Kahoot, a new and cheap way to get classroom-response instead of using clickers

Abstract

This evidence based practice paper describes a study about an immediate feedback system using Internet and students' own cell phones: Kahoot (getkahoot.com), also a comparison between implementing clickers and mobile participation systems is analyzed. Immediate feedback enhances students' learning. For students, it's a chance to go further by breaking misconceptions and changing learning routes. For teachers, it's a practical opportunity to feel the "temperature" of the classroom in order to decide to either review some concepts or move forward to another subject. There are many cases in literature about the use of clickers as an immediate feedback system. The clicker itself is neither a tool to directly teach concepts, nor it is meant to replace quality lesson preparation and planning. The clicker is a powerful tool to augment and enhance active learning in classroom, and most importantly, it is a mean to provide accurate situational awareness to the instructor. However, implementing this solution is usually expensive, since it costs about US$ 50 each one. Kahoot is an online classroom-response system that eliminates the need to give students handheld clickers. Through Kahoot, teachers create online quizzes or surveys and mirror the questions on a big screen or interactive whiteboard; it's also possible to embed videos. Students respond to the quiz items on any Internet-connected device, including their smartphones. During this session, participants take Kahoot quizzes as students. Participants may also create Kahoot quizzes as teachers, share their quizzes with other participants, and analyze quizzes results. It's worth to mention that the result of every quiz played over the platform can be saved for further analysis. When learners start playing, they need to enter a nickname, which allows students to stay anonymous, and their recorded scores are saved in their profile. This unique feature makes Kahoot an engaging platform. In order to present students and teachers perception about this new methodology, Kahoot system is presented in five different approaches: Introduction of a new concept or topic; Reinforcement of knowledge; Encouragement of reflection and peer-led discussion; Connection of classrooms and Challenge for learners to make their own Kahoot quizzes. Some of these purposes presented were studied in Physics I and Chemistry courses for freshman students and Physics II course for sophomore students in an Engineering School.