This week’s E-Learning Heroes Challenge is Using Personality and Social Quizzes.
Unless you live in a cave, you will have seen online quizzes like Which Harry Potter character are you? before. (Perhaps you have already discovered the answer to this question!) These quizzes are a bit of fun and in no way scientific, but can be surprisingly complex in their construction.
They work by tracking your likes, opinions and attitudes and matching your responses against a range of profiles. If you’re bookish and conscientious, you’re Hermione. Loyal but a bit of a coward? You’re definitely Ron. There’s a lot of pop psychology involved, but the appeal of these quizzes is they apparently reveal something hidden or intrinsic about you.
The key feature of personality and social quizzes is there is no wrong answer. You might prefer to be Harry rather than Snape; you may even repeat the test until the sorting hat gives you the answer you like.
But they can be used in less frivolous ways. Gauging how patient or tolerant you are could be helpful in a soft skills course, for instance. In this way, a personality test could function as a ‘pre-test’ before a course. So knowing how to build this type of quiz is a useful skill for e-learning designers.
This week's @ELHChallenge is 𝗨𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗦𝗼𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗤𝘂𝗶𝘇𝘇𝗲𝘀.
— ᴊ ᴏ ɴ ᴀ ᴛ ʜ ᴀ ɴ_ʜ ɪ ʟ ʟ (@DevByPowerPoint) September 20, 2022
Nice change to write a quiz with no wrong answer, but I suspect this demo may split opinions!
Are you Star Wars or Star Trek? Find out in my less-than-scientific sci-fi quiz. pic.twitter.com/eHkP3jhgqr
For this challenge I waded into that age old debate: are you Star Wars or Star Trek? I used only five questions so that you emerge as 100% Star Wars or 100% Star Trek or somewhere in between – but always in favour of one option.
The starting score is ‘0’. An answer in favour of Star Wars adds a point and an answer in favour of Star Trek subtracts a point. A score of +5 means you are 100% Star Wars and a score of -5 means you are 100% Star Trek.
Over five questions, with either a point given or a point taken away, there are only 6 possible final scores:
- -5 100% Star Trek
- -3 80% Star Trek
- -1 60% Star Trek
- +1 60% Star Wars
- +3 80% Star Wars
- +5 100% Star Trek
Designing the questions for this quiz was tricky but fun. There could be no wrong answer but I still had to present a clear choice between Star Wars or Star Trek.
So I focused on the areas where the two properties differ the most: transport, commerce, robotics, ethics, languages, religion and government . Framing my questions around these topics highlighted the differences between these science fiction universes, and produced two distinct personality profiles.
I thought it would be interesting to provide feedback during the quiz, rather than wait to the end to reveal your personality. I did this by making the illustrated character’s clothing change, like a bar graph, to show your score as you play.
I also added some audio cues. Select a Star Wars answer, you hear the familiar sound of R2-D2 ; select a Star Trek answer, the distinctive chirp of a combadge.
Do these elements steer you too much in one direction or do they help reinforce your choices? Let me know in the comments!