This page contains help and video guides to enable you to make the most of the new features on my Diagnostic Questions website, which allows teachers and students from around the world to identify and resolve key misconceptions.
Diagnostic Questions in 2 and a half minutes
If you want a 2 and a half minutes minute taster of what the website is all about, this is the video for you 🙂
Basics
- How to add schools, students and teachers
- How to create questions
- How to create quizzes
- How to assign a quiz
- How to create a live quiz
Teachers
- Pedagogy and when to use Diagnostic Questions
- How to analyse your students’ results
- How to compare classes and cohorts
- How to identify misconceptions before you teach
Students
Academics
Please note: the website is currently in Beta mode. This means it is very much under development. If you spot anything not working, or have any suggestions for improvements or new features, please let us know using the Contact Form
How to add Schools, Students and Teachers
You can easily add your school, invite fellow teachers and invite students to join classes. We have a new, improved way of doing this involving “invite codes”. This also makes it very easy to move students between classes, have students belong to more than one class and to set up for the new school year. There is a video below and here is a nice step-by-step guide 🙂 Back to Video Index
How to Create Questions
Teachers and students creating and sharing questions will enable the website to keep growing. It is also an excellent form of professional development for teachers and enrichment for students. Back to Video Index
How to Create a Quiz
It is simple to build a quiz out of a selection of the 1000s of questions freely available on the site. You might want to build a quiz covering a specific topic, or a more general one for revision. Keep the quiz to yourself, share it with the colleagues in your school, or make it publicly available for all – the choice is yours! 🙂 Back to Video Index
How to Assign a Quiz
Browse through 100s of publicly available quizzes, or set one you have created. Preview the questions in the quiz first to check it is just right. Print off a pdf copy if you want your students to do it using pen and paper. Assign the quiz to your chosen class of students, set a deadline, and the quiz will automatically appear when they next log onto the website. Back to Video Index
How to Create a Live Quiz
Easily create a Live Quiz to use in your classroom. Anyone can join in seconds using any piece of technology. The teacher controls the pace of the questions, only moving on when you feel it is appropriate. You can see results and explanations instantly, allowing you to stop the quiz and intervene as and when is necessary. Back to Video Index
Pedagogy and when to use Diagnostic Questions
A short video on the educational value of diagnostic questions as an effective tool for assessment for learning. We look at the different options of when to use them in a lesson, various ideas of how to respond to students’ answers, and the many benefits of both teachers and students creating their own diagnostic questions. Back to Video Index
How to Analyse your Students’ Results to a Quiz
View your students’ responses to a question or a quiz and instantly get a general feel for their level of understanding. Take this to the next level by reading their explanations they have given to gain and in-depth knowledge of the strengths, weaknesses and misconceptions in your class. Show your students a wide variety of correct explanations to help deepen their learning and understanding. Back to Video Index
How to Compare Classes and Cohorts
Make in-depth and insightful comparisons between the performance of your class and other classes in your school, girls v boys, various age groups, or against different cohorts of students from all over the world. Back to Video Index
How to Identify Misconceptions before you teach
Use the vast amount of data available on the website to identify key misconceptions students have in a particular topic before you teach it to your students. View statistics and read actual student explanations to gain real insight into how students approach given topics, allowing you to be better informed before entering the classroom. This could be very useful for student teachers, newly qualified teachers, teachers who have not taught a topic for a while, or teachers who simply want to be better informed as to how students think and learn. Back to Video Index
How Students can browse Questions and view explanations
Students (and teachers!) can use the website to test their subject knowledge and understanding of any subject they fancy by trying to answer a question on it. They can do this on their computer, smart phone or tablet. Crucially, they can then check their answer and view explanations given by students from all around the world until they find one that makes sense for them to help resolve their own misconception. Back to Video Index
How to Revise for Exams Effectively
Students can use the Diagnostic Questions website to help with their revision (GCSE, A Level or topic specific) or to gain a deeper understanding of a topic of their choice. A great way to do this is to hone in on the specific areas of maths they have struggled on, view their past attempts at questions, try them again, view correct explanations, and then browse for similar questions to have a go at. Focussed, effective revision. Back to Video Index
How to Identify Key Trends
Academics (and fellow geeks like myself!) can use the website and its wealth of high quality data to identify fascinating and important trends in learning. How do girls compare to boys? How do learners in China compare to learners in the UK? How does age affect performance on certain questions? The more students from all around the world use the site, the more valuable insights we will learn. Back to Video Index
Can i set our year 11 quizzes to my studetns? I cant figure out how to do this. I have read your instructions but cant find where they are stored.
Thanks
Of course. Just visit Quizzes, find the one you want, and click on the assign icon as shown in the Assigning Quizzes video. You’ll need to have imported your students first. Let me know how you get on 🙂
Can I print out the diagnostic questions as a worksheet for those of my students who do not have access to a computer or tablet at home?
You certainly can! There is a generate pdf button that sits just below the quiz. Let me know if you struggle finding it
Thank you, found and used.
Can you clarify for me how the streams work – I have set up my class of year 11 students and they have inputted their email addresses. Am I right in assuming that now the questions are just emailed to them every day? How do they answer them? Thanks
Hi Tracy
If you have uploaded all your students & purchased the Streams, then you should receive a confirmation email with all the instructions. In short, your students just need to log in between 6am & 11pm each day, and two questions will be waiting for them. If you have any trouble, let me know, and I’ll put you in contact with Simon who will assist you.
Cheers
Craig
This fantastic – what a great use of new technology. I’m going to be using this heavily.
Is there any way to track results over time and filter down by question topic? This could then be used to show progress over time.
Can I download my data?
Hi Paul,
Thanks for the comments. You certainly can track students progress over time and filter down by question topic. The easiest way to do this is via the Data section and click on Questions. We are currently working on improving the Data section, so any suggestions will be gratefully received. Downloading student data is also something we are looking at! 🙂
Craig
Do the questions start at a certain level? Is it suitable for KS2?
Yes, there are plenty of Key Stage 2 topics covered. Craig
After a student has taken a quiz, can they print off the quiz with their answers?
Hi Katie,
As there teacher, you can do this by visiting the Quiz Insight page, where you go to view your students results. At the bottom of the page, there are download buttons next to each student’s name. We hope to allow students to do this themselves soon.
Hi
Is it possible to create student accounts for all my pupils in bulk. Getting every one of our pupils to set up their own account will take a considerable amount of time and involve alot of chasing up. We are keen to start assigning test as soon as possible.
Many Thanks
Kev
Sure. Just email [email protected] with a spreadsheet with you students’ names and their classes, and we will do it for you.
I am struggling to add a teacher. I input her email and created an account but she did not receive the email/password invitation. I then deleted the account I had created for her as administrator (to try again) but now I cannot create her an account at all as the email is linked to the previous account I had made.
Help please!
Hi,
Is there a way to track the whole of KS3 data? I am a new KS3 lead and want to see how the rest of the department is performing.