Although everyone is eagerly waiting for our favourite offline quizzes to restart, there's no reason why we can't enjoy an online quiz together.
All we need is the right theme, awesome audience and of course mind-blowing content.
But, how do we host?
Well, pick the right platform.
Which is the best platform?
That depends on the target audience and the ultimate goal of your quiz. In this post, I will take you through a couple of options available, their ease of usage and their pros & cons which you might find useful to host an online quiz.
Some of the most used online platforms for quizzes:
Discord
Google Meet
Zoom
Google Form
MCQ Platforms(quizizz, myquiz etc.,)
Instagram Stories
Facebook Live
YouTube Live
Now, let's skim through the details on how, where, and when we can use the above options.
Discord - Best for the quizzes with teams of 3 and above
If your audience is quizzers who have been religiously quizzing since years and are willing to go through the technological jigsaw, then this is the right platform for your quiz.
The admin will have the task to set up the server, invite the participants, organise them into teams.
But the main task of admin/host will be to explain and make people understand how to use the platform to interact and submit the answers.
Pros -
Easy to interact for the teams of 3 and above
Admin will have the option to see the conversations in the team groups which will enable to curb the googling menace
Can easily manage up to 20 teams
Cons-
Not easy to setup
A nightmare for non-tech savvy participants
The slightly complicated process will slow down the pace of the quiz and thus the fun involved in it
If you want to host a quiz in prelims and final format, then you can forget this option!
Zoom - Best for the teams of 2
Hosting a quiz for some 10s of participants? or even beyond 100? Then this is the right platform for you.
If you are planning to go for pounce and bounce format of the quiz for the teams of 2 or below, there is no better platform than zoom!
Pros-
Easy to set up and use for both admin and the participants
Teams of 2 can privately interact and send their answers to the host
The paid versions will offer some advanced feature like, to accommodate a larger crowd, live stream on YouTube or Facebook etc.,
Cons-
Not apt if you are going for prelims and finals format. You will have to arrange for a couple of volunteers to accept the answers and systematically score them
Google Meet - Best for non-competitive quizzes
Can be implemented for competitive quizzes also, by accepting answers through a google form or privately on WhatsApp or other mail/messenger services.
Pros-
Easy to setup
Easy to use
Need not download and instal software
Cons-
If opting for the pounce and bounce format, the participants had to submit answers through third-party apps or services.
Google Form - For a non-interactive quiz
You simply want to put questions and accept answers without any live interaction with the participants? Google Forms is the best platform in that case.
This suits well for the MCQ format also. But, there are other services like quizizz, my quiz where MCQ format of any can be hoasted with ease.
Apart from this, Google forms can be used to accept responses to quizzes hosted on other platforms.
Pros-
Easy to set up and use
Time limits can be implemented to avoid the late submissions
Unlimited responses can be accepted
Cons-
Live interaction is not possible
Instagram Stories - We cant consider it as a live quiz in true sense.
Its just an Instagram Story quiz.
MCQs - Well, multiple-choice questions are always multiple-choice questions, as some school or competitive exam. Quizizz, MyQuiz, Google Forms among other are some platforms which provide the space to host MCQ type of quizzes.
Facebook Live - Best to interact and host a quiz for a large audience
If your mission is to interact and engage with the audience through a non-competitive quiz, you can ask the participants to post answers in the comments section.
This can be used for competitive mode also, either by using google form or Facebook messenger to receive answers.
Pros-
Wide reach
A bit time-consuming process for initial setup but it is easy after the first time
Participants do not need any special installation. They can either participate in a browser or the app on any mobile device.
Cons-
The participant should be logged on to Facebook. Non-facebook junta cannot take part in the quiz
There is always a chance for someone revealing the answer on live chat during a competitive session.
YouTube Live - The best for a huge crowd and interactive prelims
Whether you have participants in 10s / 100s / 1000s, YouTube provides us with the best platform to reach the most number of participants with ease.
If you wish to host a quiz with prelims, you can deactivate the comments and live chat option and accept the answers through a google form.
The video and form can be opened in two different browser tabs or mobile devices or can also be embedded on to a single page (click to see the model)
This will be just like the real offline quizzing experience!
The event can be made more interactive while revealing the answer, where the participants are allowed to comment their answers in a live chat.
Pros-
Can accommodate as many participants as possible
No registration on YouTube required
Anyone in the world can access and view the quiz
Easy to enable and disable the comments, even while the stream is on.
Cons-
If a team contains more than one person, they might have to choose a way to discuss and submit answers.
Our pick - YouTube + Forms for prelims and Zoom for finals
After trying all the models, we at TackOn were able to refine and fine-tune the model to the most accessible way possible.
Our model:
For prelims -
Create a google form to accept answers
Schedule a live video to go live at the decided time
Embed the video and form on to the single page
For finals-
The top scorers from the prelims will go to the final round on zoom.
The zoom meet can be live-streamed on to YouTube to engage a larger crowd.
At TackOn we used this model for two quizzes - Atulya Bharat and Atulya Nari. And gearing up to implement this model on a large scale in association with our clients.
Avoid clashes while scheduling your quizzes - Click here