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iSpring QuizMaker is a great tool with a host of robust instructional design features that would be an asset to any eLearning developer.
With 14 question template options, it has lots of ways to assess your learner’s knowledge and competence based on adult learning principles.
Overall, if you’re an educator who is looking for a way to develop online quizzes quickly, give iSpring QuizMaker a try.
For this review, I spent two weeks thoroughly reviewing and testing this QuizMaker, understanding its pros and cons, what its best use cases are, and how it best fits into the workflow of an instructional designer
Who is iSpring?
Is iSpring QuizMaker worth it for Instructional Designers
ISpring solutions is an American eLearning company based in Alexandra, VA. They produce a host of tools for the instructional design industry enabling eLearning developers to design and create training courses and materials to allow individuals, teams, and companies to succeed through employee learning and development.
iSpring was initially founded by a small team of engineers led by one simple mantra: “build reliable software people love to use.”
This way of thinking has helped iSpring solutions develop into a global company with offices in the U.S., Europe, India, the UAE, and China.
ISpring has an excellent reputation, and although I haven’t used their products much in my daily work, after using QuizMaker, I might re-evaluate that reality. iSpring, if you’re listening, I’m open to offers!
What is iSpring QuizMaker?
Is iSpring QuizMaker worth it for Instructional Designers
ISpring QuizMaker is a simple-to-use but powerful desktop downloadable (not SaaS) tool to build assessment tools and quizzes which instructional designers can include in their corporate eLearning to train, engage and assess employees.
Who is iSpring QuizMaker for?
Is iSpring QuizMaker worth it for Instructional Designers
ISpring QuizMaker is for anyone who develops training or educational content. Anyone within an instructional design capacity, Higher Ed, or teaching role, QuizMaker can enhance your learning resources and provide a remarkable ability to test and assess your learners.
QuizMaker is pretty simple to get your head around, so you don’t need to know in-depth Javascript commands to build quick and comprehensive quizzes, which means it has mass appeal to the L&D industry.
Also, if you work in corporate learning and want an additional option compared to your standard authoring tool(s) and LMS quiz builders, I’d give QuizMaker a try; go on, you know you want to.
Why should you use iSpring QuizMaker?
Is iSpring QuizMaker worth it for Instructional Designers
If you use an LMS with in-built quizzes or an additional quiz creator, then QuizMaker will be superfluous to your needs. But here’s the thing, if you have an authoring product like articulate 360 or even iSpring suite, then this is an excellent tool for your L&D toolbox.
The ability to mock up quizzes quickly, with a good amount of customization options, I think for the price, it’s good value and can help you develop assessments and quizzes, not directly tied to courses. Still, where you can apply them across multiple training you have created.
What are the key features of the ispring QuizMaker program
Is iSpring QuizMaker worth it for Instructional Designers
When it comes to iSpring QuizMaker, one of the key features is the sheer diversity of question types available to you; these include: multiple choice, hotspot, equations, guess the missing answer, and matching, to name a few.
Another feature that sets QuizMaker apart from its competitors is the branching element, which I like.
For example, let’s say you have a quiz of 5 questions, you could set it so that if a learner gets a question wrong, they are sent backward 1 question, but if they get the answer correct, then they will move on to the next question, a little positive and negative reinforcement at play.
The scoring system is the other aspect that is nice but not unique. With iSpring QuizMaker, you can set different scores for different questions as well as incorrect vs. correct answers. This adds a nice element of gamification to your quizzes and provides some numerical variation which should instill that competitive edge in your learners.
How do you download QuizMaker and activate your license
Is iSpring QuizMaker worth it for Instructional Designers
Purchasing and downloading QuizMaker is super simple.
Go to the ispring homepage.
Click on the free trial button.
Enter your name and email address and click download for free.
What about the license key?
Is iSpring QuizMaker worth it for Instructional Designers
You will only receive a license key once you have paid for a paid-for plan. Once you have paid, you will receive your license key by email.
To input, it, click on the activate icon in the top toolbar, and if successful, it will be accepted and provide you with full QuizMaker access.
What types of quizzes can you create?
Is iSpring QuizMaker worth it for Instructional Designers
Honestly, with so many options, literally, where do we start?
You have your basic ones; multiple choice, multiple selections, and true/false. These are your bread-and-butter questions that will be most common when it comes to assessing knowledge.
Related: iSpring QuizMaker review
But you can also try other question types that will be better for analytical and critical thinking exercises. These include; hotspot, sequence, matching, and numerical. These options can be advantageous for asking your learners to understand a trend or sequential process that would work better for task-driven exercises and scenarios.
Whichever you choose, iSpring QuizMaker provides a wealth of options at your fingertips.
