One of the most difficult tasks to get students engaged in is a quiz or a test. Any kind of assessment really. When I say engaged, I’m talking about genuinely engaged in the assessment process, not just doing it to get it done. One way I’ve found to up the engagement of an assessment is turning it into a boss battle. In essence, you pit the class against a villain, and they work together to defeat it. I developed a Google Sheet to track progress and add some visual to the process.
What You’ll Need
- Boss Battle Google Sheet (download below)
- Google Form Quiz (download below)
Setup
The first step is to set up your assessment and the boss battle document. This document is designed to be used in conjunction with Google Forms quizzes, but you can use other methods as long as you can download student scores. The gray cells are the only ones you’ll need to edit.
Quiz Link
Under the Quiz Link box, copy and paste the link to the Sheet with your Google Form quiz data. You’ll need to give the Sheet access, so hover over the cell next to your quiz link, then select the button to give access. The cell should turn green when everything is ready to go.
Class
Click the dropdown menu under class to select your class. You can change the class names if you want. Right-click on the dropdown cell, go to “View more cell actions,” and select “Data validation.” click on the Data validation rule, and you’ll see the names. Change, add, delete any classes you teach. You can color code them as well. Once you’re done with you edits, click Done.
Assessment Options
Next, set up your assessment criteria. Insert the number of students in the class and the number of questions on the assessment. There’s a space to give the boss a name if you want to as well. Under “Class win %,” insert your goal score for the class. Under “Overkill %,” insert an exceeds/bonus percentage. The boss hit points (HP) will automatically calculate for winning and overkill. Here’s where you can incentivize your assessment.
If the class meets the win %, they earn one reward, and if they meet the overkill requirement, they’ll receive an added bonus. You can make it as easy or difficult as you want based on how well you expect them to know the information on the assessment.
I use an XP system in my class, so I may give 25 bonus XP for a win and an extra 50 XP for an overkill, but there are other ways to utilize it. It could be some kind of reward as simply as a piece of candy, or I might even up the stakes and offer to exempt a smaller assignment if they reach Overkill. It’s really up to you and the way you have your class set up.
Gameplay
Once you have everything set up, you have the optional gameplay. On the “Class Stats” tab, you’ll be able to see student scores, a boss health bar, and the boss name if you’ve chosen to use that option. If you’re using the Google Form quiz (use the one I have linked below to make sure everything lines up right), the “Class Stats” tab will populate as students submit their Form. The Sheet will calculate how much damage has been done, and the health bar will decrease. When the win % has been met, the Sheet will show “Defeated,” and if the overkill % is met, the Sheet will show “Overkill.”
The “Display” tab will show the same information without the individual student scores. You can select this tab and display it in class if you want students to be able to follow along the progress.
Downloads
Note: When you make a copy of the sample assessment, you’ll copy the Google Sheet. The attached Google Form will automatically copy as well.
The Educator's Quest 