Question types: Closed (select from options)

Summary

Closed question types such as Multiple-Choice, ranking, and scales questions allow students to select responses from pre-fixed options. There are options for how results are presented including showing the results of a questions organised by responses to a previous question (segmentation) and showing changes in responses over time (trends).

Using closed question types

Staff at York use open question types for a range of purposes and within a range of session types. See the drop-down below for examples.

Case studies: How are staff at the University using closed questions to support teaching and learning?

Staff use closed questions to:

prepare the ground for teaching (eg. exploring pre-existing feelings, knowledge or assumptions related to the subject matter, or highlighting key concepts to be covered).
check knowledge (eg. interspacing lectures with opportunities to check understanding or consider how concepts might be applied in practice).
provide a change of pace or an 'active break' during sessions.
provide opportunities for ice-breakers, self-assessment / reflection on learning, or eliciting feedback on teaching.
gather student feelings and preferences related to learning and teaching.

Examples include

Using Mentimeter to arouse and sustain interest in Psychology lectures
Alex Reid in Psychology who starts lectures with questions that might interest or surprise students about topics such as brain development to warm students up before engaging in the subject. He also uses MCQ and pin on image questions for labelling activities to identify knowledge gaps.
Using Mentimeter to arouse and sustain interest in Psychology lectures
Lilian Blot in Computer Science who uses multiple-choice questions (MCQs) that begin with checking understanding of programming concepts before moving on to application through 'what would the results of this algorithm be?' questions. He encourages students to compare and discuss answers leading to a lively buzz of activity in his lectures.
Using Mentimeter segmentation to explore changes in learning activities
Sally Quinn in Psychology who uses 'Segmentation' with MCQs to highlight changes in student responses before and after teaching.
Using Mentimeter for 'flipped' workshops in Biology
Gareth Evans in Biology who uses scales and MCQ questions for knowledge checking and self assessment in his flipped workshops.
Using Mentimeter for engagement and interest in large two-hour lectures
George Bailey in Language and Linguisic Science who uses competetive quizzes with small prizes to engage students with the subject matter.
Using Mentimeter to gauge students' feelings and preferences
David O'Reilly in Education who uses MCQs to support planning across a module, eliciting student preferences, experience, and confidence levels to help him to make choices over content and examples to include in teaching.
Mentimeter for 'icebreakers' in seminars
Yaprak Tavman in Economics who uses true/false questions for truth or lie icebreaker activities at the start of her seminars to help increase engagement and create a positive atmosphere for learning and groupwork.

You can see more examples of how staff have used the different question types in Mentimeter from the case studies page. This allows you to browse the examples by question type, as well as purpose, session type and subject area.

Multiple-choice questions

Multiple-choice questions provide an option for students to select one or more options from a list. You can pre-select a correct answer to be revealed at a time of your choice if you wish. The results can displayed in the form of a bar chart as follows:

MCQ responses in bar chart format. Question: In which of the following contexts have you used Mentimeter / polling? Responses: Lectures/presentations (15) Smaller workshop/seminar sessions (18) Online synchronous sessions, e.g. using Zoom (21) Asynchronous use between sessions (e.g. in the VLE or emailed to participants before a session) (2) Other(s) 8

Alternatively, the results can be shown in the form of a pie chart, donut or dots as follows:

MCQ Results (same question as above) displayed in the form of a pie chart, donut (ringed pie chart) and dots (one small dot for each response shown in a group next to each option

Tip

Feedback from students at the University shows a preference in knowledge checking MCQ questions for the answers to be hidden as they are received to give all students the chance to respond without being influenced by the answers of others. See the following Mentimeter guide to learn how to show or hide responses.

For multiple-choice questions with a single correct answer you can also apply 'segmentation' which allows you to display the results of questions organised according to responses to a previous question. This can allow you to make connections between the results of different questions and to highlight patterns in, for example, whether those answering question 1 in a particular way are more likely to answer question 2 in a particular way. Asking the same question(s) at different stages of a session can also be a useful way of exploring and highlighting changes after teaching or discussion.

Case study: Using segmentation to track changes in learning activities

Sally Quinn describes how she uses 'segmentation' to show changes in responses before and after an activity. By repeating the same question, Sally is able to uncover ways in which students might have 'changed their minds' about particular questions and to use this to inform her teaching and provide feedback.

Watch their presentation:

Using segmentation to track changes in learning activities (Panopto viewer) (2 min 03 secs, UoY log-in required)

See the full case study for more details and the transcript. You can also browse our full set of case studies.

