My programming partner Dan Kirshner and I have just put together a new type of learning interaction on sciencemusicvideos.
It’s a quiz, but instead of multiple choice, you type in the answer. Through a drop down list and a hint button, it guides the user to the correct answer (but getting a question wrong is still possible).
You can see an example in the first quiz at
https://learn-biology.com/digestive-respiratory-circulatory-system-review/
Here’s what my students thought. These are survey responses given immediately after working on this quiz
| Question | disagree strongly | disagree somewhat | agree somewhat | agree strongly |
| The new fill-in-the-blanks format is too hard | 23%
(10) |
52%
(23) |
17%
(6) |
11%
(5) |
| I like the new fill-in-the-blanks format more than flashcards | 16%
(7) |
18%
(8) |
52%
(23) |
13%
(6) |
| Typing in an answer on the fill-in-the blanks format helps me learn more than multiple choice (where I just click a button) | 20%
(9) |
32%
(14) |
34%
(15) |
13%
(6) |
| Working on these on-line review activities today helped me to review the material we’ve learned in this unit. | 2%
(1) |
16%
(7) |
34%
(15) |
45%
(20) |
Interpretation?
- 75% of my students didn’t feel that the new format was too hard.
- 65% of my students liked the new format more than flashcards
- Slightly more than half of my students (52%) disagreed with idea that the new format helped them to learn more than flashcards.
- A big majority (almost 80%) felt that working on sciencemusicvideos helped them review (phew! It would have been a real bummer if it had been the reverse!)
Anyhow, please take a look. We’re still working on the interface. Coming soon: you should be able to hit the return key to validate your answer. Dan’s working on it!
Please let me know what you think. Also, if you’re thinking of setting up a wordpress website using qwiz (that’s what we call the quizzes, flashcards, and interactive diagrams) for interactions, let us know. We’ve also developed tools for teachers to track student performance, and we’d be happy to tell you about that if you’re interested.
Mr. W