Quest Ladder
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Quest Ladder / Choice formats
Choice formats: single answer, select all, true or false
The formats most people start with, and the settings that decide whether guessing pays.
Recognising is not the same as knowing. Design for the difference.
The three formats
| Format | Use it when |
|---|---|
| Multiple choice (single answer) | There is exactly one right answer and the wrong ones are worth showing. |
| Multiple choice (select all) | Several statements are true and part of the skill is knowing how many. |
| True / false | One statement, judged. Fast, and honest about being a coin-flip if the statement is weak. |
All three are marked automatically and all three are quick to write, which is why they dominate most first ladders. The cost is that a learner who has no idea still scores above zero, so the settings below matter more than they look.
Building the options
Each option is its own step in the editor sidebar, reading Choice 1 of 4 and so on. Inside a step you write the option with the same content blocks as the stem, so a choice can be a picture, an equation or a table rather than a line of text.
- Mark as correct flags the right one; once flagged it reads Marked correct.
- Add another choice appends one. Number of choices in Extra settings sets how many a generated question has, from 2 to 12, defaulting to 4.
- For select-all, Number of correct choices sets how many are right, from 2 to 8, defaulting to 2.
- Choice id is the stable name to refer to that option from a learning block, so feedback still points at the right thing after the options shuffle.
Options are shuffled when the question is generated. Never write a distractor that says both of the above, and never refer to an option by its letter in the stem or a hint — use its id.
Whether guessing pays
Select-all is where the marking rule earns its keep. On the correct answer step, Wrong selections offers two rules:
| Rule | Effect |
|---|---|
| Proportional penalty | Each wrong tick eats into the marks earned by the right ones. Ticking everything scores near zero. |
| No penalty for wrong selections | Only the correct ticks count. Ticking everything scores full marks. |
The second is the right choice when you want to see what a learner recognises without punishing over-inclusion, and the wrong one when the number of true statements is part of the point. The default penalises, which is usually what you want.
Alongside it, Marking mode chooses between All or nothing and Weighted. All or nothing on a five-option select-all is severe; most people move to weighted once they have seen the first set of results.
Distractors are the teaching
A wrong option that nobody picks has taught you nothing. A wrong option that half the class picks has found a misconception, and the delivery report's Common wrong answers will show you exactly that.
So write distractors that are the answer to a plausible mistake: the right method with one sign flipped, the right number in the wrong unit, the definition of the neighbouring concept. Then attach tailored feedback to those specific options with an active learning block, and the wrong answer becomes the lesson.