Despite the fact that I frequently misspell it, Quizizz has long been one of my favorite formative assessment tools. The memes, music, and competition make it fun while the fact that its web-based makes it work across all devices. Those reasons aside, there are some major reasons that I usually turn to Quizizz instead of other assessment tools (which you can read about in other posts. It was also recently redesigned, so there are even more new features to enjoy.
ACCESSIBILITY
1:1 Correspondence – This means you don’t have to look at the board for questions and then select a response separately on your device. That may not seem like much, but it leads to confusion especially for students with spacial and literacy challenges.
Student-Paced – Since the questions are entirely on the students’ devices, they can move at their own pace and you don’t have to make the whole class wait for 1 or 2 students. It also prevents cheating since it can be randomized so students aren’t on the same question simultaneously. That also means they can be assigned as homework.
Enhanced Engagement – On top of the colors and competition, Quizizz also creates user avatars and shows memes based on student responses that add to student engagement. You can also create and modify your own sets of memes. Oh, they just launched a new game dashboard that shows fun avatar cards for the top finishers.
Read-Aloud Questions – If students are using the app they can have questions read aloud to them making learning more accessible.
Timer – The timer can be turned off if it leads to student stress.
Question Length – It automatically adjusts the font based on the question length which allows for longer questions.
Visual Modifications – Users can add images, symbols for math and science, language characters to their questions, and even change font colors. This can improve access and give scaffolds for struggling learners.
Quiz Modifications – You have the option to shuffle questions, shuffle answers, show/hide answers, time questions, play/silence music, show/hide memes, show/hide the leaderboard, or show a quiz review. That means students can be made to self-assess or you can do it afterward as a class based on reports.
Assessment is today’s means of modifying tomorrow’s instruction.
-Carol Ann Tomlinson
EASE OF USE
Quiz Database – Like other platforms, they have a large database of professional and user-created content across a broad range of subjects.
Import Questions – Unlike other platforms, you can import individual questions from other quizzes rather than only copying whole quizzes completely. You also automatically have access to the question bank from all of your previously created quizzes.
Import Quizzes – You can import quizzes created in Google Forms or in a spreadsheet program using the import from file feature.
App Support – While it is available on the web, the apps in iOS and Android make everything run more smoothly
TEACHER EFFECTIVENESS
Google Classroom Sync – Quizizz is synced to Google Classroom so you can sync users, post to your feed, get a notification when students complete their work, and sync scores/grades into the Google Classroom grade book.
Edmodo Sync – Is Edmodo your go-to LMS instead of or in addition to Google Classroom? Then you can sync student assessments in Quizizz just as easily with Edmodo stream posting, name syncing, notifications, and syncing reports.
Reports – You can see details on individual students or view the whole class. You can even break it down by question to see where most students struggle. There are graphs created for each question to help you visualize the data. The reports are sortable, printable, and exportable into a spreadsheet or Google Classroom. You are even able to view data about how long each question took and the device and IP address they used to respond (in case you’re worried about cheating).
Email to Parents – You can send results to individual parents or all parents at once to keep them updated on their child’s performance.
ROOM TO IMPROVE
While I am really happy with what they’ve created, here are a couple of future improvements I’d like to see mainly for more inclusivity.
- Allow read-aloud on the web version as well
- Allow images for individual answers
- Allow for different types of questions/assessments beyond multiple choice like matching or ordering to allow for higher-order assessments
You can find more ways to create game-based assessments in Google Forms & Game-Based Learning.
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