Are you looking for innovative ways to drive revenue and create engaging practice and study experiences in your certification program? Repurposing exam questions could be the answer you've been searching for.
Preparing for a certification exam involves three critical steps: learn, practice, and certify. Unfortunately, many certification programs overlook the practice stage, which is essential for reinforcing learning and improving knowledge retention. However, repurposing exam questions can be a game-changer, helping learners achieve higher scores, and opening up new revenue streams for your organization.
The idea of creating a new category of content can be daunting for learning businesses. If you're facing tight deadlines and limited resources, repurposing old content is a smart move. Before you throw in the towel, take a closer look at your course materials. Chances are, you already have everything you need to create effective practice materials. Don't overlook the goldmine of old certification exam questions - with a little repackaging, they can become valuable study tools for your learners.
Before embarking on a new project, it's essential to dive into the details. Repurposing exam questions can offer several benefits, and we've highlighted the top reasons why in this post.
1. Identify Areas of Improvement
Memorization is not a one-size-fits-all approach. Encoding information in working memory is not enough as it's prone to be forgotten in just a few days. The goal is to store information in long-term memory, where all our knowledge is retained. This is where learners should encode their certification training information for better retention and recall.
Retrieving information is key to storing it in long-term memory, where it can be easily recalled later. Knowledge checks are a valuable tool for assessing a learner's retention of certification training material and pinpointing areas that require further practice. By utilizing these checks, learners can strengthen their long-term memory and increase their ability to recall information.
Repurpose Exam Questions for Knowledge Checks
While knowledge checks may resemble traditional exams, their purpose is to provide learners with a low-pressure opportunity to assess their recall abilities without the added stress of grading or nerves. By evaluating a learner's ability to retrieve certification training information on demand, knowledge checks can uncover both strengths and weaknesses, providing valuable insights for targeted practice and improvement.
The formatting of a knowledge check runs from basic (multiple choice, true/false, drag & drop) to thorough (short answers, essays, sequencing). Repurpose exam questions to quickly and easily build knowledge checks at the end of each module.
Through knowledge checks, learners can pinpoint specific areas that require further practice or identify question formats that tend to trip them up. These checks serve as a formative assessment, allowing learners to continue growing and improving in targeted practice areas. It's important to note that knowledge checks are not meant to be the final assessment of a learner's overall knowledge, but rather a tool for ongoing development.
2. Reduce Learner’s Exam Anxiety
Exam anxiety is a common problem in eLearning that often goes unnoticed. It can cloud a learner's mind, leading to decreased recall and lower scores for all levels of performers. While it's impossible to completely eliminate exam-day jitters, you can help your learners feel confident and prepared to tackle any exam.
Practice exams are an ideal way to boost learner confidence. And creating them is easy for your team—simply repurpose exam questions into periodic practice exams spread throughout your course.
Repurpose Exam Questions for Confidence-Based Learning
Confidence is the antidote for anxiety, but you need to make sure your students’ self-perception is based on an accurate sense of their knowledge levels. In the context of a high-stakes exam, you want your learner’s confidence to stem from a sense of preparedness.
For instance, some students might be overly confident in their knowledge level, while others are incredibly knowledgeable but let their anxiety take over in a high-pressure setting. Either way generates negative outcomes.
The confidence-based learning model solves this problem by asking learners to rate their level of confidence when answering practice questions. It also takes the guesswork out of quizzes. A right answer with low confidence or a wrong answer with high confidence suggests the learner should engage in additional retrieval practice for certain topics. Repeating this process eventually leads to subject mastery.
The best part? You can repurpose exam questions to create as many practice exams as your users might need. Ultimately, after implementation, you’ll see improved results for both your high- and low-performing learners.
3. Reinforce Learning and Improve Learning Retention
The power of retrieval in knowledge retention is undeniable. The more learners practice recalling information, even if they guess incorrectly, the stronger their ability to retain and recall it in the long run. Make sure to provide learners with the correct answer to reinforce their understanding and help them achieve subject mastery.
When you repurpose exam questions, you should take advantage of the connection between recollection and learning. One method is to format your practice materials in an engaging way.
Presentation is key when it comes to user experience and retention levels. Learners are more likely to encode and retain information when they find it interesting and engaging. So, it's important to package your materials in a way that captures their attention and keeps them invested in the learning process.
Learning Formats
Gamification is one of the most engaging ways to present information. Including playful, fun, and interactive elements in your certification training materials creates a positive learning environment. However, you might hesitate when considering the complicated internal work it will take to repurpose exam questions into a game. Luckily, using a learning management system (LMS) designed for certification training programs makes gamification easy.
Knowledge checks are an inherently interactive form of learning, as they require the participation of your users. Make use of their participation by implementing different interactive formats and blending question types.
Incorporate various interactive methods to present your repurposed questions and keep your learners engaged. Multiple-choice questions are great for triggering memory connections and exercising the beginning stages of the retrieval process. To add more variety, consider using flip cards, infographics, charts, and note-taking as effective, interactive formats. By mixing and matching these formats, you can provide learners with a range of opportunities to practice retrieval and reinforce their understanding in various contexts.
4. Gain a Deeper Understanding of Your Own Content
Without clear goals and objectives, learners may feel lost and unmotivated. That's why it's crucial to establish a clear purpose for your practice materials from the outset. By doing so, you can produce and present materials that are focused, engaging, and effective in achieving your desired outcomes.
By analyzing your content, candidates, and organizational goals, you can establish a solid framework for repurposing your exam questions.
What Do You Know About Your Learners?
Start by reviewing the data you have on your learners. Where are they excelling, and where are they falling short? This data tells you where your certification training program has gaps.
Create materials that directly address the pain points your learners seem to be struggling with. You’ll be driving new revenue and filling a demand while adding value for learners that are struggling to master certain topics.
What Questions Are Consistently Missed?
To truly understand where your learners are struggling, it's important to dive deep into the details. Take a close look at the sections that were identified as lacking in your initial review and conduct a thorough analysis. This means poring over questions, prompts, and activities to pinpoint the sticking points where a higher than average number of students are stumbling.
Ask yourself, is this question written clearly? Has there been enough attention paid to the information this question is based on? By doing so, you can gain valuable insights into why your learners are struggling and how you can repurpose exam questions to fill in the gaps.
What Format Would Be Best?
Finally, you want to package the information in a way that’s suitable to both the subject matter and your learners’ preferences. Look through your data to find the question formats that seem to drive user engagement and deliver high-performance results. Ask yourself if any of these formats would be an effective means of communicating your repurposed questions, then match your materials to your formatting.
Repurpose Exam Questions With BenchPrep
It’s always hard to balance the costs versus the returns when building new revenue streams. But when you repurpose exam questions, you’re monetizing what you already have. You’re also increasing your users’ overall satisfaction levels while bringing them added value.
Practice makes perfect, and the eLearning space is no exception. Practice builds confidence, improves retention, and helps your learners achieve subject mastery. And with the right LMS, it’s easy to bring learners these benefits by putting your expired exam questions to good use.
To truly bring your certification training content to life, you'll need an LMS that caters specifically to membership associations and credentialing bodies. With the right platform, you can witness the transformation of expired exam questions into invaluable practice materials for your learners. So why wait? It's time to experience the magic for yourself.
