You can create interactive quizzes and games with PowerPoint. Now of course there is software out there dedicated to creating this type of application, but before you purchase one of those solutions, why not try PowerPoint?
Hyperlinks work in PowerPoint. You can create links to Internet pages, files on your computer, and even slides within your presentation. The latter is what we’ll be doing to make our quiz.
Before you start designing your quiz, you’ll need to have an idea of who your users are and what you want them to get out of their experience with your application. Will they learn something? Will they have fun? Maybe both.
If you’re an instructor, you might consider making this type of quiz creation an assignment for your students.
Once you have some goals in mind, you’ll need some questions and answers. I created a short true or false quiz about geography so I could write this post. These are my quest ions.
True or False
- Helena is the capital of Montana.
- The Nile is a river in South America.
- This flag is the flag of Botswana. (Image of flag appears on slide.)
- Alaska became a state in 1922.
- The clock “Big Ben” is located in Toronto.
So there’s a slide for each question, and a “Correct” and “Incorrect” result slide for each question. That’s 15 slides. There is also a title slide to start the quiz.
There’s a bit of logic you have to work out to make your quiz run successfully. Try making a flow chart of how things should go. Here’s a sample:
This one was simple, but yours can be as complex as you like.
Here’s a run-down of my process.
- I made a first slide with the name of the quiz and a Click Here to Start Quiz button.
- The second slide had the first question and a True and False button.
- If the user clicks True for this question he gets the Correct! Helena is the capital of Montana slide. This slide also has a Go to question 2 button.
- If the user clicks False for this question, he gets the Wrong answer! slide. This slide also has a Go to question 2 button.
All the buttons are simply hyperlinks to another slide in the presentation. To add a hyperlink, right-click the object you’re using as the button (text boxes in this case), and select hyperlink.
Then choose the slide you want to link to.
My last Correct and Wrong answer! slides give the user an option to start the quiz again or to exit. You can use an Action Button to allow the user to exit the slide show with a click. Action Buttons are at the bottom of the Shape Tools menu. Select Action Button: Custom, draw a button, select the hyperlink radio button, and choose a link option.