Multipurpose Use of Quizzes in Teaching

This paper describes the use of quizzes in different learning scenarios. Using quizzes stimulates the student's cognitive understanding as described in many sources in the literature. Via quizzes students will not be only trained in keeping knowledge, they are also coached in analytical thinking. By the usage of quizzes a kind of “learning on demand” is possible which is entertaining and prepares students well for their examinations. Several types of quizzes exit, like single-choice, multiple-choice, numeric, and text fill in, and the main task for lecturers is formulating questions and exercises. To make better use of this conceptual and creative work, it is beneficial to use questions for more than one activity during the learning process of the students. However, these usages require different tools with different formats for stating a question, possible answers, and specifying one or more correct answers. Thus, two software programs were implemented, a Windows tool to convert questions for quizzes into different formats, and an app for mobile offline-usage on a smartphone. The paper describes the usage of quiz questions in different classroom, and e-learning settings, including lectures, online quizzes on websites, smartphones, in learning management systems (LMS), and in examinations. The educational setting includes courses and examinations offered to bachelor engineering students in the first year of their study as well as master students. Evaluation is performed by observing usage on the platforms, looking at the total number of usages as well as on the time when students use the quizzes, i.e. during the semester or before examinations. Also, exam results for the questions have been looked at and give indications about the learning success of students. At the moment, the software is a prototype and proof of concept. However, it is not safe against errors in the input format and only supports the open-source LMS (Learning Management System) ILIAS. More work is required to make it usable for further lecturers. Also, the mobile app is only available for Android and it could be converted to a framework for releasing Android and iOS versions (for Apple iPhone).