MemberPress Quiz Question Types: What You Should Know

Last updated September 14th, 2024 at 05:12 pm

In April of this year, MemberPress posted this announcement to their blog:

We’re thrilled to announce game-changing NEW quiz features that will take your MemberPress courses to the next level. From setting minimum passing scores to offering quiz retakes and introducing new question types, we’re here to revolutionize the way you engage with your students.

While this update to the quizzes feature included Minium Passing Scores and Quiz Retakes, the purpose of this article is to describe and give examples of all nine quiz question types and to share my analysis of when to use which question types in your MemberPress courses.

Nine (9) Question Types

Here are the quiz question types that are part of the MemberPress Courses addon, as of this writing.

• Multiple Choice
• Multiple Answer
• True/False
• Short Answer
• Essay
• Fill in the Blanks (*New*)
• Sort the Values (*New*)
• Match Matrix (*New*)
• Likert Scale (*New*)

Overview Video

Watch this video for examples of the nine (9) types of quiz questions. In under 5 minutes, I take a 9-question quiz and show you how the results can be presented to the user.

How Each Question Type is Scored

As you plan your course quizzes, it’s important to understand how each question type is scored. This is because some are determinative (i.e., have correct answers) while others are indeterminative (i.e. typically do not have correct answers).

My point is that, under some circumstances, it might not be advisable to include too many indeterminative questions in a quiz whose results help determine whether a student receives a certification of completion.

Suppose for example you offer a course on physical fitness. Students who successfully complete the course (including a minimum passing score on one or more quizzes) will receive certificates of completion. You might want to think twice about predicating a certificate of completion on a course that includes quizzes that included a significant number of questions that did not have objectively correct answers.

Determinative Quiz Question Types

1. Multiple Choice
2. Multiple Answer
3. True/False
4. Fill in the Blanks
5. Sort the Values
6. Match Matrix

Indeterminative Quiz Question Types

1. Short Answer
2. Essay
3. Likert Scale

For these three quiz question types, one receives the allocated points as long as he or she furnishes an answer (any answer) to the question — and, in the case of the Essay question, enters something within the minimum and maximum number of characters.

Unless/until MemberPress integrates AI into its courses system, the Short Answer and Essay quiz question types inarguably require a person to review and score answers to these types of questions if they are to be used in a determinative way.

The Likert Scale quiz question type is an interesting one, and one I’d be careful about using it in a determinative way. It’s probably most useful as a method for obtaining subjective feedback, insofar as its original and probably most common application is to obtain respondents’ self reports about how much they agree or disagree with a given statement.

I suppose one way a Likert Scale quiz question could be used somewhat determinatively (in the hypothetical case of the Fitness course) is to ask:

Please report the average number of steps per day you logged over the past month. Remember: You are on your honor (and we reserve the right to see your fitbit app).

  Under 2,000
  2,000 – 5,000
  5,000 – 10,000
  10,000 – 20,000
  Over 20,000

That’s it for now.

If you’d like more detailed information about MemberPress course quizzes, let me know in the comments below. Thanks.