Tool Reviews
36
Overview
Kahoot! Overview (3:46)
Description
Kahoot! is an interactive game-based, web-based learning platform that can be accessed on any device and used in a school, work or home environment. Individuals (teachers, facilitators, trainers, students and others) can create, host or play learning games which are called kahoots, reviewing or introducing topics and concepts or elaborating on them. Games (kahoots) can take the form of any combination of quizzes, surveys (polls) or discussions (content slides) and can lead to further discussion, collaboration or research. They can consist of various question types that are connected to colours, shapes and music, as well as uploaded images and embedded YouTube videos. Quizzes can consist of multiple-choice, true or false, open-ended or puzzle (sort/ sequence) questions. Surveys (Polls) can consist of multiple-choice questions or free form answers that can be visualized in a word cloud and discussion in the form of content slides can contain additional information about a topic or concept. Learners connect to a game through a generated pin on a shared screen and can see their name, nicknames or team names, that they have created, on the leaderboard. They are able to get immediate feedback when choosing, answering or sorting questions. And they can see how their responses rate relative to their fellow learners or colleagues by the number of points they have been awarded for correct and timely answers. Teachers, facilitators and trainers can use the games (kahoots) to help them with formative assessment, evaluating learner knowledge and identifying the learners who may need help. They can also gather feedback about content and structure of their games (kahoots) from learners. The results of each game can be downloaded into an Excel spreadsheet or Google drive. Games (kahoots) also provide opportunities for learners to assess and reflect on their knowledge. Games (kahoots) can be shared with others, edited, published online and teachers, facilitators or trainers can assign them as homework in the form of Kahoot! challenges for learners to play at their own pace on their own devices at home within a timeline set by them.
Justification for Using this Tool
The most important feature of Kahoot! is its ability to engage and motivate learners to learn. It is tied to “gamification of education” (Dichev & Dicheva, 2017) in employing such “game design elements” (Deterding, Dixon, Khaled, & Nacke, 2011) as fun, rewards connected to units of measurement such as points and time, immediate feedback, visual tracking of progress and recognition through a leaderboard, and “social elements” such as “competition and cooperation” with other learners where “their progress and achievements are made public” (Huang & Soman, 2013).
Games (kahoots) can also be used to facilitate discussion “between an entire class” (Plump &LaRosa, 2017) and promote collaboration and problem-solving. Instructors, facilitators, and tr