Multimedia Assessments: Tools for making dynamic audio-and video-based tests

Google Form

Video, audio, and images can spark students’ imaginations in ways that text alone sometimes can’t. Likewise, multimedia often helps students gain a deeper understanding of a question. In the past a struggling reader might have had assessment questions read aloud to him or her. Now, online video and audio allows these students take tests without another reader present.

Metta is a digital presentation tool that enables you to combine videos from YouTube, pictures from the web or your desktop, text, and voice recordings in one presentation. After you’ve assembled that part, you can insert multiple-choice quiz questions to gauge your test takers’ understanding. Students must answer questions before moving onto the next part of the presentation. Share your Metta assessments simply by giving students the URL. They can also be distributed to students through Edmodo and may also be saved in your Google Drive account.

ImageQuiz is a free service enabling quiz creation based on any images you own or that you find online. Students answer ImageQuiz questions by clicking on a portion of your chosen picture. For instance, if you use an uploaded image of a map, you can design questions that require users to click on states, cities, or countries, for their responses.

Creating an ImageQuiz assessment is easy. First, give your quiz a title and upload a picture or copy and paste the URL of an online image. Then, draw outlines around the portions of the picture that feature your answers. Finally, write your questions and try out your quiz. Distribute your ImageQuiz by sharing its URL—and feel free to check out my sample quiz: http://ow.ly/sxHnQ.

eduCanon is a free service for creating, assigning, and tracking students’ progress on flipped lessons built from YouTube, TeacherTube and Vimeo videos. Key feature: the option to track your students’ progress as they work through an assignment.

To create eduCanon lessons, start by identifying a topic and objective. Then, within the eduCanon site, search YouTube, TeacherTube, and Vimeo to find an appropriate video. Next step is to build multiple-choice questions throughout your video’s timeline. You may create as many lessons as you like and assign them any time.

Kahoot , a service for delivering online quizzes and surveys to students, has a premise similar to Socrative and Infuse Learning, which I’ve covered here previously. Kahoot builds quizzes that your students can access through any device with a web browser (iPad, Android device, Chromebook). Each question can include pictures and videos. As the teacher, you may control the pace of the Kahoot quiz or survey by imposing a time limit for each question. Students are awarded points for correct answers and the timeliness of their responses.

Finally, just in time for the 2013-2014 school year, Google has added native support for using videos in Google Forms, allowing you to create quizzes including YouTube videos and pictures. To do this, simply select “image” or “video” from the “add item” menu in your Google Form. If your school uses Google Apps for Education, this platform may be the most convenient way to create and distribute multimedia quizzes.

Do you think the dynamic multimedia test format will help your students? Then use these tools to craft vibrant, engaging assessments.

Richard Byrne (richardbyrne@freetech 4teachers.com), a high school social studies teacher, writes the award-winning blog “Free Technology for Teachers.”