Abstract Synchronous online lectures often rely on static slide presentations and end-of-session quizzes, limiting sustained cognitive engagement and meaningful interaction. This study introduces quiz-based inquiry (QBI), an incremental, lecture-embedded instructional approach that distributes low-stakes quiz prompts across live sessions to regulate attention, stimulate reasoning, and integrate feedback within the progression of instruction. Rather than functioning as terminal assessments, quiz prompts serve as structural drivers of inquiry and dialogue. Using a quasi-experimental design, three groups of undergraduate students (N = 90) enrolled in an online public administration course were assigned to one control condition (LMS-based post-lecture quizzes) and two experimental conditions that implemented QBI via interactive presentation platforms ( Mentimeter and AhaSlides ). Data included online formative quiz performance, paper-based summative examination scores, technology acceptance, multidimensional engagement, perceived interaction, and course satisfaction. Students in the QBI conditions demonstrated significantly higher formative and summative performance compared with the control group. Formative performance strongly predicted final examination outcomes (β = 0.66, p < .001), accounting for a substantial proportion of variance. QBI also yielded significant gains in behavioural, emotional, and cognitive engagement, along with enhanced perceived interaction. Qualitative findings revealed sustained attentional readiness, dialogic reasoning, and real-time conceptual clarification. Minimal differences between platforms indicate that instructional sequencing, rather than technological variation, accounted for observed effects. This study advances instructional design theory by reframing formative assessment as a structural component of instructional architecture that sustains inquiry, engagement, and cumulative understanding in synchronous online learning environments.
Zainuddin et al. (Thu,) studied this question.