Making Data Collection Fun with Kahoot!

I can't even remember when or where I first heard about Kahoot! but I've used it with my students  in the classroom and with my faculty with wonderful results. Kahoot! combines a game based format with leader or student created quizzes,challenging participants to be the first to answer questions correctly by awarding points and showing the top 5 participants on the leader board. Surveys and discussion questions can also be designed without the competitive atmosphere created by the timed quizzes and awarding of points.

Kahoot! (getkahoot.com) is a free website that can be accessed with a laptop, tablet, ipod, or smart phone.  My intern used Kahoot! with my students on our class set of ipods as a post test for a lesson she created for Red Ribbon Week.  I used it as a pre-test with my faculty before an important faculty meeting about behavior (they all brought their smart phones). Both resulted in lots of active engagement and the students were so excited, they even begged  to do the quiz again!

Not only can teachers and School Counselors write quizzes, pre/post tests and surveys for students, but students can create a Kahoot! account and make quizzes or review activities for each other.  Creating a  Kahoot! is easy and the website has lots of public Kahoots! you can copy or use as an idea for creating your own.  Your Kahoot! can have pictures or videos attached to each question and questions can be multiple choice or  true/false.  At the end of each Kahoot! is a player rating of how much they liked the Kahoot! and how much they learned. Also available to the Kahoot! creator is a download listing the names of all the participants and how they answered each question.  What a great way for School Counselors to collect some perception data!

Game pin 

Student log in with game pin

Student log in with name and ready to play.

Once you have created your Kahoot! and are ready for your students to play,  you will go to getkahoot.com, log in and select your quiz.  A screen will display giving students the game pin (the pin is not always the same).  Students must go to kahoot.it to log in and participate.  When they do, a screen will ask for the game pin and their nick name.  We had some problems with super silly  and inappropriate nicknames, so much so that it became a competition as to who could have the most ridiculous or questionable nickname. As a result we had to insist on using real names, which we needed anyway to get individual student data.  There is also a great feature with Kahoot! that allows the School Counselor the option of "kicking out" any inappropriate name. The student must then enter a more suitable name to re-join the game.  When all students have reached  the "You're in!" screen you are ready for your Kahoot! to begin.

Student screen view

Questions as they appear on the projected screen.

Students see the  class answers and the correct answer(s).

Each question will appear at the top of the projected screen with red, yellow, blue and green bars with shapes and answer choices inside.  Students will  have to read the answer choices off the screen as they only see the colored bars with shapes on their screen.The object of course is to answer as quickly and correctly as you can to earn the most Kahoots! points.  After each question the question and correct answers and the number of students selecting each answer is displayed.  The leader board  comes after each question  response summary and shows the top 5 scores so students can see how they are doing compared to their classmates.  At the end of the quiz,  the final Kahoot! scores are shown and  students give a "learning" and "fun rating."  I'm pretty sure though you will already know how much they enjoyed playing Kahoots! without the ratings screen.  And to make this fun learning experience even better, you can download results  of your Kahoot! giving you a spread sheet with student names and how they responded to each question.

The final scoreboard lets students see how their top five classmates performed.
Button to download results is at the bottom of this screen.

 My students LOVED Kahoot! and my teachers were eager to try it in their own classroom.  If you are lucky enough to have laptops, tablets, or ipods in your school then this is definitely something I recommend you try.  If your technology is limited you could have students answer questions as teams or if your school is a BYOT (bring your own technology) like ours, students can bring their own devices to use. 

My mind is spinning with ideas about how I can use Kahoot! to collect process, perception, and outcome data.  The new semester will provide a number of opportunities to follow-up on programs and lessons conducted earlier in the year.

Have you ever tried Kahoot!?   I would love to hear about your Kahoot! experiences and how you are using the data.  Please share in the comments section below.  Thanks for stopping by!