↓
 

The PolyBlog

My view from the lilypads

  • Home
  • Life
    • Family (all posts)
    • Health and Spiritualism (all posts)
    • Learning and Ideas (all posts)
    • Computers (all posts)
    • Experiences (all posts)
    • Humour (all posts)
    • Quotes (all posts)
  • Reviews
    • Books
      • Master Reading and Review List (by Author)
      • Book Reviews List (by Date of Review)
      • Book Reviews (all posts)
      • PolyWogg’s Reading Challenge
        • 2023
        • 2022
        • 2021
        • 2020
        • 2019
        • 2015, 2016, 2017
    • Movies
      • Master Movie Reviews List (by Title)
      • Movie Reviews List (by Date of Review)
      • Movie Reviews (all posts)
    • Television
      • Television Premieres (by Date of Post)
      • Television (all posts)
      • Master TV Season Reviews List (by Title)
      • TV Season Reviews List (by Date of Review)
  • Writing
    • Writing (all posts)
  • Goals
    • Goals (all posts)
    • #50by50 – Status of completion
    • PolyWogg’s Bucket List, updated for 2016
  • About Me
    • About ThePolyBlog.ca
    • Privacy Policy
    • Subscribe
    • Contact Me
    • WP colour choices
    • PolySites
      • ThePolyBlog.ca (Home)
      • PolyWogg.ca
      • AstroPontiac.ca
  • Andrea’s Corner

Tag Archives: games

Post navigation

← Previous Post

Head-to-head matchup: HD Quiz vs. Quiz and Survey Master vs. Quiz Maker

The PolyBlog
October 8 2020

I’ve been blogging the last week about various options to run trivia quizzes on my website, ranging from basic plugins to premium plugins or even embedding quizzes from external platforms (either dedicated to trivia like Kahoot or generic forms with a quiz option like MS or Google Forms). In my last post (Considering different trivia managers), I covered a huge list and while some of them were awesome in their own right, I have a very specific goal in mind with five criteria.

I narrowed it down to three free plugins for WordPress and for the head-to-head matchup, I am ONLY considering the basic plugin, not the premium options.

Setting up my criteria

For scoring/results, I’m looking for something other than just a score, all of them do that obviously. However, some of the full list of plugins added extra clicks to see the results, immediate answers per question vs. seeing everything at the end, etc.

For basic styling, I want to know that it is livable without any extra tweaking behind the scenes. I hesitate to reduce it to just saying that the defaults are acceptable, but that is close to what I mean. A slightly different way of understanding it is more like “how close is the basic styling to what I want”, because the closer it is, the less work I have to do to fix it. If it starts off crappy, then I have to do more to get it looking proper.

For advanced styling, I want to know a few things. Can I add images to the quiz opening and to individual questions? Can I change highlight colours, fonts, borders? Even if the basic is acceptable, how much tweaking can I do from within the plugin to get it fully tricked-out if I choose that one for the final option.

For tracking results, I am not sure how much weight I want to give it. I really don’t have a desire to have people log in, and I don’t want the responsibility to track that data. What I really want, I think, is more like a video game console with a high-score tracker and the ability to enter your name when you get a new high-score. That is a rare functionality.

I didn’t track the next two criteria in my initial review of all of the plugins but I feel there should be a basic review of flexibility and usability.

For flexibility, some allow the ability to create banks of questions and generate new quizzes dynamically. Equally, others allow shuffling answer options within a question or even questions within a quiz. For usability, it is probably simplest just to ask if I like using it? Or am I going to be fighting with it to make it do what I want? Cuz if I don’t like it, I am going to be constantly thinking there must be some sort of better solution out there. Instead, I want to nail it early and start putting up questions.

Head-to-head results

I’m scaling everything on a 5-point scale with no ties possible, each criteria has to have a clear separation and ranking between the three. I’ll give myself a bit of flex in terms of the points within 1-5.

HD QUIZQUIZ AND SURVEY MASTERQUIZ MAKER
Scoring / Results2
(okay layout at the end, not much “community”)
1
(forced results during, no community at end, slow scoring after each question)
4
(good layout, results at the end and/or during, sound if I want it or not, and comparisons of other people’s results)
Basic styling3
(good layout of individual questions, highly readable, paginated)
1
(option to style text of each question or answer option is powerful but too manual, not enough theming)
4
(strong formatting layout at beginning for intro, pagination, good colour options)
Advanced styling0
(nothing special)
0
(nothing special)
3
(good overall options, highly readable)
Timer1
(doesn’t work right with theme)
0
(none)
3
(per quiz)
Tracking results0
(none)
2
(none with quiz, separate page)
3
(average, separate page but not useful without logins)
Flexibility in questions0
(none, no randomness, banks, single use)
3
(random answer order)
4
(reuse questions, banks, randomize answer order)
Usability1
(too basic)
4
(single quiz, easy to configure)
3
(banks of questions to combine into quizzes)
TOTAL POINTS71124
Bonus points for other options02
(emails, contacts)
2
(results tracking internally)
Ratings from beta testers025
REVISED TOTAL71531

When I started the quiz comparison based on the earlier overall weed, I thought the scores would be close. I was wondering if I would have to start weighting elements to give more stratification of results; obviously I didn’t. Not only was my own experience clearly in favour of Quiz Maker over the other two, and even Quiz and Survey Maker over HD Quiz, my beta testers for the resulting quizzes online were ALSO clearly of the same view. They thought Quiz Maker had a much superior look and feel while playing, QSM was adequate but lacking, and HD Quiz was too basic.

