Quizercise: A Hybrid Assessment Method Integrating Quizzes and
In-Class Exercises
Nelson Wong

University of Calgary
Calgary, Canada
nelsonwong@ucalgary.ca

ABSTRACT

2

Quizercise is an innovative assessment method that combines
elements of quizzes and in-class exercises. This approach allows
educators to assess students’ knowledge through quizzes while
providing opportunities for a more equitable understanding of the
quizzes through in-class examples and demonstrations.

Quizercise is an assessment method that incorporates aspects of a
quiz with in-class exercises. This approach allows students to gain
a deeper understanding of the material by listening to the
instructor’s explanations and following along with examples and
demonstrations. Additionally, students are encouraged to publicly
discuss the quiz with their instructors, similar to working on
exercises during lectures. Students also have the opportunity to
ask instructors private questions.

CCS CONCEPTS
•

Social and professional topics → Computing education

KEYWORDS
computing education, assessments, quizzes, in-class exercises
ACM Reference format:
Nelson Wong. 2025. Quizercise: A Hybrid Assessment Method
Integrating Quizzes and In-Class Exercises. In Proceedings of the 27th
Western Canadian Conference on Computing Education (WCCCE), April
28–29, 2025, Calgary, AB, Canada. 2 pages.
https://doi.org/10.60770/p503-ka31

1

INTRODUCTION

Quizzes are frequently used to assess students’ knowledge in their
courses [4], including introductory to programming [5]. To
perform well on these quizzes, students must thoroughly
understand the questions and write programs independently within
a limited time frame. The extent to which students comprehend
the questions can greatly impact the effectiveness of the quizzes
designed to assess their problem-solving and programming skills.
To foster equitable understanding of quizzes among students,
we integrate in-class exercises [1, 6] with quizzes. This new
assessment method, called Quizercise, blends elements of both
quizzes and exercises. We implemented Quizercise in an
introductory programming course, and students expressed a
preference for Quizercise over traditional quizzes.
In this paper, we present descriptions and examples of
Quizercise, student feedback, the benefits and challenges of using
Quizercise, along with future directions.

LE) CD@ I
BY

NC

This work is licensed under an
Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0
International (CC-BY-NC 4.0) license.

WCCCE ’25, April 28–29, 2025, Calgary, AB, Canada
© 2025 Copyright held by the owner/author
https://doi.org/10.60770/p503-ka31

2.1

QUIZERCISE

Explanation and Demonstration

At the beginning of Quizercise, quiz questions are presented using
slides, allowing all students to view them just like they would in a
regular lecture (see Figure 1). The instructor then explains each
question and provides relevant examples, such as drawings on a
whiteboard (illustrated in Figure 2). For coding questions, the
instructor runs the solution code, which is not displayed,
demonstrating how the correct program should function, as shown
in Figure 3.
Program a game: the player needs to get a treasure chest in the middle of a
pond. Between the edge of the pond and the treasure are 20 stepping stones.
The player spins a wheel that labelled O to 5, and then walks the corresponding
steps on the stones towards the treasure. The player continues to spin the
wheel and walk towards the treasure until they reach the treasure.
The player has 3 lives. If the player lands on O on the wheel, they lose a life. If
the player loses all 3 lives before reaching the treasure, they lose the game. The
game has two settings: hard and easy. In hard mode, the player wins if they
land exactly on the treasure and loses if they go pass the treasure. In easy
mode, the player wins if they land on the treasure or go pass it.
If the player wins, they can get a gold, silver, or bronze coin from the treasure
chest depending of how many times the number wheel was spun. If the wheel
was spun for 6 times or less, the player can get a gold coin; if the wheel was
spun between 7 and 9 times {inclusive), the player can receive a silver coin;
and if the wheel was spun l O times or more, the player only gets a bronze coin.

Figure 1: A sample question shown as a presentation slide.

WCCCE ’25, April 28–29, 2025, Calgary, AB, Canada
Figure 2: A drawing to explain the quiz question.
Easy or hard? Enter 1 for easy and 2 for hard:2
currentSpin
2 remainingSteps
19 liveCount
3 spinCount = 1
currentSpin
5 remainingSteps
14 liveCount = 3 spinCount = 2
currentSpin
5 remainingSteps
9 liveCount
3 spinCount
3
currentSpin 4 remainingSteps
5 livecount
3 spinCount
4
currentSpin
5 remainingSteps
0 liveCount
5
3 spinCount
You win
You get a gold coin!

