Host your own virtual quiz
What is a virtual quiz?
A virtual quiz is a quiz you can do online, using a variety of social media platforms. It’s a way to connect with others across any distance whilst raising funds to support the work we do creating a society that works for autistic people.
At its simplest, a virtual quiz works like a real-life pub quiz, but instead of all being in a pub or social setting together, you all take part online from wherever you are.
How can I host a virtual quiz?
There are many ways to hold a virtual quiz, but we’ve outlined what we’ve found to be the easiest ways to do it below, with step-by-step instructions.
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- Use Zoom, Google Hangouts, Microsoft Teams or another virtual meeting platform. Zoom allows for easy interaction between the host and the players. It’s free to register for a Zoom account, but do note that Zoom meetings have a 40-minute limit.
Top tip: Be sure to ask your invited players to set up a Zoom account ahead of time.
- Facebook Live, YouTube Live or Twitch. These can be great for reaching a lot of people, but note that audio and video are only from the host, and any communication from your players will have to be in comments or chat.
- If using Facebook Live, learn how to set up a Facebook Live feed.
- If using YouTube, make sure you are familiar with YouTube live streaming instructions. Be aware of YouTube copy infringements – we'd suggest you steer clear of music and other video content. For full details go to YouTubeAbout.
- Learn how to get started on Twitch.
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- Set up a JustGiving page and ask people to donate to take part. You can suggest a donation amount or ask people to donate what they think the quiz is worth. Donations made on JustGiving will come straight to the charity.
Top tip: Add your JustGiving page link to everything you send people about the quiz. If you have a Facebook or WhatsApp group about the quiz, send it to players that way. Add it to your answer sheet (if you have one – more on this later) and remind people to visit the page before, during and after the quiz too.
- If you’re using Facebook Live to host your quiz, you can add a Donate button and select the National Autistic Society. Donations will come straight to the charity.
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This is the fun part! Whether it’s your special interest, general knowledge, or a bit of both, make the quiz whatever you want it to be and what you think will get people interested in playing.
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Even if you aren’t hosting it on Facebook, a Facebook event is a good way to invite people, let them know what it’s all about, and share information, as well as asking people to donate. It’s easy to create a Facebook event.
- Invite friends, family, colleagues, anyone you think may be interested in the quiz.
- Make sure you leave yourself enough time before the quiz starts to get your questions together!
- Tell people why you’re supporting the National Autistic Society with your quiz. Say how much you’d like people to donate to take part in your quiz, and add a Donate button.
- To add a Donate button to a Facebook post, look at the icons below your post. There is one that looks like a heart in a circle. If you hover over this, it says ‘Support Charity’. Click on this and type National Autistic Society. Then type what you want to say and hit Post.
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- Will you write the quiz yourself? This can be great fun but does take time to research and check your facts.
- There are many ready-made quizzes and collections of quiz questions online, so you can use the internet to find question sets or even whole quizzes.
- Make sure you think about how easy or difficult your questions are. Consider making some of your questions true/false or multiple-choice, to ensure it’s not too brain-achingly difficult!
- Be creative! A virtual quiz will be more compelling if you include picture or music rounds.
- Most quizzes have between 6 to 10 rounds of either 5 or 10 questions per round. This often includes one or more music or picture rounds.
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- Many virtual quizzes don’t require any kind of strict scoring process. The host reads out the answers after each round and it’s an honour system for the players to score themselves. There’s no one winner – the joy is in playing.
- If you do want to have scoring and winners, you can easily set up answer sheets using Google Forms. These allow you to ask a range of questions, including simple answer, multiple choice, and photo rounds. Make it as simple or complex as you like! Be sure to allow time after the quiz to mark the answers and report back to your players.
- Share the link to the Google Form with your players on whichever platform you're using to communicate with them.
- When your players hit submit, you can access their answers under ‘Results’ on your Google Form.
- Top tip: auto-scoring can be tricky, so you may do best to do manual scoring on the answers.
- How to create a quiz answer sheet on Google Forms.
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- Shortly ahead of the quiz start time, remind your players it’s coming up – post in the Facebook event or message your players.
- If using Facebook Live, YouTube Live or Twitch, set up a Zoom meeting room and send the URL for the meeting to everyone who has donated to take part.
- If using Facebook Live or YouTube Live, start your feed a few minutes before your announced time so you can check it’s all working correctly.
- If you’re using Google Forms to collect answers, post the link to the answer sheet so that all your players can access it.
- Once the quiz starts, welcome people, thank them for coming, remind them to donate, and get started - read out the questions, much as you would in a live quiz, leaving your players enough time to note their answers.
- You may want to tell your players how much has been raised so far, and encourage them to donate if they haven’t already.
- At the end, announce winners (if applicable) and thank everyone for playing and donating.
For more information please email community.fundraising@nas.org.uk.
Have fun, and thank you for supporting the National Autistic Society!