How can online learning be effective and fun at the same time? 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 learner's high level of independence. Therefore, challenge your participants to think for themselves and integrate interactive content. Find out in this article exactly how you can achieve this with blink.it!
Keeping motivation high online as well
Those who have fun while learning stay motivated. This is precisely what is enormously important in online support, where the individual learner has to demonstrate a high level of self-responsibility and independence. You as a trainer or coach can support them in regularly engaging with your online impulses. Wake up the ambition of your participants and motivate them to keep going!
An excellent method for fun and motivation is interactive modules. Ask your participant questions and let them formulate answers themselves or select the correct ones from predefined answers. Through this active engagement with the learning content, the participant is more likely to retain the material in their long-term memory and can recall it more quickly in everyday life. A good variety of media also contributes to keeping your participant engaged for longer.
Interactive elements not only serve a motivational function, but also a pedagogical one: they activate the so-called Retrieval Practice principle. Every active retrieval of knowledge strengthens the memory trace and increases the likelihood that content will actually be applied later in everyday work. This is exactly why quizzes, surveys, and small tests are more than just gimmicks – they are a central lever for sustainable learning transfer.
Another advantage of these interactive modules: You as the creator will also have much more fun with your online support than if you simply upload ready-made content into a container. Actively use the platform to create content and expand your course more and more until you are truly satisfied.
All of life is a quiz – or an exam?
All of life is a quiz, sang Hape Kerkeling in 1993. In doing so, he was playing on the passion of Germans for quizzes mentioned at the beginning. In relationships, in the family, in the evening in front of the TV, guessing and sharing the excitement together. We do it with a lot of joy and ambition in our free time – so it only makes sense to use this enthusiasm for your training or coaching as well.
And why not also include an exam to spark your participants' ambition? Quiz sounds like fun and leisure, exam sounds like pressure to perform and work. Yet both methods basically differ only in their grading.
Our tip: Use the quiz method more in the first third of your online support, testing not only the learning material but also how your participants react to it. An exam is then more useful starting from the second third, when your participants have already warmed up to the perhaps unfamiliar learning environment.
Making Blended Learning interactive
With the blink.it platform, you can, for example, create multiple-choice questions, formulate free-text questions, or ask your course participants for a personal self-assessment on a scale. All elements are customizable and can be mixed in any way you like.
The concept of Blended Learning – the mix of online and offline – only truly comes into its own this way: Your online platform is not a rigid framework, but a tool for your training! Even creating practice tasks is fun. And for your participants, a quiz in particular is something they can do very well on the go. This way, learning actually feels like further education and not like extra work.
With a quiz, you can make your blended learning interactive. This way, not only 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 face-to-face session: Survey
A survey is open-ended and therefore very well suited for setting the mood of the participants for your blended learning. What expectations do they bring to the training? Are they looking forward to the new form of learning or are they rather skeptical? With questions like these, your participants feel like part of the course right from the start, and you get an advance mood picture to prepare for the first meeting.
In the middle of your online support: Quiz
A quiz is more casual than an exam, but more goal-oriented than a survey. This method is therefore well-suited throughout your entire blended learning experience. Let your participants review what they have learned in a playful way and thus promote their memory performance.
Important: In a quiz, you can clearly see who is actively participating in the training and where there might still be open questions. Do not leave these unanswered and, for example, address the correct answers in the next online impulse (“Blink”) by recording a video of yourself.
Towards the end of the entire training: Exam and second survey
To round off your course, a small exam is ideal, where participants can test themselves on how much they have learned. You determine how many questions they must answer correctly to pass the exam. As a special incentive, you can also offer a certificate for successful participation. Or you can arrange another form of “reward” with your client, such as an exclusive consulting session with you in the coming year.
You can also use a survey very well to close your blended learning: The classic Happy Sheet shows the mood of your participants and is incredibly easy to create with blink.it online support. Tip: Ask (once again) at the end for opinions on the blended learning method! This gives you strong arguments for your method in your next sales pitch with conservatively-minded clients.
Creating a quiz, survey, or exam with blink.it
Finally, I would like to give you an idea of the possibilities available to you for interactive modules like quizzes, surveys, or exams with blink.it. With all three methods, you can combine the following interactions as you wish:
Free text question
Multiple choice question
Single choice question
Scale question
So, for example, create a survey with one free text and one scale question, or a quiz with two multiple choice questions and three free text questions. Test how the new method is received by your participants or even just by acquaintances first, and play with different variations. This makes your online support feel dynamic and interactive. And implementation is child's play, just try it out!
Below, I will explain more precisely what you can expect from the different types of questions.
Free text question
With the free text question, you create any task that your participants should answer in the form of text. Open-ended questions that every participant will answer individually are particularly suitable for this. The free text question is therefore highly recommended primarily for surveys.
Example of a free text question:
“In our communication training on August 24, YOU are the focus. What expectations do you bring with you? Which questions must absolutely be discussed? Is there a topic that is particularly close to your heart? Here is space for your wishes and questions:”
Multiple and Single Choice question
In multiple choice or single choice questions, the participant receives several answer options from which they must select the correct one. Multiple choice means that several answers can be correct. Single choice, on the other hand, means that only a single answer is correct. This type of quiz or test is classically used to recall and refresh what has been learned.
Example of a multiple choice question where two answers are correct:
Which of the following communication tools work asynchronously?
Email
Instant Messaging
In-person 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 get 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 safe do you feel?
Very safe 1 2 3 4 5 Very unsafe
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 allows you to make your interactive modules even more diverse. The best way to show you this feature is – that's right, in an image:
With blink.it, you can compile interactive questions into a quiz, survey, or exam. With images, you now have even more options at your disposal.
Test your test! What question comes to mind spontaneously?
Now it's your turn! Think of a question on the spot that participants of your training or coaching should answer. Then decide which module fits best for your question.
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 to my question. |
I want to provide answer options. | Multiple Choice / Single Choice question | Scale question |
I do not want to provide answer options. | Free text question | Free text question |
Conclusion
Interactive online support is effective when it does not just query knowledge, but triggers thought processes and makes learning progress visible.
Quizzes, surveys, and exams are not technical gimmicks, but strategic tools for sustainable learning. They promote independence, increase motivation, and help you as a trainer or coach to specifically support the learning status of your participants.
Anyone who truly takes online learning seriously uses interaction not as an optional extra, but as an integral part of the learning architecture. Because learning does not happen through consumption – but through active engagement.
If you design your courses so that participants must regularly reflect, decide, and apply, your online support will not only be more diverse – but measurably more effective.
Frequently Asked Questions and Answers
When is a quiz suitable in online support?
A quiz is particularly suitable during ongoing online support to playfully review learning content and actively retrieve knowledge. It helps participants assess their learning progress and shows trainers where open questions still exist or where content should be deepened.
What is the difference between a survey, quiz, and exam?
A survey gathers personal assessments or expectations and has no right or wrong answers. A quiz serves as a casual knowledge check and motivational review. An exam is more result-oriented and is especially suitable towards the end of a course to verify learning success.
Why do interactive elements make online learning more effective?
Interactive elements activate participants and prevent mere content consumption. Through questions, tasks, and self-checks, knowledge is actively retrieved and processed. This strengthens memory retention and increases the chance that content will actually be applied later in everyday work.
Which question types are suitable for interactive online courses?
Free-text questions, multiple-choice questions, single-choice questions, and scale questions are suitable for interactive online courses. Free-text questions promote individual reflection, choice questions are suitable for testing knowledge, and scale questions help to make personal assessments visible.