Nelson Wong
can benefit from the discussions that arise when other students
bring up their concerns.
More Familiar Setting. Students often experience stress during
quizzes [8]. To help alleviate this stress, Quizercise allows
educators to assess students in a more familiar environment by
incorporating exercise-like components, such as publicly
explaining and discussing quiz questions in the classroom.

Figure 3: Sample input and output of a quiz program.

5

2.2

We anticipate two challenges with Quizercise:

Public Free-form Discussion

CHALLENGES

After the explanation and demonstration period, students can start
working on the quiz. They have the opportunity to ask questions
and discuss the quiz openly with the instructor, similar to an inclass exercise. The instructor addresses questions from students in
a manner that allows the entire class to hear the discussion.
Initially, the open question period was planned to last throughout
the rest of the Quizercise. However, based on student feedback,
we have shortened the public question period to the first 10
minutes immediately following the explanation period (see
Section 3).

Providing Online and Hybrid Versions. We used Quizercise in
an in-person course, but assessing students in online and hybrid
settings presents unique challenges [3]. Converting Quizercise,
which includes elements of quizzes and exercises, to different
modalities can lead to unexpected issues.

2.3

6

Private Questions and Answers

The remainder of Quizercise is structured like a traditional quiz,
where students work independently and can ask the instructor
questions that only the instructor can hear. The instructor
approaches students who ask questions and provides answers
quietly.

3

STUDENT FEEDBACK

We gathered student feedback at the end of each semester and
during lectures. After implementing Quizercise for the first time,
some students mentioned that having private time to work on quiz
questions helped them stay focused. One student commented, “I
like open discussion, but I prefer having some private time to
concentrate on my quiz.” Based on the feedback, we shortened the
open discussion period to 10 minutes. Overall, students indicated
a preference for Quizercise over traditional quizzes, stating that
“it’s more relaxed and fair.”

4

BENEFITS

Quizercise can benefit students in two main ways:
More Equitable Understanding of Quiz Questions. No quiz
question is perfect; they can be worded in ways that are difficult
to understand or contain unclear specifications. Publicly
explaining quiz questions, demonstrating how the expected
solutions work, and discussing the quiz with students can help
them better understand both the questions and what the instructors
are looking for in the solutions. This approach is particularly
helpful for students who may be too shy to ask questions, as they

Supporting Students with Disabilities. Accommodating students
with special needs can be challenging [7]. These students require
accommodations, such as taking quizzes in a distraction-free
environment. They cannot benefit from public discussions.

CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK

Quizercise is an assessment method that combines quizzes with
in-class exercises, helping students gain a better understanding of
quiz questions in a familiar setting. While we have primarily
implemented Quizercise in an introductory programming course,
this approach can be applied to other courses as well. Moreover,
we can adapt the concept of merging quizzes with exercises to
other types of assessments, such as midterms and final exams.
Additionally, Quizercise shares similarities with two-stage
examinations [2], where students first take tests individually and
then collaborate in groups. It would be interesting to compare
these two assessment methods.

REFERENCES
[1] Eric Hicks and Vinhthuy Phan. 2025. In-class coding exercises as a mechanism
to inform early intervention in programming courses. In Proceedings of the 56th
ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 1, 499–505.
[2] Dan Levy, Theodore Svoronos, and Mae Klinger. 2023. Two-stage
Examinations: Can Examinations be More Formative Experiences? Active
Learning in Higher Education, 24, 2, 79–94.
[3] Seán Russell, Simon Caton, and Brett A Becker. 2023. Online programming
exams - an experience report. In Proceedings of the 2023 Conference on
Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education V. 1, 436–442.
[4] Noor Azimah Surip, Zulkifli Mat Som, Muthukumar B Palanisamy, and
Mazliza Mohamad. 2021. Ideas for designing better quizzes: a literature review
and suggestion. International Journal of Academic Research in Progressive
Education and Development, 10, 8, 190–201.
[5] Jagadeeswaran Thangaraj. 2022. Formative assessment as a learning method for
introductory programming. In Proceedings of the 2022 Conference on United
Kingdom & Ireland Computing Education Research, 1–2.
[6] Abrar Ullah and Sajid Anwar. 2020. The effective use of information
technology and interactive activities to improve learner engagement. Education
Sciences, 10, 12, 349.
[7] John Venn. 2011. Current issues in assessing students with special needs. In
Leading student assessment. Springer, 133–150.

WCCCE ’25, April 28–29, 2025, Calgary, AB, Canada
[8] Chunliang Yang, Jiaojiao Li, Wenbo Zhao, Liang Luo, and David R Shanks.
2023. Do practice tests (quizzes) reduce or provoke test anxiety? a metaanalytic review. Educational Psychology Review, 35, 3, 87.

Nelson Wong