized. These low stakes in-class quizzes are suitable for both small and large classes. Instructor-evaluated short answer questions are ideal for quizzes given in smaller classes. They can be quickly graded since there are only one to three questions in each quiz. Auto-graded multiple-choice questions are better for quizzes deployed in larger classes.

Engagement Quiz Examples

To help you think about questions you might develop for your own reflection quizzes, here are some examples of questions instructors have used successfully:

• What was interesting, challenging, or confusing to you from reading the first three chapters of Uncle Tom’s Cabin? (Kenneth Price, English, worth 5 points/instructor evaluated)
  
• What have you learned so far about BaadAssss Cinema from the video Night of the Living Dead? What do you need to do to facilitate your learning? (Kwakiutl Dreher, English, worth 5 points/instructor evaluated.)
  
• Focus on one idea you find most intriguing, confusing, or problematic that you would like to discuss further with the class on Friday. Post roughly 250 words. Also post two questions you would like to ask the class. (worth 10 points/instructor evaluated, and questions are then used in next class discussion)
  
• What three elements will be extracted in largest quantities from the Elk Creek deposit in Johnson County? (Mark Griep, Chemistry, question worth 1 point/ automatically graded)
  
  • titanium, niobium, scandium (Correct Answer)
    
  • titanium, niobium, neodymium
    
  • niobium, lanthanum, hafnium
    
  • niobium, scandium, hafnium