How can online learning be effective and at the same time fun? A) With a quiz, B) With a survey, C) With an exam. – Correct, with all three! The great advantage of online support in training or coaching lies in the high independence of the learner. Therefore, encourage your participants to think for themselves and incorporate interactive content. Learn in the article how exactly this works with blink.it!

Keeping motivation high online

If someone enjoys learning, they stay motivated. This is extremely important in online support, where each individual learner must show a high degree of personal responsibility and independence. You as a trainer or coach can support them in regularly engaging with your online impulses. Ignite the ambition of your participants and motivate them to keep going!

A great method for fun and motivation is interactive modules. Ask your participants questions and let them formulate their own answers or choose the correct ones from provided options. This active engagement with the learning content helps the participant retain the material in long-term memory and retrieve it more quickly in everyday life. A good media variety also contributes to keeping your participant engaged for a longer time.

Another advantage of these interactive modules: You as a creator also have much more fun with your online support than if you simply uploaded finished content into a container. Actively use the platform to create content and continuously expand your course until you are truly satisfied.

Life is a quiz – or an exam?

Life is a quiz, sang Hape Kerkeling in 1993. He was referring to the initial mentioned quiz passion of the Germans. In partnerships, in families, in front of the TV in the evening, guessing and getting excited together. We do this with great joy and ambition in our free time – so it is only natural to use this enthusiasm for your training or coaching.

And why not incorporate an exam as well to ignite the ambition of your participants? Quiz sounds fun and recreational, exam sounds like performance pressure and work. In essence, both methods only differ in their assessment.

Our tip: Use the quiz method in the first third of your online support and not only test the learning material but also how your participants respond to it. An exam is more appropriate from the second third onwards, when your participants have already gotten used to the perhaps unfamiliar learning environment.

Design blended learning interactively

With the blink.it platform, for example, you can create multiple choice questions, formulate open-ended questions, or ask your course participants for a personal assessment on a scale. All elements can be individualized and mixed as you like.

The concept of blended learning – the mix of online and offline – truly comes into its own: Your online platform is not a rigid framework but a tool for your training! Even creating exercises can be fun. And for your participants, a quiz is something they can easily do on the go. Learning thus feels like further education and not like additional work.

With a quiz, you can design your blended learning interactively. This way, not only do your participants have fun, but you as the course creator do as well.

Our recommendation for using quizzes, surveys, and exams in online support

Before the first in-person meeting: Survey

A survey is open-ended and therefore very well suited to align participants with your blended learning. What expectations do they have when participating in the training? Are they looking forward to the new form of learning or are they rather skeptical? Questions like these make your participants feel like part of the course right from the start and give you a pre-meeting overview to prepare for the first meeting.

In the middle of your online support: Quiz

A quiz is more relaxed than an exam but more results-oriented than a survey. This method is therefore well-suited throughout your blended learning period. Let your participants playfully repeat what they have learned and thus enhance their memory performance.

Important: In a quiz, you can easily see who is actively participating in the training and where there may still be open questions. Don’t leave these unanswered and, for instance, address the correct answers in the next online impulse (“Blink”) by recording a video of yourself.

At the end of the entire training: Exam and second survey

At the end of your course, a small exam is appropriate, where participants can test how much they have learned. You determine how many they must answer correctly to pass the exam. As a special incentive, you can also offer a certificate for successful participation. Alternatively, you could agree with your client on another form of "reward," such as an exclusive consultation with you in the coming year.

A survey can also be very well used at the end of your blended learning: The classic happy sheet shows the mood of your participants and is easy to create with an online support from blink.it. Tip: Ask at the end (one more time) for their opinion about the blended learning method! This way you will have solid arguments for your method at the next sales conversation with conservatively-minded clients.

Create a quiz, survey, or exam with blink.it

Finally, I want to give you an impression of the possibilities available for interactive modules like quizzes, surveys, or exams with blink.it. For all three methods, you can freely combine the following interactions:

• Open-ended question

• Multiple choice question

• Single choice question

• Scale question

So, for example, create a survey with an open-ended question and a scale question or a quiz with two multiple choice questions and three open-ended questions. Test how the new method is received by your participants or perhaps just by acquaintances and play with various variations. This way, your online support comes across as dynamic and interactive. And the implementation is super easy; just give it a try!

In the following, I will explain in more detail what you can imagine under the various question types.

Open-ended question

In the open-ended question, you create any task that your participants should answer in the form of text. Particularly open-ended questions, which each participant will answer very individually, are suitable here. The open-ended question is therefore especially recommended in surveys.

Example of an open-ended question:

"At our communication training on August 24th, YOU are the focus. What expectations do you bring? What questions should be discussed? Is there a topic that is particularly important to you? Here is space for your wishes and questions:"

Multiple and single choice question

In the multiple choice or single choice question, the participant is given several answer options from which to select the correct one. Multiple choice means that multiple answers can be correct. Single choice, on the other hand, means that only one single answer is correct. This type of quiz or test is classically used to refresh and recall learned material.

Example of a multiple choice question where two answers are correct:

Which of the following communication tools work asynchronously?

• E-mail

• Instant Messaging

• Personal conversation

• Phone call

Example of a single choice question where only one answer is correct:

Who developed the "Four-Ears Model"?

• Friedemann Schulz von Thun

• Niklas Luhmann

• Vera F. Birkenbihl

Scale question

If you want to obtain a personal assessment from your participants, the scale question is particularly suitable. You might know this method from psychological tests and surveys.

Example of a scale question:

How secure do you feel?

Very secure 1 2 3 4 5 Very insecure

New feature: Embed images in quiz questions, surveys, or exams

Recently, you can also upload images to your quiz, survey, or exam with blink.it! This way, you can make your interactive modules even more varied. Let me best show you this feature – right, in a picture:

With blink.it, you can compile interactive questions for a quiz, survey, or exam. With images, even more possibilities are now available to you.

Test your test! What question comes to mind?

Now it’s your turn! Quickly think of a question that participants in your training or coaching should answer. Then decide which module best fits your question.

Have you got a question in mind? Then test your test now: Which quiz module is best suited for your question?

| | There is at least one correct answer to my question. | There is no right or wrong answer to my question. | || ------------------------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------- | -------------- || I want to provide answer options. | Multiple choice / single choice question | Scale question || I don’t want to provide answer options. | Open-ended question | Open-ended question |

Is all this too theoretical for you? Then try blink.it yourself and create a quiz, survey, or exam that suits you! Request your free admin demo now and start your first online support under the guidance of our consultant!