This sounds very flexible, I like the options. The ratings are good. Better than pass/fail!
We have some exciting changes in the pipeline and we would love your feedback!
We’re developing a completely new system for ongoing assessment and achievements that moves away from the idea that one “passes” a level and “goes up” to the next, because that really isn’t a good match for how people learn in reality. Learning a language isn’t a linear process, so we think it’s better to have three different measures or stages of competence per level:
- 50% = Bronze / Basics
- 70% = Silver / Competence
- 90% = Gold / Mastery
(Please note that these percentages refer to your Kwiziq Score, which is a measure of your confidence. Also, that’s just the basic framework; there are also lots of smaller achievements within individual levels.)
Here’s an example of how this might look for an intermediate student:
| Level | Kwiziq Score | Achievement | ||
| A0 | 91% | Gold | ||
| A1 | 79% | Silver | ||
| A2 | 57% | Bronze | ||
| B1 | 54% | Bronze | ||
| B2 | 18% | – | ||
| C1 | 0% | – | ||
We’d love to know what you think about this idea and would be grateful if you could answer a few questions.
1. Does the three-stage progress per level system make sense? Is it more useful than a simple pass/fail grade for each level?
2. Do you think this system would be motivating in terms of your French study in general and your use of Kwiziq in particular?
3. Is there any other specific notification or feedback you’d like to receive as you work your way through the system?
We would especially like to encourage students to go back and master their foundations.
You could, for example, after attaining 50% bronze in A1, go for 50% bronze in A2 and then go back and work on A1 to earn silver, or you could work on B1 and aim for a bronze there first.
You can see your actual Kwiziq Scores on your Dashboard to figure what you would achieve under this scoring system by hovering over one of the colored dots under “Choose your own adventure” like this:
For reference, 70% is currently the score you need for those dots to change from orange to green.
By the way, these level scores are the aggregate of the Brainmap we create behind the scenes for each Kwiziq user – it’s a visual representation of how KwizBot views your language confidence.
Please comment below, email us or use the contact us form to let us know what you think!
Author info
Laura is a French expert and Kwiziq's Head of Quality Control. Online educator since '99, Laura is passionate about language, travel, and cooking. She's American by birth and a permanent ex-pat by choice - freelancing made it possible for her to travel extensively and live in several countries before settling permanently in Guadeloupe. Laura is the author of Lawless French, Lawless Spanish, and other websites and books on French, Spanish, Italian, English, and vegetarianism. She spends most of her spare time reading, playing with food, and enjoying water sports.
Comments: 20
If this means more frequent positive feedback, that is more motivating. And I like seeing percentage in areas I need to "clean up" in lower levels
What a good idea. Easier to understand and track progress. Well done for thinking of it and improving the programme.
As one who has difficulty decoding the current system, I think this new idea has definite possibilities. It definitely makes sense to me. By the way, I do enjoy taking the grammar quizzes. It is just too easy to forget unless one has constant practice.
Sounds good. I like the idea of being able to go back and practise the lower levels to become more proficient. Just because you've done OK in one or two areas doesn't mean you've mastered that level. I think having multiple stages is more motivating for my language study in general. Can't say about my use of kwiziq, as I've been pretty slack at using the tests so far. But this will change! SOON!
Just FYI something I have found interesting is doing the 'immersion' translations in Duoliingo. I realise it's pretty complicated to set up something like this (and I think Duolingo is not offering it in new languages now), but it is very challenging to be able to find the best words/expressions. It sends me all over the internet to find out about French history and culture.
That sounds like a great idea! I often go back to Entry and Beginner to make sure I've covered everything.
I really love Kwizbot French. It has solidified my grammar. For me, I just want to be able to listen to a French speaker and be able to respond in the correct manner. In other words, the levels are immaterial to me. I know that we are working with a computer which is set to repeat any phrase or responses until it is done correctly. This is an excellent method which has helped me improve my grammar. However, I encountered a situation in the past literary (which is not used in conversation) where I could not advance until I learned it and was able to type it correctly. I was stuck! I also would prefer that all questions (sentences) require me to come up with the answer rather than have four choices. I, too, like Jenny L, go back to various levels to cement the correct response. Keep up the great work!
It appears to be a good idea. I like the idea of being able to focus on areas of doubt. I'd also like to be able to view the brain map.
Learning new grammar shifts the significance of what you have already learnt and means constant revision. I have found for e.g. tackling the subjunctive can confuse the conjugations you had previously felt confident about. A new system might make you more aware of that problem.
I think it''s a great idea. You know yourself when you have "scraped through" a particular level - this system will help to work out how much work there is to achieve really sound competence at that level. I would find that very motivating. It's especially useful for generating French. We all know our comprehension precedes our production, so anything that motivates to get the production levels up is great by me - I hate to think that people are snickering at my attempts to produce written/spoken French!
The progress and achievements ought to be time dependent. To encourage going back and once again take the quizzes. After a couple of month they should slowly fade away!
The proposals are terrific. They are how I have begun treating my progression. My weekly lessons range widely so I need to dip into various levels to keep new knowledge 'current'. I agree also that going back to lower levels to reinforce knowledge makes good sense. Well done.
I really like the idea of going back to practice basics and knowing how well you are really doing. It would be especially helpful to narrow that down and be able to select a topic to reallyconcentrate on until you really felt you had mastered it. (Eg pronouns, subjunctive tense etc.)
Excelente! En muchas oportunidades me doy cuenta que avanzo en algunos temas y no termino de perfeccionar otros que pueden considerarse más básicos y vuelvo a revisarlos. Esta forma de evaluación es súper útil y representa exactamente lo que necesito para evaluar mi progreso. Gracias!!
The mastery approach vs pass/fail provides a more detailed understanding of one's progress - I like it! A separate issue - I find that when I touch the yellow dots beside the various levels to ascertain my % of mastery on my IPad, I do not get a response. Should I be doing something else to get this "global progress" info?
Excellent idea. I didn't realize you could see the percentage of each level by hovering over the green dot (or yellow or red). Seeing the green originally made me think I was progressing quite well, but then seeing the level made me realize, uh, no, maybe not so much. I'm working on 100% and it takes some time but those dumb errors (when I knew the correct answer but wrote in incorrectly) are slowing disappearing
Yes, I agree it would be more encouraging with its proposed flexibility than the previous system which was rigid and I found so discouraging I actually gave up on it. So yes, I'd give this another shot.
Having seen this implemented, the percentages make no sense at all. They might show 16% for example, when I've only answered a couple of questions on that topic. No way possible to arrive logically at those numbers.