Kahoot is an online learning game used to review students’ knowledge and it is a break from the traditional classroom activities. The quizzes called “kahoots” are best played in a group of students. Players are displayed on a share screen. The teacher can also send kahoot challenges to students to complete at their own pace, as homework. It acts as a substitute of a formative assessment, adding images during a quiz and reaching different learning styles for different grades, starting from kindergarten and ending with 12th grade (age range 5-18 years). The teacher can create his own quiz, duplicate or edit what others created.
The most important features of this online game can be found on Kahoot.com:
– it assigns student-paced challenges that learners can complete to study and practice English at home or in the classroom;
– it has visual reports on live games and student paced challenges that help the teacher to assess how the class performed, to identify difficult questions that need follow up and to reinforce learning in a targeted way;
– it allocates each multiple choice answer a color and shape, which students see on their own devices;
– it sends each student discrete feedback of where they rank within the classroom. Teachers may not like this feature, but personally, I found it to be a useful tool for motivating the students I have worked with;
– it engages students with content review and identifies topics that need re-teaching;
– it helps the teacher to identify the knowledge gaps in his classroom and to reinforce the topics that students need to master;
– it has a series of questions with between two to four multiple choice answers to choose from;
– it has several types of questions: multiple choice, true or false, open-ended (the player must type in the correct answer to get points), puzzle (the player must align the four options in order) and Jumble questions (they challenge players to place answers in the correct order rather than selecting a single correct answer). They offer a new experience, encouraging even more focus from players. If students answer correctly, they get points. The sooner the player answers, the more points he gets.
Kahoot is a platform that can be used in various ways:
a) some teachers build their entire lesson around a game of Kahoot;
b) other teachers include a Kahoot as a supplement to their classroom activity. This way, they can introduce a topic, do a review or give the students an energizer during class;
c) it can be used in extracurricular courses or activities.