Writing a knowledge check

A knowledge check is a kind of step. Add it where you want it, then write the questions into it from the same builder.

Questions and answers

Each question carries up to six answers. Mark the correct ones — more than one is allowed, and the question then has to be answered as a whole rather than partly.

Write feedback on every answer, including the right ones. The feedback is where the teaching happens: "yes, and the reason is" is worth more than a tick, and "no, because" is worth much more than a cross. Somebody who got it right by luck learns nothing from a tick.

The draw

Set how many of the questions to ask. A module holding twelve and asking eight gives a different paper each sitting, with the answers in a different order.

Which eight is worked out from the person and the attempt, so it is stable if they reload the page and different next time. Nothing is stored, so there is nothing to tidy up for the people who opened the quiz and wandered off.

Write a pool comfortably larger than the draw. Twelve asked as eight is a real draw; nine asked as eight is decoration.

The pass mark

Set it on the module. It is shown to the person before they start.

The wait between attempts

A failed attempt is held for a short period before it can be taken again, and the person is told the time they can start rather than "later". The wait is there so a check cannot be passed by working quickly through the combinations.

Marking

Marking recomputes the draw rather than trusting what came back, so somebody cannot answer a question they were never asked. That is the only cheat drawing a subset would otherwise make possible.

Editing a question later

Editing a question does not re-mark attempts already sat. What somebody sat is what they were marked on. The same principle runs through the whole compliance side: a decision is made against the rules as they stood.

Editing does not reorder anything either. A question corrected stays where it was.

Writing questions worth asking

• Ask about judgement rather than recall. "Which of these should you escalate today" beats "how many days does the policy say".
• Make the wrong answers plausible. An answer nobody would choose is not testing anything.
• Use a scenario where the point is applying something. A short situation and "what do you do" is worth three definition questions.
• A picture can go on a question, which is how you ask somebody to spot the four things wrong with an email.