Using quizzes for personalized learning is like speeding up what a traditional school quiz does. Instead of someone answering questions and then waiting for a teacher to grade the quiz so the student can learn from what they missed, an online learning quiz automates that process so the quiz taker can get immediate feedback.
With an online quiz there are also three unique ways to use a quiz for learning.
- Traditional correct answer quiz: This is just like what’s in school, each question has a correct answer and explanations are given for each answer so you can learn from what you got right and wrong.
- Personality based learning quiz: This type of quiz provides a personalized learning journey based on your interests and personality type. So you can learn the parts of a topic that are relevant to who you are as a person.
- Needs-based learning quiz: This type of quiz provides learning based on the specific needs of the quiz taker, so the information provided back to the quiz taker is unique based on what they need.
- Branching logic learning quiz: This type of quiz automatically filters the pieces of information that are most relevant to you based on how you answer questions in a quiz. That way what you see at the end is super unique to just your specific situation.
Let’s look at each of these use-cases further and some examples of each one.
Traditional Correct Answer Quiz
A correct answer quiz works just like the quizzes you took in school, just with a more immediate feedback loop for the quiz taker. You can set up a quiz where each question has a correct answer (or multiple correct answers), and then the quiz taker tries to get the correct answer.
A great example of this is from the Natural History Museum. They use an Interact quiz to test people on their knowledge of dinosaurs.
Each question presents you with a picture of a dinosaur and then asks “Is it a Dinosaur?” In a very playful way of testing your knowledge of dinosaurs. This quiz has 13 questions, but you can ask as many or as few questions as you’d like.
The correct answer is shown right away after you make your selection. With Interact, you can show the answers right away like this example, or hold all the answers until the end and show an answer key. Here’s the doc on how to customize those settings.
This classic quiz type is highly engaging, and creates a unique experience for each quiz taker as they discover which answers they are getting right or wrong. If you are interested in this quiz type, I put together a list of the top 8 trivia quiz examples you can check out for inspiration.
Personality Based Learning Quiz
A personality based learning quiz assigns you a personality type and then provides personalized learning resources based on your personality type. So you are getting information that is relevant to who you are and what your interests are. A great example of this comes from NASA’s Mission Quiz. This quiz identifies what role you would play on an Artemis Mission and then provides personalized learning resources based on your role.
Each question asks about something very specific and real related to an Artemis Mission. The questions are derived from actual experiences that NASA employees have. I interviewed Naomi Crellin from Storycraft Labs who created this quiz in partnership with NASA, and she made sure that each question came from true-to-life experiences inside of NASA to make the quiz experience truly authentic.
At the end of the quiz you see your Boots, which represent your role in a mission, and there is educational information that goes along with each role. It’s a very cool way to engage people by connecting personality type to learning.
Needs-Based Learning Quiz
This type of quiz identifies the quiz takers’ unique needs based on their life situation and then provides learning that is specific to where they are at based on their needs. An example of this is from Mrs. Dow Jones, she has a quiz that helps you create a money plan based on your financial situation and goals.
The quiz asks about your current status and what you are looking to get out of your financial future. Each question gathers more information about the needs of the quiz taker. This quiz has five questions, but you can ask as many questions as you need in order to gather the information necessary to provide an accurate recommendation at the end of the quiz.
At the end you see your particular path as well as next steps you can take based on your situation. This includes a good amount of educational material right in the quiz result, and also links out to other resources for additional context.
This section includes the learning materials specific to the person who is being recommended this path forward, as well as links for deeper learning.
Needs based learning quizzes are cool because you can learn what the quiz taker cares about and prioritizes for themselves before presenting them with learning materials, that way they are more bought into the learning when it is presented.
Branching Logic Learning Quiz
A branching logic quiz lets you customize each pathway of a quiz and provide personalized learning to each person based on their particular set of answers. This lets you address every answer they give you uniquely, and provide context based on which answers they choose. It also lets you gather a lot more information with fewer questions since each branch can be unique. Here’s a map of what this looks like on the back end with all the branches.
Branching logic quizzes are one of the most powerful forms of quizzes, and Interact has the most intuitive branching logic builder, see the documentation here.
Let’s look at an example of a branching logic quiz from SpotOn GPS Fence. They use this quiz to help qualify and educate customers before they make a purchase, which helps with product market fit and to reduce returns.
The question of the quiz ask about your situation, and as you answer each question, the follow up questions are different depending on your previous answers, which creates the branches of this branching logic quiz.
The quiz is only about five questions for each quiz taker, but the five questions that I will see are different from the five questions you will see since it’s branching off depending on our particular situation.
At the end, you get a recommendation, and learning, about your fit with the SpotOn GPS fence. Some people will be told that it’s a great fit, with further learning, others will be told it’s potentially a fit, and others will be told that it won’t work out this time.
Personally, I think branching logic quizzes for education are an unsung strategy that has a ton of potential. I’ve worked on branching quizzes with up to 92 unique outcomes, where you can really pinpoint a specific piece of learning for each quiz taker. This is an evolution in learning as you can go from a dense, long, piece of content to a quick, easy to digest, bit of information by using the branching function.
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