Educational Technologies Pt. 2
Formative assessments are, simply put, not fun for students, which affect the student’s attitude towards them and could even affect how their day goes. Using game-based formative assessments can grab the student’s attention and will become more engaged and more eager to participate. Game-based assessments help measure the learning and growth of students.
Kahoot! is one of many resources that can assess what the students understand and take away from the lessons taught, while still being a fun, and sometimes competitive platform for the students. The reason for this platform being competitive for the students is that it has a point system on the speed and correctness of each question that the students answer and will be ranked on those points. This is a setting that can be turned off or can be a driving point for students depending on the classroom.
In the video “Kahoot! case study: Acing game-based formative assessment strategy” linked above, it shows how Jim Shields, who is a high school history teacher in New Mexico, found and uses Kahoot! as a effective resource in his classroom. This strategy of using a game-based assessment is very practical for both the student and the teacher, because it keeps the students entertained and engaged increasing student participation, while keeping the teacher informed on what the students understand and what they may need more time going over. After using this strategy, Jim Shield’s students had performed 18% better on their midterms from the previous year because they remembered the material from the daily formative assessments given on Kahoot!
Some students don’t feel confident or get anxiety when having to take tests or quizzes, yet these assessments are essential for teacher to know what their students are gaining from their lessons. Having game-based assessments takes some of the stress away from the students, to where they can become more confident in the material because they are learning and remembering the content in the game-based assessments.