Quiz Maker beat the other two by a country mile. I’d prefer the quizzes weren’t done as separate questions and having to “add” Qs to banks or to a specific quiz, but that weakness may turn out to be a strength in the long-term. Let’s play trivia…

Posted in Computers, To Be Updated | Tagged computers, games, trivia | Leave a reply

Considering different trivia managers

The PolyBlog
October 4 2020

As I’ve mentioned in some recent posts, I am starting to get re-interested in trivia games online, and since I’ve always wanted trivia games on my site, I decided to do a shallow but extensive dive into various tools that will let me run trivia games on my website. Since I run my site with WordPress, I started with plugin options, and various lists of the top quiz plugins to consider and then branched out to other options. While the idea of a really advanced quiz plugin sounds appealing in theory with power out the wazoo, the reality is that … Continue reading →

Posted in Computers, To Be Updated | Tagged computers, games, trivia | Leave a reply

Today I choose to play with Kahoot (TIC00067f)

The PolyBlog
October 2 2020

For those reading the post yesterday about my love of trivia, you already know that I am helping out with a trivia game for our Charitable Campaign at work. The exact FORMAT of that trivia game is still to be determined. I have a few options, and a number of variables that complicate the game. First and foremost, it has to be fully bilingual. We’re a bilingual workforce, anglophone and francophone players may both want to play, and I need to have a game (*) available they both (*) can play. I put asterisks in that sentence because one of … Continue reading →

Posted in Goals | Tagged games, goals, TIC, today I choose | Leave a reply

Understanding Video Games – Week 11 – Serious Games

The PolyBlog
June 1 2018

For the last week, they note that there are lots of types of games that are supposedly “serious” i.e. aimed at serious purposes. In the history, the longest running example are wargames, but there are also “tycoon” games that are about business simulations. However, the largest sub-genre are education games, such as the Oregon Trail or Carmen Sandiego. Over time, the educational starter series have moved into mobile apps, virtual environment, and training simulations. Stepping back from the genre, I can see how they are dividing things. For example, there are: – games used in instruction, where the game is … Continue reading →

Posted in Learning and Ideas | Tagged Coursera, games, gamification, learning, serious, video | Leave a reply

Understanding Video Games – Week 10 – Race

The PolyBlog
May 31 2018

The first video for the week notes that “colour” is frequently used as a way of showing race, even when it is two armies — one red, one blue. As you go through the next four videos, it is expanded to show how race is used to indicate “the other” — an opponent, for example. Some examples for the week include: Choices may often reflect external racism i.e. “black dwarves” are more evil than light dwarves, often as proxies for more complex situations; Race serves as the basis for conflict, and conflict can serve as the basis for a narrative … Continue reading →

Posted in Learning and Ideas | Tagged Coursera, games, learning, race, video | Leave a reply

Post navigation

← Previous Post

My Latest Posts

  • Deadlines, dominoes, and delaysJanuary 30, 2023
    As most people who have read this blog from time to time already know, I’m big on time management techniques, various options for to-do lists and tracking tasks. I like to set ambitious annual goals, and then monitor them throughout the year. Some years turn out better than others. Whereas many people set resolutions and … Continue reading →
  • Curated: We Need To Talk About Professional Jealousy – Electric LiteratureJanuary 20, 2023
    I occasionally like to share online articles that I like, and you’ll see sporadic posts entitled “Articles I Like” throughout the blog. But honestly, Curated is probably a more accurate title. I recently found an article by Benjamin Schaefer on the website Electric Literature, although I was led there by ThePassiveVoice website. The article is … Continue reading →
  • Schrodinger’s computer purge (part 1 / 3)January 15, 2023
    So, I’m a techno-wannabe-geek with elements of hoarding in my DNA. I find it hard to dispose of working computer parts, long after I’ve outgrown the need for them. Some “saves” are practical and some are not. And like Schrodinger’s cat, my computer purge is both real and theoretical at the same time. A. Network … Continue reading →
  • Some more reading ideas…January 15, 2023
    Chapters/Indigo has their Reading Challenge for the year too. They do it up like a bingo card, but the headings are: I’ll have to go through some of the links to see if there’s anything I want to add to my long list. 🙂
  • 11 years, a gig platform, and a chequeJanuary 13, 2023
    Somewhere in this universe, if life after death exists, my father is rolling over in his grave. Or rolling his eyes, shrugging his shoulders, throwing up his hands…whatever the ghosts do when they see their descendants doing stuff that they think is ridiculous. And it is NOT my father’s fault. Let me be clear. He … Continue reading →

Archives

Categories

© 1996-2021 - PolyWogg
↑