Introducing three new quizzes on the British Isles!
The British Isles are a group of islands in the North Atlantic off the north-western coast of continental Europe that consist of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Hebrides, Orkneys, Shetlands and over six thousand smaller isles.
The British Isles are home to two countries: the Republic of Ireland, and the United Kingdom. Students in the United Kingdom learn about the British Isles, not just the UK, so we created a few new quizzes to assist their teachers to deliver the curriculum.
The British Isles: countries quiz breaks down the UK into its 4 autonomous regions of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and also includes the Republic of Ireland. To the outside world, it feels a little awkwardly named: within the UK, England, Scotland and Wales are referred to as countries, while N. Ireland is often called a province. But they are not independent countries, so the term 'country' can be confusing.
The British Isles: islands quiz asks about the major islands and archipelagos in the British isles (thankfully, just 10 questions, not 6,000!) Note that Jersey and Guernsey, which are not actually part of the geographic archipelago of the British Isles, they are closely associated with Britain, and are included in the UK geography curriculum.
We've been working on a new feature (actually, it's more like two features, but they're related) that will help you study and learn, and we're ready to show it to you on a couple of quizzes:
For now, it's only available on the above two quizzes, and we'd love your feedback (at hello@lizardpoint.com). We're especially interested in any technical problems that might be related to devices/browsers we haven't tested.
Explore Button
The biggest change is the new Explore button which you'll find on the end of the row of buttons on the quiz:
When you click on the Explore button, you'll get an area (the Explore Box) to the right of the map that lists all the places the quiz asks about. Mouse over (or tap on) the map areas to see the name of the place.
In the screenshot below, I have clicked on the map on Austria. A text tip (or label) appears just above where I clicked that shows me the name of the location I clicked on, and as well, the name appears in the green bordered box on the right, just below the title, "Explore the locations". I've circled both of these in red to point them out here.
You can also click on any of the place names in the list in the Explore Box, and you will see them appear on the map the same way: highlighted, and a text tip.
Benefit: for students that are overwhelmed by all the place names on the Labeled Map, the Explore button gives them another way to learn or review the locations just on this quiz.
And the second (related) feature is....
You'll also see Text Tips when you use the Show Me button, as shown in the following screenshot of a UK cities quiz. Sometimes, it can be hard to notice what area was highlighted when you click the Show Me button... now it's more obvious. The label (text tip) will be just above the uppermost part of the highlighted area - a bit to the left or to the right depending on how far the highlighted area is from the edge of the image.
Benefit: it's easier to spot the area highlighted when using the Show Me button.
Please try the new feature on these two quizzes, and send any feedback to hello@lizardpoint.com. We'd like to launch this feature by the end of February, and we want to make sure there aren't any issues we aren't aware of.
We've just added a new feature to our Stamp program. Or should I say we've just added a new feature to the weekly trivia quizzes? Trivia quizzes are now eligible to earn motivational stamps in the stamp program that's part of the FREE Personalized Quiz Tracker.
The stamp program awards stamps (doh!) to signed in users for the completion of quizzes in certain categories (such as Africa, Europe, Bodies of Water, Cities and more). Now you can earn stamps for Trivia quizzes as well.
Your "My Stamps" page shows you all the stamps you have earned, and it looks something like this:
When you earn a new stamp, you'll get a notification when you complete a quiz, like this:
You can earn stamps for the completion of 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 50, 100 and 200 trivia quizzes.
If you've been signing in when you do the trivia quizzes, we've given you credit for all your completions. So you don't have to start from scratch! If you want to see your stamps now, sign in, and look in your My Account menu for the My Stamps link.
Another great benefit of your free account is that we save your quiz results for all your quizzes, so you can always review your progress.
What's the opposite of clicking on a map to show where a country is? We'll show you the country on the map, and you type in its name.
This reverse activity will keep your brain fresh - you'll have to think in a different direction, plus you'll have to learn how to spell. It's funny the things you think you can spell until you actually have to do it!
Here's what it looks like:
Spelling counts. We can't check every possible name for a country, so for the most part, we are using the common short names used in English.
If you're in doubt as to what we'll accept for the answer, check the section near the top of the screen where it says: "This quiz asks about these places", followed by the list of names, in alphabetic order. This list to help you with your spelling will only be available in practice mode. In other test and strict test modes, you'll need to remember how to spell.
If we accept an alternative, it will be in parentheses - for example "Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast)". Good news - you don't have to type the accents. If you choose to use accents, we ignore them, so a correct answer doesn't necessarily mean you got the accents correct.
Another thing you can do in practice mode is get a HINT. Just click on the Hint button to see the first letter of the country name... keep clicking to reveal more letters. For now, you can ask for as many hints as you need.
Where to find these quizzes:
We've just launched 9 of these quizzes. Look for the Tt symbol on the menu:
Also, all of these quizzes are customizable, meaning you can choose which questions to test yourself or your students on. Some are customizable by anyone with a free account, and some are customizable by premium members only.
The new quiz is customizable - so you can pick the questions, change the title and description, force it into a particular mode, such as strict test mode, etc.
The old quiz asked about rivers and lakes. The new quiz adds in 8 more questions:
I'm excited to announce a new feature for Teacher Plus accounts and all of your students! When you review your past quiz results, you will now have question-specific results on how you did.
Until now, students only had access to their best quiz scores in each test mode (practice, test and strict), as well as their most recent quiz result. But now, students of Teacher Plus accounts can look back and see how they did on a quiz... which questions they scored 3 points, 2 points, 1 point or no point for. This will give you a better idea what you need to keep studying.
Here's a screenshot of the details for a strict test. You can sort by Question or by Points earned.
Teachers with Teacher Plus accounts now also have the details. You've already had the scores on each and every quiz for each of your students, but now you can see what questions were missed.
For a demonstration of what this looks like, check out this youtube video - Part 1 The teacher's view of the quiz details:
and Part 2 The student's view of the quiz details.
Note that the data is only for the most popular quizzes - you won't see the details on some of the more obscure quizzes, but if your class is using a quiz that doesn't display details, just email us and we'll add it to the display.
