Kahoot! - Learning Really Can Be Fun

I really love playing games in my class with my students, whether it is a treasure hunt, a role-playing game, or what historical musical figure am I? I find that gaming is a wonderful way to engage students and promotes critical thinking and active learning. In looking for additional ways to engage my students in learning, I discovered Kahoot! through my colleague, Dr. Myron Brown a couple of years ago.

Kahoot! is an online gaming system that allows faculty to ask questions of students, who, using their smart devices (phones or tablets), can engage in the game and get immediate feedback.  I began using it as a tool to review material with my students, such as using it to ask questions that they could see on a midterm or to review terminology, but it quickly became a major component of my teaching arsenal. I can get immediate results, imbed media (a huge plus for a music professor), and get a competitive spirit going in my classroom.

Here are some ideas on how a faculty member can use Kahoot!:

Quizzes

Probably the most frequently used type of Kahoot!, Quizzes can be used to review material in class. Faculty can ask questions about various ideas covered in the lecture material or reading and assess student learning directly by allowing students to participate as individuals or groups. Students compete against each other in this game using multiple-choice questions for points based upon score or time. Faculty can get the results from these quizzes to give participation points or to assess their delivery of the material or student retention.

Discussion Prompts

The Discussion Kahoot! poses questions to the class and initiates debate among the students on a topic.

Polling students

The Poll Kahoot! can gather survey information from students in a class.

Jumbles

The Jumble Kahoot! allows faculty to create sets of information that students must organize in an order, such as historical dates, mathematical amounts, or any kind of information that can be ordered in, well, an order.

Blind Kahoot!

A Blind Kahoot!

uses the Quiz version of Kahoot! to teach a new subject or idea. See the following video for how to teach using Kahoot! I often use this to discuss the “big ideas” in my Music History course to help students learn more effectively.

Assign a Challenge for Homework

Faculty can assign any Kahoot! as a Challenge to be sent to student users who are registered with the Kahoot! mobile app. Students will receive a Challenge via the Kahoot! app and a due date as assigned, and faculty will receive the results in their Kahoot! results page.