using google forms to promote engagement and retrieval practice

Lurgan College is a controlled, co-educational , 14–19 age selective grammar school situated in the town of Lurgan, County Armagh, Northern Ireland.


Alistair Hamill is a teacher of Geography. He is the senior leader with responsibility for learning and teaching in Lurgan College and is also the lead on learning and teaching in the Craigavon Area Learning Community. He is a strong advocate of pedagogy-led use of technology.

Key Learning

When considering ways to using quizzes to engage learners:

  • Give learners' ownership of their own learning

  • Give them something active to do with the knowledge they have acquired

  • By allowing multiple attempts, pupils are likely to engage longer with the learning

  • While it can be time-consuming to produce good multiple choice quizzes, they are an investment as they reduce the marking time

  • Keep the quizzes low stakes

  • Allowing multiple attempts supports and promotes the practice of over-learning which is central to the concept of mastery learning


Questions to consider when creating online quizzes for pupils:

It can be time-consuming to get started on creating quizzes:

Can you embark on it with a group of teachers/ within a department so that you can pool resources to support each other?

Should I prioritise end of unit quizzes for every unit, or should I create a full set of quizzes for one unit?

What makes a good multiple choice question?