Adding effective knowledge check questions to eLearning
Knowledge checks are questions that are asked periodically throughout your course. Knowledge checks can be a quick and effective way to increase learner engagement and helps to reinforce the learners understanding of a subject.
Below are some ways you can write effective knowledge check questions for your eLearning course.
1. Having clear instructional text
One way you can write more effective knowledge check questions is to ensure you are including clear and easy to read instruction text on your slide. As knowledge checks come in a wide variety of formats (e.g. multiple-choice, multiple-selection, drag-and-drop, matching pairs etc.) it might not be clear to the learner exactly what they need to do to complete the knowledge check. For example, if you have a knowledge check where you need learners to drag items into buckets make sure you are instructing the learner where the items are and that the learner needs to drag those items into the bucket.
2. Learner is not tested on content
When writing your knowledge check questions one of the most important things is to ensure that your questions only test the learner on what they have learned in the course. While this may sound obvious you may accidently include things in your questions that require prior understanding or knowledge. When writing your knowledge check questions think carefully about what is covered in the course, what the key areas of the course are and what you want to test your learners on.
3. Distractors are too obvious
When creating your knowledge check questions you will need to add distractor answers (incorrect answers) for your questions. Ideally distractor answers should be similar to the correct answer and not something completely unrelated. When adding distractors try not to make it too obvious they are incorrect answers as learners could easily remove these answers through process of elimination without having to think about what the correct answer is.
