Yesterday, I ran a quiz for my Senior Econ  classes online, using Examview Test Generator and our class wiki. The results were rather good, although there are adjustments I need to make.

I made the quiz, a review of the terms we had been discussing, in Examview and chose to save them as an html file. I went to my class wiki at http;//mrsal.wikispaces.com and upload the quiz as a regular file. I have a page set up for this purpose.

In class the students went to the wiki page and opened the test on the iPod Touches. They had to enlarge the text to read the choices. All the questions were multiple choice or true/false, so the students only had to negotiate a drop down menu to answer the questions. You can create any number of formats, but I did not want to overwhelm them on the first try.

I allowed the students to use their online notes in Google Docs or Evernote, or their paper copies of the notes. Most of the students used the on;ine version of their notes and were scrolling back and forth between the web pages. This was difficult for a few students to handle, so they reverted to paper notes.

We did have a couple of students hit the wrong button to submit the quiz to me via e-mail, however we were able to get back to the quizzes without losing any information. The quizzes and results were then sent to my e-mail.

The first adjustment that I need to make is to have a paper copy of the version for students to have, just in case they want an easier copy to read. They will still answer online, but reading from a paper copy will help several of my kids out. They were struggling with scrolling around the screen while trying to read the enlarged text.

The main adjustment is for me to use quizzes for formative assessment, short quick reviews and study guides, instead of larger summative exams. The shorter versions will allow, or force students to see how much of the material they understand. They can then adjust their study habits accordingly. I will give them participation points for using these as a self-assesment tool. In the past it seemed to help my students greatly.

Overall I was very pleased with how the exercise went.