What can I do to create effective knowledge checks?
When creating eLearning knowledge checks can be an effective way to reinforce learning content for your learners. A Knowledge check is a question that is set periodically throughout your eLearning, this is usually at the end of a chapter or section and consists of a question, this could be a multiple choice, multiple selection or drag and drop question.
Below are some things to consider when creating knowledge checks.
1. Questions can be guessed
One of the downsides to using closed questions as opposed to open ended ones is the ability for the learner to guess without critically thinking. When creating your questions think carefully about the possible answers that you want to include. You don’t want to make the answers to obvious so that learners can easily eliminate the choices and you want to make it too similar to the others answers so that it tricks the learner. The best way to decide on answers is to create the correct answer but also create logical distractors that could potentially be the answer to the question.
2. Does not relate to content
This one can be difficult and requires the ability to think about what the learner has just learned and how they can be tested in a way that reinforces their knowledge. It may seem simple but keeping in the question in scope can be a challenge. Firstly you have to make sure that the question does not cover anything that has not yet been taught, it should only test the learner on things they have learned up until this point. Secondly it should be presented soon after the learner has consumed the piece of learning content e.g at the end of the chapter or section, testing the learner 2 or 3 chapters later will help but they wont be able to immediately think about what they have just learned.
3. Poorly written
Poor written questions are something to be aware of when creating knowledge checks, when creating the question it needs to be carefully written so that it can be easily understood by the learner. Writing a question that seems vague can cause confusion for the learner who wont be able to answer the quesiton. You also have to make sure that your question only has one correct answer, if a question is a multiple choice type of question with the possibility to only select one answer having two potentially correct answers will result in a number of learners getting the question incorrect when they should have got it correct.
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