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Our webinar series “Using content cleverly with SCHEMA ST4” has been running for a few weeks. We want to show you how you can use your corporate content beyond PDF and online help, e.g. as a basis for employee training. Three weeks ago, the topic was “Playful learning with quiz systems from ST4”, which we want to summarize for everyone.
Are you interested in the recordings? Find out how to get them at the end of this article.
When should you think about gamification?
Gamification is the use of playful elements in a context that actually has nothing to do with games. Playful elements promote motivation when it comes to challenging tasks that are perceived as too monotonous or too complex.
Training is an example for this. Your team or external stakeholders should keep your corporate content sharp – even or especially if there are constant changes?
- The service should have the essential technical data at hand.
- Employees should know and understand current regulations (e.g. in the area of occupational health and safety).
- Your sales department should know prices and variants inside out.
- Your training team wants to provide opportunities for the participants to consolidate the knowledge they have acquired.
Make a game out of it! Through simple quiz systems with multiple-choice questions, you can offer playful training. Such a quiz can be played through quickly even during short breaks. Interactive, self-directed actions together with immediate feedback provide motivation. By linking it to documentation content, gaps in knowledge are quickly filled.
And now imagine that your technical writers create these quiz systems in their familiar editorial environment in a short time…
The Sales Information System of the Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB)
ÖBB was faced with exactly the same challenge: passenger staff and external partners (e.g. travel agencies) – we are talking about approx. 2000 employees – have to understand the extensive fare system and have it at their fingertips in order to advise customers competently and quickly.
Together with ÖBB, we created the possibility to produce quizzes with the existing content management system SCHEMA ST4. These quizzes can be played quickly on the go or on the desktop. They also had to integrate seamlessly into the existing sales information system. Here you can see the start page of the “Interrail” quiz:
The different quizzes are linked within the documentation to make them quickly accessible to interested users. They integrate seamlessly into the SIS.
A quiz consists of a sequence of multiple-choice questions. After each answer, there is immediate feedback on whether the selection was correct or incorrect. The progress bar indicates how many questions are left.
The answers are highlighted gray during selection. During the evaluation, they are highlighted in color: blue = correct selection, red = wrong selection. On the left, the arrow icons mark all correct answers that should have been selected. On the right, the answers are respectively marked as correct or incorrect with ticks and crosses.
After finishing the quiz, there is a complete evaluation. You have passed if you answer 80% of the quiz questions correctly. For each question, your own answers are shown, including the evaluation. In addition, the editors can set a link leading to further information for each question (optional).
Due to data protection regulations, the quiz is completely anonymous. No data is stored or assigned to individuals. Of course, this would be technically possible.
A look under the ST4 hood
But how can you implement this solution in SCHEMA ST4? The basis is an OMD layout that defines the HTML output. Of course, the solution would also work with the standard layout. There are different node types defined in ST4:
- Quiz start page
- Quiz sequences
- Questions and answers
The quiz questions are entered as node titles, i.e. quickly without any further content and without an editor. Below the question nodes follow the answers, for which the metadata item “correct/wrong” is defined as mandatory. Optionally, you can link in-depth information via proxy nodes. This makes it an easy task to quickly create a complete quiz.
Now you only have to run the production and the quiz is ready!
Quiz Systems from SCHEMA ST4 – Conclusion.
As you can see, you can use your existing content playfully for further education with a few adjustments and some creativity in the development of questions/answers. At the same time, you benefit from all the advantages of ST4 as a content management system. This is how you create in-between training opportunities for your team.
You are welcome to ask questions here in the comments or via e-mail to Benny Rauschenberger. He will be happy to provide you with a recording of the webinar.