vrijdag, september 28, 2007
Tutorial: how to create questions
Creating questions is four easy steps: 1- edit, 2- preview, 3- publish and 4- promote. I made a little video tutorial on how to do it. Since Jing has a 5-minute limit, it is split in two parts. So enjoy and surprise me with your questions!
Part 1
Part 2
Transcript:
Hello big world!
My name is Bert and today I want to show you how to create questions on the about2findout.com site. Creating questions is 4 easy steps: first you create and edit the question. You fill in all fields on the form, and don't forget to add relevant tags so people can
easily find your question back. Next in step 2 you preview the question. You can go over all options and links just as any user would see them and check if everything is as you want it. Step 3 is an important step where you publish your question. Once published, the question becomes available to anyone and you get rewarded for making a question. In step 4 we offer you some ways to promote your question like for example linking it from your blog or site.
Let's just do it.
Go to the author zone. You can go to anywhere in the site from any page by going to the main menu in the top left corner. It's the little drop down icon. Select author zone. Here you see a list of all the questions you have made. Questions can either be in draft (that means not published yet), published or expired. To create a question, either press the create button or just hover over it and select the question type from the menu.
That brings us to step 1: editing the question. Notice that the 4 steps are listed in the menu on the right side. Fill in the fields. Fields in bold with an asterix are mandatory. You can't have a question without well... a question, can you? Let's fill this in with an example. The assignment should usually be left blank, but you can type in specific instructions. Don't just say: select the best answer. Everyone knows that. For every type of question you can have other fields to fill in here. For a multiple choice question you provide between two and six answer options. The first one you type in is the correct one. When we show this question the options will always be displayed in random order. Also select the language of your question, and very important, select some tags that classify your question. Whatever you do, don't give away the answer in the tags! Because tagging is so important, you can also use the tag assistent. When you click refresh, the tag assistant will parse the text you typed in and suggest some tags to add.
Before filling in other tabs, I recommend to hit the create button. If you want to provide additional information such as feedback to the options, additional settings, type in a little text that explains, or provide links to relevant places on the internet, by all means do so. The quality of your question will greatly improve when you provide additional information. Don't forget to hit the save button before you go to step 2 and preview the question.
In the preview you can go over the question like anyone on the site would see it. The only differences are that it's a green background because you are in the author zone, you can submit several times to try out all possibilities, and you don't get any points for answering. So you see the instruction belongs here. The links you provide are shown here. If you need to go back and make a change, use the menu on the right. If all is well, proceed to step 3, also with the menu.
Before you are allowed to publish, a few checks are made. You also get to select all the publication types of your question. For example, a multiple choice question with one option, can also be shown as a multiple choice question where the user can select more than one option.
You can go back and correct by clicking on step 1, or hit the publish button if all is OK. You get 5 points every time you publish a new question.
The fourth step allows you to promote your question, for example by copy/pasting the URL to your blog or site. Returning to the Author Zone shows us that we indeed have made a new question, with direct linkt to edit, preview or promote. And that's how easy it is to create questions. Remember: quality goes over quantity, so make good questions and provide proper tags and feedback. Don't make 100 questions at once, it's too much work. Personally I try to make one new question a day. I hope to see some of your questions one of these days!
Part 1Part 2
Transcript:
Hello big world!
My name is Bert and today I want to show you how to create questions on the about2findout.com site. Creating questions is 4 easy steps: first you create and edit the question. You fill in all fields on the form, and don't forget to add relevant tags so people can
easily find your question back. Next in step 2 you preview the question. You can go over all options and links just as any user would see them and check if everything is as you want it. Step 3 is an important step where you publish your question. Once published, the question becomes available to anyone and you get rewarded for making a question. In step 4 we offer you some ways to promote your question like for example linking it from your blog or site.
Let's just do it.
Go to the author zone. You can go to anywhere in the site from any page by going to the main menu in the top left corner. It's the little drop down icon. Select author zone. Here you see a list of all the questions you have made. Questions can either be in draft (that means not published yet), published or expired. To create a question, either press the create button or just hover over it and select the question type from the menu.
