Tony Vincent's Learning in Hand

iPod Quizes

There are two ways to put quizzes on your iPod: iQuiz and Quizzler.

iQuiz

iQuiz has slick game show graphics and exciting background music for a fun and lively atmosphere. iQuiz comes pre-installed on all iPod classics and i3rd generation iPod nanos (iQuiz won't run on the newest 4th generation nanos). It's available for older full-sized iPods that can play video for 99 cents from the iTunes Store. An iQuiz player answers multiple choice and true/false questions until time runs out or too many questions have been missed. Unfortuntately, iQuiz's timer cannot be turned off or slowed down. A timer can be distracting and inappropriate for some learners. iQuiz does keep track of scores and statistics for each quiz and question.

iQuiz Question Go to iQuizMaker.com to download free software ( Mac or Windows) for making your very own true/false and multiple choice quizzes. You can include explanations with your true/false questions. You can set several options, including how many questions a user can answer incorrectly and the graphics theme of the quiz. iQuiz Maker includes an iPod simulator so you can take the quiz on your desktop before syncing to an iPod. iQuizMaker is available for both Mac and Windows.

iQuiz Explains iQuizMaker.com has additional quizzes you can download for iQuiz, including Human Anatomy and Cats & Dogs. You can download the Quiz Installer for making the process of getting these on your iPod easier. [To manually install a quiz pack, put the quiz pack folder in the iQuiz folder, which is in the iPod Games folder in your iTunes folder.] Apple has more detailed information for installing and creating quizzes.

iQuiz Stats Apple's Learning Interchange has a section called Teaching with iPod and iTunes. There are iQuiz quiz packs to download. QuizShare.com is site for sharing and downloading iQuiz quizzes.

Another site for downloading and sharing quizzes if iQuizr.com. Not only can you download quizzes, you can create quizzes right on their website. Quizzes created on iQuizr are immediately available on the site for others to download and install on their iPods.

Learning in Hand: iPods Episode #7 is all about using iQuiz, iQuizMaker, iQuizShare, and iQuizr. Listen to the 13 minute podcast.

iQuiz Maker is free for Mac and Windows.
Listen to iPods #7: iQuiz for information about using and making iQuiz quizzes.
Unfortunately, iQuiz is not available for the newest iPod nano and iPod classic.

Quizzler

Quizzler is for Macintosh and Windows computers. It creates quizzes for a variety of devices and computers: iPods, Palm handhelds, Pockets PCs, Mac, Windows, and the Web. Quizzler Maker allows you to export quizzes for these platforms. The free version allows you to make quizzes of up to 10 questions. The full version with more features is $30. Creating quizzes is as easy as filling in the blanks and clicking the button next to the correct answer.

After entering your quiz, you will click the To iPod button. Quizzler Maker will display this message explaining that you copy the quiz folder into iPod's Notes folder.

This will export your quiz to the 'For iPod' folder, which you can then copy to your iPod. Not all Quizzler features are supported on iPod. Click 'Help' for more info.

Once created, Quizzler quizzes can be used on an unlimited number of devices and computers. When creating quizzes for iPods you must have hard disk use enabled for the quizzes to be loaded by the software. On the iPod, access the quiz in Notes. The quiz is actually a series of hyperlinked notes. Unfortunately, no scores are tallied on the iPod.

Select the quiz in Notes. Underlined text are hyperlinks. The darkest underlined text is the currently selected hyperlink. Use the scroll wheel to move to among the links. Click the Center button to select the link.

Questions appear in the same order each time. Answer incorrectly and you are taken back to the question for another try. Answer correctly and you can progress to the next question.

Download the sample quiz over the U.S. State Capitals. Unzip the file and copy the folder into your iPod's Notes folder to give quizzing on your handheld a try. Listen to Soft Reset Podcast #18 to learn more about Quizzler from its developer, John Covele.

Quizzler is the simplest way to create quizzes for iPods. However, content creation options like Mogopop and iWriter also let you make hyperlinked quizzes. In addition, iFlash software (Mac only, $15) lets you export flash cards to iPod's Notes.