How easy is the user interface to use?
Is iSpring QuizMaker worth it for Instructional Designers
Overall, I really like how easy QuizMaker is to use.
The nice thing is you go left to right when producing your content which makes it really simple.
Start with selecting your question, designing your slide, adding your answers, providing feedback, and exporting, all intuitive and straightforward.
Related: iSpring QuizMaker user interface
If you don’t have much technical knowledge, QuizMaker makes it easy to navigate and build your quizzes in a simplistic way that provides excellent results without much effort; what more can you want?
So, is iSpring QuizMaker worth it for instructional designers? I think for sure, and concerning the UI, it’s so simple you just got to get it.
Different slide types
Is iSpring QuizMaker worth it for Instructional Designers
One of the nice elements of QuizMaker, which I don’t see in all quiz creation apps, is the ability to have varied slide layouts and designs.
One of the features I really liked was the info slide layout. This is a great way to introduce learners to your quiz and provide a synopsis and instructions to lay out what is expected and what the result could be if learners are successful.
When in the questions tab, take a look at the options on offer and decide for yourself which suits your specific quiz layout the most, and don’t forget to experiment and have fun with it.
Step by step guide of how to create a quiz with QuizMaker
Is iSpring QuizMaker worth it for Instructional Designers
Let’s take a look at what the main steps are when creating a quiz in iSpring QuizMaker.
Open the ispring quizmaker application
When you want to launch, go to your desktop and double-click on the QuizMaker app desktop icon. This will bring you to the initial choices screen, where you can choose from a graded question (with points) or a survey (non-graded).
Pick a question type
Next, you can choose a graded or non-graded question. Most people go with graded as they can assign points to questions, but if you want more of a survey-style question where you only seek qualitative feedback, this would be the right option for you.
Write your question and choose applicable answers
At this point, you should write your quiz question and choose all possible answers making sure to select the correct answer you want people to choose. This stage is easy and the most common step for any quiz development.
Choose your design
I really enjoyed this part, although it took me a little while to get the design exactly how I wanted, it was fun exploring the possibilities available. I started with finding an image online that I wanted to use, preferably with pictures to one side, so there’s enough room for all the text-based content.
Then, bring in any 2nd-level graphics you wish to include and move them into position.
Remember as well to switch between form and slide view
Provide quiz feedback
On the quiz design front, one of the last things to do is to create feedback for correct and incorrect answer choices.
The great thing here is that you can add whatever you like because it is a free text box, so QuizMaker gives you a lot of flexibility.
Also, you can add whether the slide will be branching. For example, do you make wrong answers punitive and send people back a slide or promote people for correct answers?
Finally, you can specify point totals for a correct answer. The system defaults to 10, but you can raise or lower this to fit with your quiz structure.
Slide options
Before exporting, you’ll need to set your slide options to tell the QuizMaker app how you want your quiz to function technically.
This is a crucial step because you can specify if you want actions to occur based on the quiz result or the choice made. Most of the time, I chose the result option, as I wish for a learner’s performance to dictate what happens next.
The options you can choose are; feedback, branching, score, and attempts.
These choices are also joined by the ability to limit the timeframe allowed to answer and to shuffle the answers.
I didn’t add a countdown almost ever unless the answers were pretty simple to guess, but I 100% used shuffle answers, as we need to make it somewhat tricky, lol.
Preview and publish.
Is iSpring QuizMaker worth it for Instructional Designers
Throughout the development of your quiz, you should always preview your work as seeing how it looks in form view can be different from when you visualize it in slide view, so keep it regular.
Once you’ve finished your intro slide(s), quiz question/answers, and customized your results slide, it’s time to publish. This is where you can choose your publishing method.
I assume you’re using the standalone version of iSpring QuizMaker, so when publishing, you should see four options.
Publish to HTML5
If you want to use this on a web server (SFTP) or elsewhere on the web, this is the option to use.
Publish to iSpring Learn
If you can access iSpring Learn as a standalone LMS or as part of the iSpring Suite, this option allows you to upload the quiz files directly into that platform for use with your learners. This is the most immediate way to get your quiz ready to deploy.
Publish to LMS
You should use this option if your company uses a non-iSpring LMS and you want to upload to that platform; this option will enable you to upload all associated SCORM, xAPI, or CMI5 files directly to your learning management system of choice.
Publish to Microsoft Word
You also have the option to publish your quiz as a word document. I would never do this as you lose many of the interactive elements, but it is good as reference material or if you need to send it to an SME or manager for approval before uploading.
What about ispring cloud?
So, I was surprised initially as to why in the online tutorials iSpring cloud was there but not for me in the standalone version of QuizMaker.
