Team trivia

Team trivia (a.k.a Trivia night, Game show, Jeopardy) involves the educator preparing a pool of questions, divided into different topics which act as the ‘rounds’. Trivia style questions are used to consolidate content understanding and encourage students to engage in their learning through gamification of the curriculum, and to build social links with peers.

Arranging students into teams and establishing friendly competition assists in creating a supportive environment to facilitate peer learning. As students answer the questions, they must engage in discussion to reach consensus even where the group members may have differing answers. The immediacy of feedback also supports student learning.

Team trivia is

effective for:

best to pair with:

  • Clarifying understanding
  • Collaboration and cooperation
  • Identifying misconceptions
  • Peer learning
  • In-class polling
  • Socratic questioning

Example 1

“A trivia night” session can be split into rounds, with fun content based activities (not just MCQs – i.e. group crosswords)

Example 2

Online tools (MARS and Kahoot) allow the educator to develop questions or polls and use music to build atmosphere, while students complete the assigned questions. Students gain points based on how long it takes them to answer the question or whether the answers are correct. Tools can show a leader board and the activity can be used in lectures or in small group classes/workshops/tutorials