Sunday 9 February 2014

Quizbean can make our students more independent!

It seems to me that we tend to focus on how to make our students independent through more engaging speaking, reading, writing and listening activities but when it is time to teach and practice grammar we use techniques like drilling, quizzes, multiple choices, fill in the gaps. All these activities are great and might make our students proficient in English. However, I have the sense that it is more like testing rather than practicing grammar. For example, when it comes to quizzes students rely on their teachers to give them feedback which sometimes they do not even notice, they just see the mark on their paper. Thus, I was looking for a web tool that allows us to create online quizzes and gives our students a sense of independence while using technology.

Quizbean immediately captured my attention because it is free and easy to navigate and use even for elementary students. It is a platform that allows us to create simple quizzes that our students have to complete online. Once we have created a quiz our students can head over to Quizbean and try it out. 

But how Quizbean does make our students more independent and why do I love it?

The most important thing is that our students get instant feedback on each question they answer, thanks to Quizbean's Instantscore feature. Namely, students while taking the quiz they will be able to see a running total of their score and percentage. This will help them pay attention to their mistakes as well as keep them focused throughout the quiz. Furthemore, Quizbean allows us to add exlpanations of the correct answer for our students to see immediately after answering each question. This can leave an impression on our students which can help them remember the correct answer. Moreover, we can add images to all or some of our questions making our quiz more interesting and vivid. All in all, quizzes generated by using Quizbean are interactive and engaging, our students do not wait for the teacher to give them the feedback which usually takes long but in a way they self- assess themselves and have the chance to see where and why they were wrong. 

How does Quizbean work?

Quizbean is free and registration is not required, however I suggest you to sign up so as to easily manage and share your quizzes. 
  • First we visit Quizbean's website and after we sign up, we have three options: "Create a class", "Create a quiz", "Add students" . Namely, Quizbean lets you to add students quickly to your dashboard and assign them to classes.(Image 1). 
Image 1













  • Let's choose to create a quiz. Then, we have to pick our quiz type. It can be either "Multiple Choice" (our students will have to choose the correct answer from many options) or "This or That" (our students will have to choose one answer between two options) (Image 2).
Image 2













  • Let's choose "Multiple Choice". The next step will be to give our quiz a title and then we can add our first question. We can add as many questions as we need! (Image 3)
Image 3













  • So, we click on "Add your first question" and then we can type in the question and the answer choices. Be careful to type in the correct answer first. Finally, we can add an image and an explanation. Our first question is now ready and we can add more questions. Once we have made our quiz we can click on "Save and continue" (Image 4).
Image 4













  • Then, we have two choices either to click on "Send my Quiz" or "Save and send later" (Image 5).
Image 5













  • If we click on "Send my Quiz" we have the option to randomize our quiz and to set an expiry date for it. The feature of randomizing the order of our questions will prevent our students from cheating (Image 6).
Image 6













  • Finally, we click on "Step 2: Define Recipients" and we can send our quiz either to the whole class or to individual students. Adding classes and students is really straightforward! You do not have to worry about it! We also have the possibility to share our quiz via email, Facebook, Twitter, etc and copy its URL linkHere is an example that I have made!!!
  • Two last features also important are Quizbean's reports cards. Our students can see their final score after completing the quiz (Image 7) and these results are sent immediately to the teacher's dashboard, so you can see who has taken each quiz and their score all on one screen. This can help us keep track of our students progress and realize their weaknesses.
Image 7














How can we use Quizbean in and out of classroom?

  • Grammar and Vocabulary practice and revision: We can use Quizbean to make multiple choice, True or False or This and That quizzes and practice grammar and vocabulary like I have done in my example.
  • Post-reading: We can also make quizzes to check our students understanding. For example, we can have critical questions related to a text that our students read in the classroom or at their homes.
  • Another idea is to make quizzes about characters or storylines in our coursebook. We can make questions about particular characteristics or actions of these characters.
  • Self-assessment: they are perfect for preparing our students for upcoming tests. This will help them to focus on the basic points and feel more relaxed and confident. 
  • For further engagement we can ask our students to prepare their own quizzes, for example they can make a quiz with similar questions to those they have answered wrong. They can send it to us and we can distribute it to their classmates.
  • For fun: We can make quizzes about everything for example about movies, songs, topics in news, facts . For example, we can ask them to listen to a song and complete a quiz or ask them questions about topics they do not know and let them guess. In this case, let them know that their score is a matter of luck. If they do not score well, they simply should not try gambling on this particular day. Maybe this can help them realize that sometimes bad scores do not mean anything at least they have tried and the next time they might do it better.
Limitations to bear in mind! 

Quizbean is an up to date web tool. Our students are used to Internet, TV and technology in general which is overwhelmed with images alternating fast. Thus, they might find it easier to concentrate on an online quiz rather than on traditional paper quizzes. However, the latter has one important advantage. We are able to touch and hold them. We can write notes on them or simply go back to them when we need to revise. There are students who usually do not do this and for them Quizbean's Instantscore and Report Card feature is their chance for feedback. Nevertheless, we should keep in mind that there are students who would like to have their quizzes printed so that they can have access to them whenever they are in need!

Other drawbacks are that they are completed online, thus, we need Internet in our classrooms and computers for all of our students. In case that our students have to complete them for homework, we might hear excuses like "I couldn't access the link". Of course, these students can say something similar for traditional paper quizzes for example "I couldn't find the quiz in my bag, my classmate next to me might have taken mine as well." Finally, Quizbean provides only two types of quizzes but that's why there are other types of activities.

I do suggest Quizbean because I find it unique and up to date. I am sure that our students will love it! Let's give it a try!



Printscreens from Quizbean

No comments:

Post a Comment