Interaction & Assessment

Artifact 1 (Challenge 1): Google Forms screencast

Artifact 2 (Challenge 2): Kahoot screencast

Software used: Google Forms and Kahoot

Challenge 3 Reflection:

I started teaching college composition courses in 2005 when I was a GTA. I have taught on and off since then, for a total of 15 years. I have taught English, literature, film, communications, and professional development topics in a university classroom setting, as well as countless workshops and seminars on academic support topics.  I have used many types of approaches to student engagement, including applications like Google/Microsoft Forms or Kahoot, and traditional methods like paper-based quizzes, active learning approaches like think-pair-share, or verbal knowledge checks. Using software applications like Google Forms and Kahoot are great ways to not only make assessment and quizzes web-based and interactive, but the data that you collect is easily stored and retrieved within these systems.

In my experience, Kahoot is best used as a fun knowledge check in a low-stakes way. By this, I mean, it’s best used when not associated with a major point-based quiz where you are deducting points for answering incorrectly, but maybe you give credit to the learner just for doing it, or no one gets credit at all because it’s an informal, in-class way for the teacher to assess knowledge.  With Kahoot, because the answers are timed, it could also create a lot of pressure on particular learners who experience test anxiety, so that is why I think it is best for informal knowledge checks. In my experience, Kahoot is very fun and gives learners of all ages an opportunity to pull out their phones (which they desperately are trying to do at all times anyway) to use them for learning instead of mindless doom scrolling on social media. It’s also easy to make a quick quiz on there that is played like a game, so it serves its purpose when used more like a game by the teacher to informally check knowledge or for learning unit reviews. As a teacher, I would not use Kahoot for graded work or for questions that require excessive writing beyond a word or two because the countdown is moving too quickly for overly thoughtful responses. Kahoot is best for quick answers to simple questions.

Google Forms, on the other hand, is better for graded assessments or post-program surveys. It stores your data in a compact Excel document for you to access anytime. It also presents your learners’ answers in an easy-to-view way using graphs and pie charts, which makes for a bird’s eye view of the results. I personally have used Google or Microsoft Forms for many years for a variety of reasons—to register people in a workshop, to give post-program surveys to learners, and to poll people to gauge interest in future topics.  In my job, I use Microsoft Forms daily in all of these capacities, and it is an invaluable tool for quick assessment in a free, web-based platform. It is also incredibly convenient that all of your past forms are stored in your account, and they are easily copied to replicate similar questions on a new survey. They are a great tool for instructors, especially when you do not want to limit your respondents in terms of time to complete, and when you want to ask questions that require longer, text-based answers. They are also incredibly helpful when you want to assess respondents on a Likert scale, especially when you want to gather data across Kirkpatrick’s 4 levels of program evaluation in one stop.

I remember the first time I used a Kahoot was as a participant in a committee meeting at my university job. They used the Kahoot to get our opinions on things that had been discussed, and honestly, it was fun to do it regardless of the topic itself. I think that’s what something like Kahoot brings to the table—a break from the monotony of whatever else is happening in the class! It’s got music, it’s timed so it feels like a game (because it is, with scoring and leaderboards), and it’s very simply presented with bright colors. I’ve never had a bad experience with a Kahoot. As a user, the Kahoot allows you to also study with the quiz questions converted into flash cards or practice tests, and this is very valuable and helpful as a learner who may need a variety of different methods to learn or memorize material for points-based assessments later.

I have also completed many Google and Microsoft Forms—they are used ubiquitously to gather information—but I have never used one that has been graded as a quiz or assessment where points were involved.   Assuming the Google or Microsoft Form is setup to show you the answers to the questions on graded assessments, it can be used as a study tool to improve knowledge acquisition once you submit it and see your results. Overall, I think an application like Kahoot is a little better for students to use to study material than a Form would be because Kahoot is set up to turn quiz questions into flashcards whereas Google Forms are not. However, using the questions and answers on a Form, a student could make their own flashcards on paper and then study from there.