I reached out to iSpring, who mentioned that iSpring cloud is not available solely with QuizMaker access, which is why it did not appear in my publish settings.
Existing iSpring cloud subscription owners can use a file to enable this option in QuizMaker, but for someone using the standalone quiz platform, it’s not an option, unfortunately.
Exporting to an LMS
Is iSpring QuizMaker worth it for Instructional Designers
I wanted to talk about uploading to an LMS a bit further here; as for us in corporate L&D and Higher Ed, this will be something we do a lot.
By publishing to an external LMS, ispring quizmaker will produce files generally in SCORM 1.2 or 2004, but xAPI and CMI5 are also available options.
Unless you have an LRS like Watershed or are used to utilizing xAPI statements, then xAPI might be a bit full-on. CMI5 is the newest standard from Articulate which is definitely a great option as it’s an evolution from xAPI, but if you want to keep things simple, stay with SCORM.
Related: SCORM 1.2 vs. SCORM 2004: Which One Is Better?
Overall, the process is easy to upload to any LMS compatible with the compliance standards listed above.
How to make more engaging quizzes
Is iSpring QuizMaker worth it for Instructional Designers
We are always trying to make quizzes more engaging for our learners, and some good options are adding various multimedia forms.
Take a look below to learn more about the possibilities in iSpring QuizMaker.
Images
Being able to add imagery to your quizzes is a huge deal and is something that helps with upping engagement levels. There are numerous ways to add images in QuizMaker; you could either add a small corner-positioned image on the quiz slide itself.
You could also pull in an image that covers the entire slide, such as dragging and dropping it in or clicking on insert>picture, similar to PowerPoint.
I’d advise using images in your quizzes; I promise it will help keep engagement levels high and have happier learners.
Audio
If you want to level up your quiz content, record a voiceover (professional mic, please), and add your pre-recorded audio track into the quiz to have a narrative commentary running through it.
Also, if you don’t have any pre-recorded audio, you can choose to record your own with QuizMaker’s in-built audio recorder and lay out your recording in your quiz itself; pretty neat!
Video
The last option is to include a video file into your quiz.
QuizMaker takes most of your favorite video formats, although, to be safe, I would stick to the MP4 container, go to insert>video, and import the video file into a slide. It will take a couple of seconds depending on the length of the video, but after the loading bar has finished, it will import into the slide, generally leaving white pace at the top and bottom depending on the aspect ratio chosen when rendering the video originally.
Honestly, it was an effortless experience importing media into QuizMaker; I encountered no issues, glitches, or bugs, so I wholeheartedly support this feature, and it makes using QuizMaker a nice experience.
What about adding question feedback
Is iSpring QuizMaker worth it for Instructional Designers
Adding feedback for incorrect and correct answers is actually a lot of fun. You can add in text and images in unique layouts to ensure the feedback slides are engaging for learners.
It’s very easy to add feedback as we know from exploring the slide creation process.
One recommendation I have is definitely to spend some time here and add media items, such as imagery to enhance the overall experience.
Bullet points for lists are sometimes a good option, adding descriptions and definitions are also options to consider.
On the flip side, I wasn’t able to add videos into feedback slides when I tried, although if I find a way, I will update this post in due course.
Mobile responsiveness
Is iSpring QuizMaker worth it for Instructional Designers
I want to be honest here, when I first started using the platform, the responsiveness on mobile devices didn’t work as intended when previewing my quiz in the device previews.
You can check this when previewing the slide or quiz and switch to the mobile viewer. In the online tutorials the question and answers display fully across the vertical format, but when I tried, they very much stuck in the centre.
I did reach out to ispring support and they came up with a solution which is something that I’d like you all to know.
If you know your learners will be accessing and participating in the quizzes you create on mobile devices, you need to change some settings so that QuizMaker can adapt to mobile dimensions correctly. This wasn’t obvious to me initially, but with ispring support’s help, I was able to do it.
To engage responsive mode, please follow the following instructions.
Open your quiz and click Player on the toolbar
Click Navigation and select the checkbox Display slides on smartphones in mobile-friendly mode. Click Apply & Close
After doing this, your responsiveness previews will look correct and you can save in the knowing that your quizzes will display on mobile devices as intended.
Please make sure you do this though, to ensure you can test your quizzes out effectively.
Pros and Cons
Is iSpring QuizMaker worth it for Instructional Designers
So now we’ve spoken in-depth about iSpring QuizMaker, let’s evaluate the pros and cons of the platform
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
|
Easy to use |
Limited animations |
|
Quality features |
Getting the layout to be mobile-responsive was initially tricky |
|
Non-technical users will have no issues |
Cannot quickly re-design correct/incorrect feedback aesthetic |
|
Great support infrastructure |
More shape customization could be useful |
|
Can implement quizzes into PowerPoint if you have ispring suite |
Color options could be more varied |
These pros and cons are based on my own experiences, but I feel they represent what most new users would experience.
