Idea 17: Giving Online Practice Quizzes to Increase Learning

Why give Practice Quizzes?

Practice quizzes are extremely useful for both students and professors, providing a way of formatively assessing student knowledge in a low-stakes environment prior to the actual test. Canvas makes it easy for students to take practice quizzes from their computers.

Instructions

• Create a quiz in Canvas.
• If you like, you can create a test bank of questions to randomize a selection of questions for students.
• Make the quiz worth zero points total, and optional to complete, or make it worth a few points.
• Once it is online, notify students that they can take it prior to the test.

Advantages

• Students get exposure to content that is similar to what will be on the test
• Students are given an example of how the test format will work prior to taking the actual exam.
• Students who take practice quizzes do significantly better than students who do not.
• If an answer key is made available, students can learn from their mistakes prior to the actual exam.

Adapted from:

Walker, J.D. et al. (2014). Practice Makes Perfect? Assessing the Effectiveness of Online Practice Exams in Blended Learning Biology Classes. In Picciano, A.G. et al. (Ed.), Blended Learning Research Perspectives, Volume 2 (pp. 150-158). New York, NY: Routledge.

 

For more information on writing tests in Canvas, see Evaluation of Learning - Creating Tests in the Teaching Handbook.

 

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