Photo from creative commons by Albert K Law
Choosing a quiz maker software is easy! Right? Actually because there are tons of them out there, selecting one can be a confusing and even overwhelming task. However, getting the correct software can be easy if you can answer the following questions. Ready?
1. What’s your role?
Are you a corporate trainer? A teacher? A blogger/webmaster? or a someone who just wants to create fun quizzes for their friends?
There are different types of quiz software programs out there with different purposes, features, and benefits which is why it’s important to identify who your audience is in relationship to your role. Here’s a short list of typical roles:
- Business Trainers, Software Trainers, Motivational Speaker, Educators
You need: A full-featured quiz software, geared towards improving learning, not just assessing skill or rote memorization. (Obviously, we recommend that you download Question Writer and try it out.)
- Webmasters / Bloggers
You need: Quiz tools that will allow you to do surveys, polls, simple multiple choice questions, and multimedia elements such as images and video.
- Personal Users
You need: The fun stuff! Easy to use, online or desktop doesn’t matter, mostly just multiple choice questions. But, with Question Writer, you can do a lot more fun stuff than what most of the online tools can do. Plus!!! We’re just about to release a Facebook app. Woohoo! Speaking of needs, this brings us to the next question.
2. What do you want and need?
- Make a list of things that YOU want from a quiz maker software.
- For example, you may need it to:
- Randomize questions
- Use photos, audio and video in questions
- Send results to email (goodbye to manually checking tests forever)
- Track and analyze results online
- Options for partial credit for questions, true or false, multiple choice, fill-in-the-blanks, matching, sequencing, multiple response, plug in and explanation
- Multiple score tracking
Knowing what features are right for you will help you eliminate other quiz making programs that don’t meet your needs.
3. What’s your budget?
Price is an important factor to consider when you are shopping for a quiz maker. You want something affordable that meets your needs. Most quiz software programs make you pay monthly – which adds up. Our customers tell us that they prefer to just pay one time to have unlimited access to the software’s features. Not to mention, that our basic (free) version, works fine for the teenagers and people who just wanna have fun with it.
4. Is it cooperating?
After the software is installed, does it run smoothly? Because if you experience those nasty bugs that cause your software to shut down while you’re working on something, then it’s not helping you at all. Before you buy, do a little research on the product by checking out reviews or forums for any possible problems other users have encountered. This will save you time, money and the frustration.
Ease of use is what our customers like the most about our software. So what does this tell you? Based on what our customers are telling us, the most important stuff to look for in a quiz maker regarding basic functionality, is that it is stable, easy to use and fast.
5. Do you want to manage your quizzes and results?
Our quiz software comes with a free quiz management software called Question Writer Trackerwhich lets you do the following:
- upload completed quizzes for easy access
- track and analyze test results
- set who can access your quizzes
- set how many times your quizzes can be taken
Remember that when choosing a quiz maker, the bottom line is that it should make your life easier. There really is no one-size-fits-all solution here because the right software for you will be based on your specific needs and requirements. Whatever feels right for you is what you should go with. Of course we think our test making tool is the best, but now you know what to look for now, so you can come to your own conclusion.
“I have reviewed multiple software packages . . . QW seems far superior in its simplicity as well as the quality of quiz produced. A major strength is the ‘drag and drop’ interface, allowing questions to be easily imported or sorting to be rapidly done. No other test software has this. The theme system is also wonderful.”
Dr. Joe Donovan
Associate Professor
West Virginia University