Overall, my feelings about the program are overwhelmingly positive, with only a few nitpicky things that, if improved, could send it into the stratosphere
Standalone or a part of iSpring Suite?
Is iSpring QuizMaker worth it for Instructional Designers
You can either purchase QuizMaker as an individual platform or as part of the broader package called iSpring Suite.
I would only get iSpring Suite if you don’t already have an eLearning authoring tool such as Articulate 360 or Captivate, then the full package can be a great option, but if you already have a similar program, then the individual, standalone QuizMaker is a great choice for building educational quizzes to help assess your learner’s knowledge.
Pricing
Is iSpring QuizMaker worth it for Instructional Designers
Overall, the individual package of iSpring QuizMaker will cost you $370 USD per user per year. This is an ongoing, annual fee and is a fair price considering what it offers as a quiz creation tool.
There are no other options, such as monthly subscriptions, which could be excellent for smaller organizations that cannot afford an outlay, especially if they need multiple licenses.
Is there a free trial?
Is iSpring QuizMaker worth it for Instructional Designers
Thank you so much for bringing up this question to see if iSpring QuizMaker is right for you. The quick answer is yes, iSpring offers a free trial for you to test out the product to see if it’s the best choice for your eLearning needs.
The free trial lasts for 14 days, afterwards, it will become available if you pay the annual subscription fee.
How do the alternative quiz creation tools compare?
Is iSpring QuizMaker worth it for Instructional Designers
I thought long and hard about this and thought about how I felt when it comes to QuizMaker vs. its competitors.
The reality from my point of view is that 2 of the biggest competitors I’ve tested are Typeform and Outgrow.
The truth is that Typeform quizzes have the ability (with enough instructional design skill) to make more polished, nicer-looking quizzes than iSpring, and Outgrow is a little more powerful as it includes an assessment builder as well as quiz creator, iSpring is probably the best all-around and has a unique way of just keeping things simple.
Related: iSpring Solutions Inc. updates its range of stand-alone tools to version 11
Outgrow is way more than a quiz builder, as it builds calculators, sales leads, polls, surveys, and many more, but if we limit our review to quiz creation tools, I think that iSpring’s offering maybe edges out.
The same thing exists with Typeform. I think aesthetically it is nicer than iSpring QuizMaker, but with iSpring’s ability to integrate with PowerPoint, and with the 14 pre-made available question types, being able to get up and running quickly with great features available, again, I think that QuizMaker is just about the better option here, although it’s pretty close.
How can iSpring QuizMaker support you within instructional designer?
Is iSpring QuizMaker worth it for Instructional Designers
As an instructional designer, having a dedicated quiz builder like iSpring QuizMaker can be a great addition to your software toolbox.
I usually build quizzes within Articulate Storyline or Rise. I will create a quiz within an LMS if I need more flexibility out of a course container.
But where I think QuizMaker comes in is where you need more flexibility where you want a quiz builder with enhanced options because it’s built with a dedicated purpose to create quizzes!
Having 14 questions, an easy-to-use interface, easy to customize layout, and multiple publishing options, if you work in instructional design, iSpring QuizMaker should be on your list of products to create your learning content and assess knowledge.
Final Thoughts
So, after all that, what are my final thoughts?
ISpring has developed an exciting proposition for the eLearning industry.
Quizzes are tried and trusted methods of assessing knowledge retention, and having more capacity and ways of creating diverse quizzes is a big plus for L&D teams.
If you want an easy-to-use, aesthetically slick, feature-rich platform where you can create a diverse array of quizzes to be implemented primarily online or through an LMS, make sure to consider iSpring QuizMaker.
Give the free trial a go. If you feel it provides great value to you or your L&D team, QuizMaker could be your latest acquisition to help develop greater employee training and develop a well-trained workforce in your business.
Thanks for reading this iSpring QuizMaker review post.
If you have tested QuizMaker for yourself and want to leave a comment with your thoughts, we welcome it and look forward to reading how QuizMaker has contributed positively to your employee learning program(s).
Chow, for now,
Thanks,
Kris@taughtup
Get iSpring QuizMaker Here
Hey, I’m Kris Taylor. I’m a Learning and Development professional currently in the healthcare field, with over 8 years of experience in the area of corporate education. I have created numerous instructional content for various corporate projects including eLearning, in-person facilitation, and virtual training across a wide variety of learning interventions and sectors. On Taughtup, I discuss topics ranging from how to succeed through K-12 to college all the way to instructional design tips for L&D designers.
