Use the Impossible to Fail Quiz to Give Students Instant Remediation

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Does your gut (and your assessment) tell you some students didn’t get it the first time you taught it? Would you like to give students remediation exclusively for concepts they don’t understand? Isn’t it impossible to deliver precise remediation to each student in your classroom?

The solution to these challenges is the Impossible to Fail Quiz. I had the opportunity to learn about this tool from Chris Aviles at EdCamp New Jersey. The Impossible to Fail Quiz uses two components of Google Forms that had previously been unexplored frontiers for me: “Go to page based on answer” and inserting page breaks. This tutorial takes you step-by-step through the process of designing an Impossible to Fail Quiz. If you are curious about the student experience, take an Impossible to Fail Quiz before we get started. Two quick points before we start:

  • The quiz is impossible to fail because it directs students to a review video when they incorrectly answer a question. Students then re-try the question. Every time they answer incorrectly, they are directed to the video. When students answer correctly, they move on to the next question.
  • The quiz is meant as an opportunity for students to practice and receive remediation when needed. It is not meant to be an assessment tool. Each student will eventually choose the right answer to the questions.

Start by opening Google Drive and creating a new Google Form:

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Follow the pattern of adding a page break and a question for as many questions as you want. I recommend keeping it short. I like five questions.

Now it is time to add the magic of the Impossible to Fail Quiz: videos! Wrong answers will direct students a video that reviews the concept addressed by the question. I use Screencastify to make videos with my ChromebookSnagIt works too, but I prefer Screencastify. Making your own screencast videos is great, but you can use any video on YouTube if you prefer. My suggestion is to keep the video short so students watch and quickly return to the question. To add videos to the quiz:

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Now return to your multiple choice questions. You have to tinker with them so that correct answers advance to the next question and incorrect answers advance to the videos.

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This is what students will see after they correctly answer the final question:

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Take care of one last detail on each of the video pages and you have an Impossible to Fail Quiz ready to go!

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With that, your Impossible to Fail Quiz is ready to go. Take the quiz designed in this tutorial to acquaint yourself with the student user experience.

17 responses to “Use the Impossible to Fail Quiz to Give Students Instant Remediation”

  1. […] This is a great way to use Google Forms to review concepts with students.  You can set up your questions so that if they select the wrong answer it will take them to a page with a video to watch and review the skills. Perfect way to make sure students are on the right track and understanding the lesson.  Click here to see an example and view the instructions. […]

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  2. Brooke Hall Avatar
    Brooke Hall

    Thanks for this awesome tutorial!!

    Like

  3. JB Avatar

    I love this and will incorporate, thanks for this! Two questions, what do the form responses look like in the sheet? Can we see how many times the student answered incorrectly or is only their correct response recorded?

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    1. tommullaney Avatar

      Thanks for the feedback! The form responses look like any other Google Form sheet. Even though everybody gets 100% I like to use Flubaroo to e-mail results to further reinforce. As for the second question, at present you cannot see how many attempts students made or what their initial incorrect answer was. One way to get a sense of how the whole class did is look at the number of views on the videos before and after the quiz. If the video views increased by a lot, you know many students guessed incorrectly at that question.

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  4. Jose G Avatar
    Jose G

    Tom-
    such a fantastic idea. what strategies do you use to keep students from jut returning to the question page and guessing over and over again until correct?

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    1. tommullaney Avatar

      I’m glad you asked.

      At the start of the quiz I project my expectations on the SmartBoard. One is that when directed to a video, students are required to watch it in its entirety. Then I have students face the SmartBoard with me behind them. I let them know I am monitoring their screens just like I do during tests. Students wear headphones/earbuds while watching the videos. The videos are no more than two minutes long so watching the whole video is not that difficult.

      Please let me know if you have more questions!

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  5. Mona Avatar
    Mona

    Thanks so much! This is a great idea!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. tommullaney Avatar

      Mona, thanks for the compliment! So happy I could help!

      Like

  6. C.K. Avatar
    C.K.

    Thanks for the information on Flubaroo !

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  7. tommullaney Avatar

    CK, Thank you. I have to update this post and my other posts about Google Forms because they have changed. My goal is to have them all updated by the end of October/mid-November.

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  8. The Impossible to Fail Quiz in the New Google Forms | Sustainable Teaching Avatar

    […] to Fail Quiz at EdCamp New Jersey, I liked it so much I used it with my students and created a tutorial to show other teachers how to make it. This quiz is a great strategy to deliver precise remediation to students who need multiple […]

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  9. […] Sustainable Teaching – Use The Impossible To Fail Quiz For Instant Remediation […]

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  10. Jessica Avatar
    Jessica

    This is an awesome article! Google forms is a wonderful tool and I can’t wait to integrate this assignment!

    Like

    1. tommullaney Avatar

      Thank you, Jessica. Good luck!

      Like

  11. Janet Avatar
    Janet

    Thank you so much for this wonderful resource, including clearly defined directions on how to create the form.

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  12. Michelle Avatar
    Michelle

    Is there a way to do this with free response? Have you tried it and HOW specific do the answers have to be for Floobaroo to grade etc?

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    1. tommullaney Avatar

      Michelle, I’m sorry there is not. This hinges on having right answers (to move to the next question) and wrong ones (to go to sections with videos). Additionally, Flubaroo for grading isn’t needed here because all students will answer all questions correctly eventually. For assessment with feedback, you could look at quiz mode in Google Forms: https://youtu.be/8TBmu6Xy-ns

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