In my first week of the Teacher Education program at UBC I was introduced to Kahoot, an online competitive quiz forum. Our class was extremely excited and engaged while we participated in this competitive exercise and from then on, we jumped at the chance to play it whenever a peer decided to use it in a presentation. I recently discovered a similar online quizzing tool that takes Kahoot a few steps further: Quizizz! Through Quizizz, teachers can have students set their own pace and work on the quizzes at home. While at home, students could treat it like an open-book quiz or closed book, whichever way they feel comfortable with. Quizizz also has a ton of pre-existing quizzes to choose from and there is still the same option for timed, in-class quizzes like Kahoot. From my experiences so far, as both the student and the creator, these online quiz tools are great resources for teachers to promote participation and engagement in a classroom. Another useful aspect of Quizizz is how the data and results are downloadable, which is useful for a quick record of student comprehension.
The only thing I think Quizizz is missing is the ability to create a class. As students create their own nickname each time, the teacher has to match up the students with their previous work as opposed to a more seamless record.
My experience with these types of online quizzes is overall very positive. The friendly competition increases participation with students – even adults! – because the quick assessment of learning becomes a game. I do wonder about using these with primary students, but with enough scaffolding I think it could be done. I think creating a practice quiz with fun, easy questions would help students learn how to play. Quizizz is an extremely useful tool that when used optimally, has the potential to increase both student participation and learning.
Check out the links below and see what you think!
Here’s a link to the Quizizz Blog