That brings us to step 1: editing the question. Notice that the 4 steps are listed in the menu on the right side. Fill in the fields. Fields in bold with an asterix are mandatory. You can't have a question without well... a question, can you? Let's fill this in with an example. The assignment should usually be left blank, but you can type in specific instructions. Don't just say: select the best answer. Everyone knows that. For every type of question you can have other fields to fill in here. For a multiple choice question you provide between two and six answer options. The first one you type in is the correct one. When we show this question the options will always be displayed in random order. Also select the language of your question, and very important, select some tags that classify your question. Whatever you do, don't give away the answer in the tags! Because tagging is so important, you can also use the tag assistent. When you click refresh, the tag assistant will parse the text you typed in and suggest some tags to add.
Before filling in other tabs, I recommend to hit the create button. If you want to provide additional information such as feedback to the options, additional settings, type in a little text that explains, or provide links to relevant places on the internet, by all means do so. The quality of your question will greatly improve when you provide additional information. Don't forget to hit the save button before you go to step 2 and preview the question.
In the preview you can go over the question like anyone on the site would see it. The only differences are that it's a green background because you are in the author zone, you can submit several times to try out all possibilities, and you don't get any points for answering. So you see the instruction belongs here. The links you provide are shown here. If you need to go back and make a change, use the menu on the right. If all is well, proceed to step 3, also with the menu.
Before you are allowed to publish, a few checks are made. You also get to select all the publication types of your question. For example, a multiple choice question with one option, can also be shown as a multiple choice question where the user can select more than one option.
You can go back and correct by clicking on step 1, or hit the publish button if all is OK. You get 5 points every time you publish a new question.
The fourth step allows you to promote your question, for example by copy/pasting the URL to your blog or site. Returning to the Author Zone shows us that we indeed have made a new question, with direct linkt to edit, preview or promote. And that's how easy it is to create questions. Remember: quality goes over quantity, so make good questions and provide proper tags and feedback. Don't make 100 questions at once, it's too much work. Personally I try to make one new question a day. I hope to see some of your questions one of these days!
Labels: about2findout, quiz, tutorial
zondag, september 23, 2007
Do it! (solve questions that is)
In this video I show you how to solve questions on the about2findout.com quiz site.Transcript:
Hello world once more.
I'm Bert De Coutere and today I'm going to show you how to do it. Solving questions on the about2findout.com site that is.
There are many ways to get a question. For example, you can use the menu at the top of the screen (the little arrow) and select a random question. Or you can go to the questions displayed at the ticker bar right here. On the ticker bar you see new questions made by people. Or you can go to someones profile (let me just show you my own profile quickly) and see the questions there. You can launch one by clicking on its ID right here. Or you go to the quiz zone and there you can search for questions or see questions with a common tag in the tag cloud. It's all good. For simplicity sake, let's go back to the home page and select 'Take a random question'. That should do the trick, don't you think so?
Next we get a question. So select an answer, and click submit. If you don't like the question, you can go to a random other question by selecting skip question.
Next you'll see your score. You get 1-3 points for a good answer, depending on the difficulty of the question. If you answer wrong, nothing happens unless it is not the first time you answer this question wrong. Everyone makes mistakes, but smart people only make them once. So the first time you answer wrong, just learn what the right answer was. Next time you answer wrong again, it can cost you 1-3 points (again depending on the difficulty of the question). You can only get points of course when you are logged in, and you cannot get scored twice for the same question in a 3 day grace period.
So we have a full screen right here, what's on it? First of all your score and if you were correct or not. You see how other people did and if you are logged on.
Next you see the correct answer and your own.
At the bottom you see dots as an indicator of the difficulty of the question. There are three levels of difficulty. You also see who created the question and when. If you like the question, why not click on the author and see what other great questions he or she has for you?
Next you have a button for more information. A popup will show you any additional message the author wanted to give you, and links to popular sites such as google or wikipedia.
The next button is 'share question'. With that button you can get the direct URL link to this particular question, in case you want to include it in your blog or site. The next button either closes the window or selects another random question.
On the right side bar, there are a lot of actions you can take to participate in the site and give your feedback, or send a message to the author. First of all you can rate the question. It doesn't take long, just click on the number of stars you want to give and 'send rating'. You'll make the author happy. Under the box you see all the tags related to this question and clicking on one of them will take you to a list of questions with similar tags.
Finally, you can leave comments on the question at the bottom of the screen. Click show to see or add comments. For example, explain why you were wrong or right or if you disagree with the answer provided or have more information on it.
That concludes how you can solve questions on the about2findout.com site. Have fun!
Labels: about2findout, Jing, tutorial
