There are a lot of good resources out there on how to write good questions. In this section, we will talk about how you can best use BRAVO! and provide some suggestions on ways you can use questions more effectively in your game.

To start, what is your objective? Are you reviewing for a test, or are you using the game as a way to deliver content? Are you using the game online, in the classroom, or through a webinar (PING)? How you create a game for classroom will and should differ from a game that will be played online. Since a classroom game will be projected, you have to watch your question/answer length to ensure maximum ease of readability. Forcing your audience to read long questions and answers can seriously slow down game play.

Common Pitfalls of formatting questions and answers

Lengthy Questions

In the classroom, one of the biggest mistakes instructors can make is to get too wordy with their questions and answers. Here is an example of a lengthy question:

Question: “You get called to a 56 year old male, complaining of severe chest pain and shortness of breath. He is diaphoretic, has no current medical problems, and isn’t taking any medications. What is the first thing you should do for this patient?”

A. Give nitro
B. Give baby aspirin
C. Acquire a 12 lead EKG
D. Get insurance information

The Problem: In the game builder, this is a lot for the students to read, and more text means it will be tougher to read. Since everyone reads at different speeds, this can make absorbing the information tougher for some. You want to make sure that your text does not consume a page. You can probably get away with this with an online game, but for a classroom game this is getting too wordy.

Solution: When building your questions, ask yourself this question: “Can I get the same answer with less?” For this example, I shortened the question without losing any important details and I was able to get the same answer:

“You have a 56 year old male with severe chest pain, shortness of breath, and diaphoretic. What should be the first thing you do for this patient?”

If you need more information to answer the question, then add this information either in a Preview or Summary Slide. Preview Slides introduce additional information prior to your question. Summary Slides show additional information after a question.

For this example, we could add the entire paragraph to the preview slide which would look like this:

“You get called to a 56 year old male complaining of severe chest pain and shortness of breath. He is diaphoretic, has no current medical problems, and is not prescribed any medications.”

Then the question would read: “What is the first thing you should do for this patient?”

Lengthy Answers

Keep your answers short for the classroom. If you see, in the game player, that your answers are spilling into 2 lines, you have way too much text. I recommend employing a rule of no more than 6 words per answer. Here is an example of lengthy answer:

Preview: You get called to a 56 year old male complaining of severe chest pain and shortness of breath. He is diaphoretic, has no current medical problems, and is not prescribed any medications.

Question: “What should be your treatment?”

A. IV, Nitro, ASA, Oxygen, 12 lead, EKG
B. IV, Nitro, ASA, Oxygen
C. IV, Nitro, Oxygen, ASA, Morphine, 12 lead EKG
D. IV, Nitro, 12 Lead EKG

NOTE: In this example, notice that all of the answers are similar. Remove the redundancy, and either add it the question or the preview slide. Also, instead of listing multiple items in an answer, (which would be okay for online games) try to have the answer as a single focus.

Solution:

Preview: You get called to a 56 year old male complaining of severe chest pain and shortness of breath. He is diaphoretic, has no current medical problems, and is not prescribed any medications.

Question: “What should be your treatment?”

A. IV
B. Nitro
C. 12 lead EKG
D. Aspirin

As I mentioned earlier, you have a few more options and a little more latitude when it comes to making games for the web. However, if you are in a classroom, and especially if you are using audience response pads, keeping your questions and answers short aids readability.

How you write your questions can really have an impact on the results you are looking for. The basic objective of questions and answers is to lead you to the key point(s) you want to convey. These points don’t always have to be covered in the question and answers; rather they can be presented in a preview or summary slide as well.

In conclusion, don’t try to cram everything into your questions and answers. Just cover one teaching point and don’t forget to use the preview and summary slides to add additional information.