The team quiz guide · Part 2 of 4

How to run a remote team quiz

Everything you need to plan the event: how to set up the call, how to split people into teams, how many rounds to play, how long to give each one, and what to tell everyone at the start.

Setup: one Zoom call, with breakout rooms

Everyone joins one Zoom call from wherever they are. You use Zoom's breakout rooms for the teams: each breakout room is one team, where its members can talk through the questions in private. The main room is where you, the host, read out the answers and the scores.

This guide is based on running quizzes on Zoom. Any video tool with breakout rooms, such as Microsoft Teams or Google Meet, should work the same way.

Teams

Aim for 5 to 7 people per team. Your headcount then sets the number of teams.

There are two ways to fill the breakout rooms:

• Assign the rooms yourself. Group people who don't normally work together: different locations, different teams. This takes a little planning, and it puts people in a room with colleagues they don't know.
• Let Zoom assign them at random. Zoom's random assignment is quick and still mixes people up.

Rounds

Plan 4 to 6 rounds, each with its own theme. Put about 10 questions in a round, or about 5 if the questions are hard.

Timing

• First round: 10 minutes. The extra time leaves room for introductions, since people in a breakout room may not have met.
• Every round after that: 5 minutes.

How a round runs

1. Give the teams all of the round's questions at once.
2. Open the breakout rooms with the round's time limit.
3. When time's up, close the rooms and bring everyone back to the main room.
4. Go through the answers, with a bit of context about each one.
5. Update the scores.

Repeat for each round, then announce the winners at the end.

Rules to read out at the start

Keep the rules short. Read these three out before the first round:

Next, the questions themselves: what makes a good one, and a sample round you can borrow.