Create Memorable Story-based Test Questions - Tip #28

Are you forcing learners to memorize content with no meaning to them?

Are you training them to answer questions blindly and not apply content test to realize situations?

Can they relate the test questions with useful and meaningful knowledge?

Click here to view a segment of "I Choose C".

"I Choose C" is a funny illustration about what happens when we overly focus our elearning courses on memorization tests.

The learner has been trained to expect a selection, a drag and drop or a true or false test. In this case, it is a multiple choice question. This video shows that we fail as trainers when we are unable to help the learners THINK. Instead, we get them accustomed to memorization testing.

Learners learn best and find the lessons more engaging when they are about real-life applications. We can then build real-life application exercises, not memorization tests.

There is no guarantee learners will recall memorized FACT a few days after the test. However, they have better chances of recalling the lesson and the exercise when they relate to their actual work and life situations.

In this demo test lesson, you will see the following:

• Lesson starts with a story about Burglary
• The test exercise is a continuation of the story.

 

 

Tips:

1. Use stories to ensure that lessons are based on real-life events rather than pure facts.
2. Interweaving events and stories with the facts, help learners learn the facts better.
3. Avoid memorization testing of facts. Instead, focus on using the story as the basis of the tests.
4. The story starts within the lesson and continues up until the test.

Stories abound in all aspects of daily life. The challenge is to find those that help your lessons come to life and enable learners to relate to the facts within your stories.

Ray Jimenez, PhD

Vignettes Learning

"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"http://storytakes.com/output/4585/1327/index.html