Retrieval, spacing and feedback
Use learning research to plan practice, while checking whether students can explain and apply what they recall.
Retrieval is a learning activity as well as a measurement
Practice questions can ask students to retrieve an explanation before checking it. The Dunlosky review rated practice testing and distributed practice highly across the literature it reviewed. This is broader learning science. Course-specific studies in this reference support examining implementation, rather than promising a fixed gain from adding quizzes.
What students retrieve matters
An editorial example: ask students to identify a confound in an unfamiliar experiment, then explain how it threatens a conclusion. A term-definition quiz alone will not show this ability. Include feedback explaining the reasoning, and later ask a new question requiring the same distinction. The exact sequence is a site example, not a validated intervention.
Plan returns to earlier ideas
Rather than treating a topic as finished after one week, schedule later questions that connect it with another topic. For example, return to sampling when teaching social behavior after first introducing it in methods. Space the opportunity to retrieve, and identify what students should do when their answer is wrong. Avoid assuming the same interval fits every outcome.
Check beyond the practice score
A proposed local check is to compare an earlier practice response with a later unfamiliar application. Keep changes in teaching and assessment visible. If several elements change at once, you can describe an improved course outcome but cannot confidently attribute it to one element. The historical-cohort testing study illustrates this interpretive problem.