Kahoot! is an online learning game-based tool, which consists 
of multiple choice questions in the format of a quiz, discussion or survey. It is projected at the front of the classroom, and played by the whole class together in real-time (with students answering on their own personal device). It is a useful tool to incorporate in any session where BYOD is a feature of your teaching session. If you are looking for a simple online learning tool to brighten and engage your classroom Kahoot! is the answer for you!
Kahoot! can turn your classroom into a competitive game show based environment, connecting web-enabled devices and turning tablets and mobile smartphones into game pad controllers. Teachers can create quizzes, play pre-made games, and even have students create their own.
Free and simple to use, the quiz generator guides teachers through a few simple steps to create a quiz.
Visit getkahoot.com and press on the ‘SIGN UP FOR FREE’ account button.
You will be asked to fill in details and the online tutorial talks you through the steps. When you sign in, you’re presented with the 3 types of Kahoot that you can make. Start with developing a ‘Quiz’, follow the simple instructions and then explore the other amazing features on offer.
Once a quiz is completed it is down to you to now host it! Your students then visit kahoot.it. Students do not need an account to join! Your screen will display a randomly generated game-pin to your students, alongside instructions on how to join. The game-pin is unique to this session only. Students will be prompted to enter the displayed game-pin followed by a nickname, which will appear on the screen at the front as they join. Once the quiz starts students use their devices as game pads in order to answer the questions that are projected.
As well as ‘gamifying’ question and answers in the classroom; a powerful addition to the tool is that you can choose to share it with colleagues who use Kahoot! by pressing ‘Share’ or on your social media profiles or through email. A final benefit of the tool is that as a teacher, data about your students’ progress can be monitored and recorded into mark books as the online tool provides a mark breakdown of each question for each student on completion of the quiz. Another useful feature to explore is ‘Ghost Mode’ whereby a student can reply the Kahoot to beat their previous score.
There are many ways to utilise this interactive online tool in your classroom, here are a few uses I have found in my own teaching in Psychology:
- Introducing a New Topic or Unit.
- Testing knowledge already covered in a Quick-fire test format.
- End of topic testing.
- Starter activity- using a quiz or survey.
- Setting up a classroom discussion.
- Creating a Survey to Poll answers and opinions.
- Recording data from your class and download the data gained from quizzes to put in your mark book.
- Using ‘Ghost Mode’ to retest and improve upon previous score.
- Sharing Kahoots publicly with colleagues and other teachers- allowing you to create a battery of Kahoots to use.
- Encouraging students to make their own quizzes to be used in class.
- Promoting a positive classroom culture and incorporating healthy competition.
Once you are familiar with the set-up and interface, creating and launching your Kahoot! to your class takes no time at all.
I have delivered several workshops to colleagues in order to share such an interactive tool which is simple but allows the teacher to still develop creativity and innovation. The developers of the online learning tool are continuously updating the platform and adding new features and new games to the site which can make for some very interesting lessons.
Overall, the system is so so simple to use and versatile that is does make learning awesome in a variety of settings such as at school/college, university, work and at home!
So, have a go and as a teacher, unleash your inner game show host!