Ranking

Ranking questions allow students to put options in order and displays the responses by average ranking:

Question: What aspects of Mentimeter did students think were the most important? Ranked responses are shown from 37 responses as follows: Rank 1: Anonymity & Active participation in class time; 2: Checking understanding & Interaction with teaching staff; 3: Variety & Fun; 4: Change of pace & Comparison with others; 5: Receiving feedback & Stimulating reflection/deeper learning.

Scales

Scales questions allow students to select a response on a sliding scale. Answers are presented with the mean highlighted and the distribution shown. Hovering over a question shows the specifics of how many students selected each option on the scale:

Question: How well do these methods support your learning. Average responses on a scale of 1 to 10 - bad to good - are: Active learning: 8.9, Lectures: 7.1, Peer-to-peer problem solving: 5.3, Reading: 5.6, Writing: 5.9. The breakdown for active learning shows that 1 person chose 10, 4 chose 9, and 2 chose 8.

Case study: Using scales questions for self-assessment in 'flipped' workshops in Biology

Gareth Evans (Department of Biology) uses scales questions to encourage self assessment at the beginning of workshops by asking students to rate how well they feel they had met each of the learning outcomes for the week.

Question: Do you feel you have met this weeks learning outcomes. Responses shown for each of three learning outcomes as the average on a scale from 1 - not confident to 5 - very confident. Each has a curve showing the distribution of responses around the mean.

This is the first part of a standard pattern of activities in workshops to support a flipped learning approach. The review and self-assessment activity is followed by a Q&A, a knowledge check, and a group practice activity with discussion and feedback.

Watch their presentation:

Using Mentimeter for 'flipped' workshops in Biology (Panopto viewer) (3 mins 42 secs, UoY log-in required)

See the full case study for more details and the transcript. You can also browse our full set of case studies.

When using scales questions it is possible to collect and compare historical data to identify trends in the way that students respond. When reusing a presentation, you can opt to ‘reset results’ and use the same questions a second time. If you do this, historical responses are stored and you can use the ‘Show trends’ option. In the example shown below, students are asked to rate their confidence about meeting the module learning outcomes at the end of each weekly session. The ‘show trends’ option reveals how confidence levels for each outcome might rise and fall as the module progresses to track self-assessment of progress and achievement over time.

Graph showing 9 sessions on the x axis and a scale from 0 - not confident to 5 - very confident on the y-axis. For each of 5 learning outcomes, a line shows changes in confidence ratings across the sessions.

100 points questions

100 points questions allow students to prioritise pre-fixed options by allocating a total of 100 points across the different options. This is similar to ranking but allows each respondent to estimate the strength of preference. The average points allocation for each option is show in the results.

Quiz competition

Quiz competition questions allow you to introduce a competitive element by allocating scores to individuals or groups for correct answers to a series of questions. You can also allocate extra points for quicker answers. The scores are then displayed in a leaderboard with updates after each question. You can use multiple-choice and short answer questions in quiz competitions.

Case study: Quiz competitions to engage students during lectures and prepare for teaching

George Bailey (Department of Language and Linguistic Science) describes how he uses the competitive quiz question type (with leaderboards and small prizes) to engage students and gather their intuitions and reflections about language. This helps maintain interest and provides a fun way to introduce or review complex concepts.

Watch their presentation:

Using Mentimeter for engagement and interest in large two-hour lectures (Panopto viewer) (5 mins 47 secs, UoY log-in required)

See the full case study for more details and the transcript. You can also browse our full set of case studies.

Tip

Feedback from staff suggests that it is a good idea to include plenty of time for students to respond to avoid issues with accessibility and incusion.

Pin on image

Pin on an image questions allow students to add a pin on a map or label an image, such as in the example below which allow users to drop a pin on a map indicating the location of their last job.

Question: Where was your last job based - A map of the UK and the world is shown with responses shown as dots on these maps

2 x 2 grid

2 x 2 grid questions provide an option for rating scales along two separate axes to show relationships between selections. Students can respond by selecting where an item sits on the two scales. Results are plotted with scale 1 on the x-axis and scale 2 on the y-axis, and the coordinates for each item represent the average response. As with the scales question type, hovering over a response will show how each individual responded (up to a maximum of 50 responses).

2x2 grid showing 4 different options on a scale of 'effort' on the x-axis and 'impact' on the y-axis.

Guess the number

Students choose a response along a numerical scale before a correct answer is shown (with a margin of error if needed). The correct answer is highlighted along with information on how many responses there were for each option. This could be useful for factual questions involving numerical responses such as calculations, stats, prices, and dates.

Question: In Feb 2022, the average price of a pint of milk in the UK was 49p. Adjusted for inflation, what was the average price in 1972? A graph shows the number of responses with the correct answer - 70p - highlighted.