Kahoot
Kahoot is primarily a polling tool. Staff can display poll questions via a screen in class or via Zoom, and students submit answers via their own device, or as part of a team. Kahoots are typically ‘competition’ style quizzes in which points can be awarded points for correct answers. A running leaderboard is displayed after each question, and at the end of the quiz.
Kahoot polling is generally most appropriate for formative use. It could be used in the following ways:
- Run at the start of a workshop to gauge to what degree students have engaged or understood the pre-class tasks.
- Run during a lecture or workshop to increase engagement and gauge understanding of new concepts, or collect opinions from the cohort
- Assigned as a post-class resource for revision purposes
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Using Kahoot in teaching
In BMS1011, Kahoot was used regularly as a weekly workshop starter. Students worked in a team on their table (~6 students) to answer a series of five Kahoot multiple choice questions or occasionally a question that required a simple calculation or single word entry. The questions focused on content from the previous week and aimed to get students talking, explaining concepts to one another and reinforcing their learning. After each question, the lead TA or academic running the session could elaborate on specific points if they felt knowledge required consolidation.
The team nature of the quiz and the fact that names were anonymous meant all students participated eagerly and there was often a lot of fun in trying to come up with inventive or humorous team names. This all helped reduce the barrier to entry and to get students motivated to begin class and really served as a strong ice-breaker to form friendships with others in the class.
Kahoots were shared with the large BMS1011 teaching team so that they could start the Kahoot themselves at the start of each session. An answer sheet was also shared with the TAs for each Kahoot, elaborating on specific points that could be worth mentioning during the quiz. As a team, we discussed the Kahoot as part of our weekly workshop prep meeting, which had the added benefit of helping to modify some of the questions so that they were clearer or would stimulate deeper thinking in class.
Credit: Nathan Croft, Nirma Samarawickrema, Ester Villvanathan and the BMS1011 teaching team
Get started with Kahoot
To create or run a quiz, account creation is required. While it is free to create an account, there are limitations on the number of players per quiz for a free account (10), and limited question types available. Quiz participants do not require a Kahoot account to play.
- Go to https://create.kahoot.it/auth/register
- For account type, select Teacher.
- For describe your workplace, select Higher Education.
- Enter your email and a password, then click Sign up.
Additional resources
- Kahoot Getting Started guide
- Kahoot Higher Education pricing
- The faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences have a request form for upgrading to Kahoot Premium (MNHS staff only)