Project Quantum - FAQ

Here is a collection of questions and links for everyone interested in Project Quantum.

How will my students' answers be used?

The underlying ethos of Project Quantum is the informative value of low-stakes questioning. The outcomes from low-stakes questioning can be used to inform, not only learners, but teachers as well.

Imagine being able to set a quiz and absolutely know, within seconds, which topics 80% of the class needs to revise. Then, imagine being able to give individual pupils targeted sets of topic questions for homework. Go further, imagine the learning when pupils construct, contribute, and answer each other’s questions. The badge reward system is motivating for pupils and could be used to generate that competitive spirit. Better, still, tie the badges to a system used in your own school.

Quantum is not about high-stakes summative assessment; nor about assessing teachers; nor about assessing schools. The focus is exclusively on using low-stakes tests to give formative feedback to students and their own teacher.

What does "free" mean?

Although Quantum is a donor-funded project, Diagnostic Questions is a small UK startup, so you might wonder about whether you are really contributing your precious hours to improving DQ's business prospects. In fact, Quantum really is free:

• The platform is free to use, including all its time-line analytics. This is generously made possible by DQ's parent company, The Skills Academy, who have committed to making DQ free, forever.

• All Quantum questions, including any that you contribute, are covered by a Creative Commons license, unless the author specifically says otherwise. So Quantum questions are available to all, and will be available in machine-readable form to other platforms (not just DQ) if they so wish.

• The data from tens of thousands of students answering thousands of questions will be kept securely, but it is a goldmine of research data. It will be available, for free, in anonymised form, to any bona fide researcher.

How do I use Diagnostic Questions?

• DQ website, the multiple-choice question platform.

• Contribute by authoring questions and creating quizzes

• DQ system help - pointers to help documents and usage videos

What about data protection and child safety?

Simon Woodhead from Diagnostic Questions (17-11-16) We are very concerned about data-protection and understand the need for students to be able to sign up without email addresses. In fact students do not need to provide an email address when they sign up (it is optional). If they sign up with an email address we ask them to verify it so we can send them reminders about due assignments (more useful for secondary school students). We do also offer to upload all students for schools.