Some teachers are still teaching fully online at the moment, while others are lucky enough to be back in the classroom. Many are involved in hybrid teaching, with half the students in a live lesson and half online. It is certainly quite a tough time for teachers!
What we all need now are tools that can work effectively in different teaching contexts. One particularly popular tool is Kahoot! However, using this online can be tricky, as the students need to have two devices: one for viewing the questions (normally on a screen shared by the teacher) and another for inputting the answers (normally a smartphone). Given this difficulty, an easier alternative is Quizizz.
Quizizz (https://quizizz.com)
Essentially, Quizizz is a tool for creating online tests and quizzes, which students can immediately access on any device. It has a good range of question types that teachers can choose from, and quizzes can include video and images. When the teacher launches an activity, a code is generated, and the students simply log in using this code, and can then start the activity. You can either set the quiz up to be teacher-controlled, in which case you control when the next question appears on the screen, or you can set it up so that the students are in control and simply move through the whole quiz in their own time and receive feedback at the end. Interestingly, you can also set quizzes for your students to do as homework: in other words, they don’t have to complete it at that moment – they can do it by a given hand-in date.
One of the features I particularly like is the data that the teacher receives back: a detailed breakdown of what the students got correct and incorrect. The information is nicely summarised, so that the teacher can easily see which questions the class had trouble with. These reports can even be downloaded, making it an ideal tool for formative assessment.
Flexible
Quizizz is ideal for all contexts. If students are in class, they can access the quiz via their mobile phones. If they are online, the teacher can share the link and the students can do the quiz online. This makes it ideal for hybrid classes, as both the students in class and at home can easily access the same quiz.
One of the challenges with hybrid teaching is to try to build a link between the students at home and the students who are in class. Quizizz allows you to set up activities that both groups of students can do at the same time.
Simple
I am a big fan of Kahoot! and use it a lot in my own work. However, the way the technology is set up means it is slightly more tricky to use online, because the students need two devices (as mentioned above). With Quizizz, the teacher doesn’t have to screen-share anything. They can simply share a link; the students click on the link and start the quiz. The questions and the answer options all appear on the same screen, so there is no need to screen-share and no need for the students to have two separate devices.
Effective
Quizizz can be used very effectively for homework. As mentioned above, the teacher can set a quiz with a due date by which it has to be completed and share a link with the students. At home, when the students are ready to do their homework, they click on the link and do the quiz. All the information regarding each student’s performance is immediately sent back to the teacher, so the teacher immediately knows who has done or not done the homework and what scores the individual students received.
There are five question types that can be used when creating a quiz. As you might expect, one of these is multiple-choice, but the students can also be asked to input written answers, and even write short texts. The ‘written answer’ quiz options are much more useful for homework activities, as the students have more time to complete the quizzes and can be asked to do more. In many ways, Quizizz is the complete package when it comes to online assessment.
If you use Quizizz in class, it is a good idea to get your students to work in pairs, rather than alone. This will generate a lot more engagement. Remember, too, that questions can include video and images – and you can even include images in the answer options, so it does allow for a bit of creativity when making the quizzes. Finally, Quizizz is free for teachers to use, and unless you want to have additional functionality, there is really no need to opt for the paid version.
You can learn more about using Quizizz at www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiIR4d25mY0&feature=youtu.be
Russell Stannard is the founder of www.teachertrainingvideos.com, which won a British Council ELTons award for technology. He is a freelance teacher and writer and also a NILE Associate Trainer.
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