QUIZ BUILDER SHOOTOUT 1

I chose to use TopGrade to create my assessment. Overall, I liked Topgrade, but I don't know
that it's necessarily better than what I am currently using with my classes (Google Forms).
Tool functionalities and overall ease of use
I felt that Topgrade was very simple to use. There are five different types of questions that you
can create: multiple choice, fill-in-the-blank, true or false, ordering, or matching. When you
select a question type, the page changes so that the forms on the page are related only to that
question type. The page explains what each textbox is for, making it hard to get confused as you
create.
The only things I found difficult about the program were the following. When I took the quiz, I
did find the matching and ordering a little tedious, because the answers must be dragged into
place a certain way, or they return back to where they originally loaded. This did take some time
to figure out. While I like that you can time the questions, there is also no option to remove the
timer. I set all my questions to 5 minutes knowing they would not really take that long to
answer.
Explanatory feedback capabilities, including multimedia
I felt that the capabilities were not very advanced, but that may not necessarily be a bad thing.
You could not embed videos with the questions, though you could embed pictures. It is possible,
however, that a video could be too distracting for learners, and would not work well with the
timer aspect of the quiz. One other problem I had with the site was that it did not really allow for
much feedback. There was an option to give feedback, but the site would give the same
feedback whether or not a learner got the question right or wrong. It also allowed the learner to
choose whether they saw the feedback or not by clicking "review question," which could break
concentration during the quiz. The learner was also alerted immediately to whether or not they
got the question right, which can lower morale.
Sharing options
The quizzes are public, so anyone can take them. They are shared three ways: either by sharing
directly to Google Classroom via clicking a button, by getting the link from the website and
posting it, or by embedding the code for the quiz into a website that allows iFrames.
Feedback timing release
Feedback is immediate. As I said above, that can hurt learner morale. It is also possible to miss
feedback, as a student will not be given more than summary feedback if they do not click
"review question."
Final judgment
If you do not already have access to something more common such as Google Forms, then I
think this site would be helpful. But it doesn't really add anything new to the world of online
assessment; it's very similar to what's already out there. I do like that you can time questions
(though you cannot choose not to time them), and I like the drag and drop mechanic (though it is
QUIZ BUILDER SHOOTOUT 2

sensitive and requires a small learning curve). However, I don't think these mechanics are so
important that they make the site stand out from other platforms.