Interactive quizzes are a great way to increase learner engagement and retention. In this blog, team member Ellie explains how she created an interactive Roman History Quiz using Near-Life and Canva.
Planning and Storyboarding the Interactive Quiz
When creating an interactive lesson or quiz, the first step is to choose a topic. I chose Roman history as the subject of this quiz. Consider what the learning objective is and write some questions. You should also ensure you get your answers from a reliable source. Once you have a plan, you can use Near-Life to build a storyboard. This step is optional, but it’s a great way to map out your video in a flowchart-like format, making it easier to drag and drop your media into later.
Using Canva to create the assets
With the plan made, I could then use Canva to start the design process. If you’re familiar with Canva, you’ll probably already be aware of all the awesome resources they have, from images and videos to music. It’s also easy to animate your pages, which is great for bringing a boring presentation to life for an interactive video.
I used the video footage on Canva of various historical landmarks. I then used a rectangular shape with text on top to make the ‘start’ and ‘next’ buttons, which I laterhighlighted on Near-Life to make them interactive. For the quiz, I used Near-Life’s buttons as I find it quicker and easier than creating them in Canva. If you choose to do this, consider where the buttons will go and ensure that they won’t cover anything important.
I wanted to show whether the end-user got the answer right or wrong after answering and give further information. You can do this either by making separate slides to show the user if they get an answer wrong, or you can add an icon on the screen that will signify whether they got the answer right or wrong. This can be a cross or a tick. On Near-Life, you can use conditions so that a tick will only appear if they got the answer right, and a cross will appear if they get the answer wrong.
I also made slides that would show the end user how many questions they got right at the end, beforedownloading my slides into the right clips, naming each file appropriately.
Using Near-Life to make the quiz interactive
Next, I went onto Near-Life and to the storyboard I had already made. At this point, I could upload the media and drag and drop each clip into the right node. If you do this, it’s important to preview the video a couple of times to make sure you didn’t miss anything out when making your storyboard. For example, I made sure my hotspots lined up with the buttons I had created on Canva.
If you didn’t make a storyboard, you can build the interactions as you go, using hotspots and/or buttons to create each new node. This is how my canvas looked by the end:
Capturing the name or Email
You can choose to capture the username or email of end-users on Near-Life. This means when you later look at insights (the 3 bars on the top right of the canvas) you can see how people have performed at an individual level. To do this, go to settings on your scenario. Then tick to capture the username or capture the email.
Setting up the scoring and inventory
I wanted to give the end-user points when they clicked the correct answers. To do this, go to the button or hotspot with the right answer. Tick the ‘score’ box and select how many points to add.
Using inventory is another way of showing the end user how well they did. By adding an achievement on the correct answers and creating an inventory item such as ‘Correct’, I could make the game tally how many ‘Correct’ answers the user had gotten. Then I could use conditions to control what the end user would see.
For example, I set it so that when the user gets 2 correct, they see a screen saying ‘Oh dear, you only got 2 out of 5 right. You should review worksheets 1-5.’ There was a personalised message for each of the scores out of 5. I did this by creating a text overlay, then scrolling down to add a condition. Set the condition that the text will only appear when ‘correct’ is equal to ‘2’. Repeat this process for each of the messages depending on how many they got right.
Alternatively, at the end of the video you can show the end-user their score and whether they passed or failed. To set this up, go to settings on the project and tick the pass score and drag it to where you want it to be. This is a quicker way than using inventory, but means you can’t give a personalised message to the end-user based on how many questions they got right/wrong.
When you’re happy with your video, you can publish it and share it.
Make your own interactive quiz!
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