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IMPROVING STUDENT ENGAGEMENT WITH KAHOOT! 1

Improving Student Engagement with New Technology:

A Study of the Effects of Kahoot! in the 7th Grade Classroom

Theresa Merculief

University of Alaska Southeast

EDRE 636

December 12, 2015


Introduction

I have observed that when I ask questions in class I often don’t get very many students

participating. I have also noticed some students are shy and don’t like to talk very much in front

of others. I would like to change this and give those students a voice and generally increase

participation in my class. I want students to be excited about learning and thrilled when I say we

are going to review today.

Kahoot! is an online program that enables teachers to create quiz questions in a game

show type setting. I wanted to see if using this kind of interface would positively impact

participation. I conducted this study to answer the research question, “Does Kahoot! increase

student participation in the 7th grade classroom?”

Literature Review

Technology has changed the way we look at information. Students are growing up on

technology. According to the Census Bureau, in 2013, 74.4 percent (%) of all households

reported Internet use. Household computer ownership and Internet use were most common in

homes with relatively young householders (File & Ryan, 2013). Students in record numbers are

getting online to play games. They have Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and 4, Wii systems, Nintendo,

and games that they play on their phones, computers, iPads, etc. When students go to school,

they can see the difference between their world and school. Most schools have out of date

information and can’t keep up with the ever-changing technology. Engagement is important in a

classroom. Any teacher wants to see a student engaged and participating in class. The article

“QoE in a Cloud-Based Classroom Response System” describes Kahoot! as a tool to keep the

attention of students and increase engagement.


The company Kahoot! was born in 2012 (Collins, 2015). Its classroom tool can be played

on any device with Internet. It uses a game response system where students participate and

answer questions that are on the board, earning points for their responses. Kahoot! uses a game-

like interface, so it is easy for students to relate to the platform (Bharti, 2015).

According to the article “Kahoot! Is Gamifying Quizzes & Classroom Participation,” by

TechFaster, Kahoot! is leading the charge to “gamify” quizzes and classroom participation.

These kinds of game response systems are nothing new. They have been around since the 1980s.

Kahoot! is different, though, in that a student can participate with any device. As explained in the

TechFaster article, “First and foremost it creates 100% engagement in the classroom, focusing

students on the content being taught, motivated through the game…. a rare or unheard of feat!”

How does it do this? It changes the classroom into a game show where everyone can participate

and try to get the highest score on the board. Multiple studies have shown an increase in

students’ attendance, attentiveness, enthusiasm, and in-class participation using tools like

Kahoot! (Bullock et al., 2003; Roschelle, et al., 2004; & Wits, 2003). Teachers can also print out

a spreadsheet at the beginning or end of a lesson to assess current student knowledge (Vasek,

2015).

Gamification in the classroom can be used to increase participation, engage learners, and

bring a positive attitude to students’ behavior. It can also increase their enjoyment of learning.

Kahoot! can also help students develop skills in communication, collaboration, and presentation

(Matthew et al., 2015). The main problem in today’s classrooms is the lack of engagement and

motivations for students to participate (Kiryakova et al., 2014). Because they are used to being

stimulated by technology in everyday life, students easily get bored with the old teaching

methods. Kahoot! has been found to be effective in changing that in the classroom.


Methodology

I created questions to program into Kahoot! to be used in classroom sessions. I started

using Kahoot! sessions once or twice a week in weeks 7-11 of the term. I collected data through

observation and by tabulating correct and incorrect responses. Kahoot! can create a print-out of a

spreadsheet showing which students answered and what their answers were, which I used as

well. I used Kahoot! on the days where we had longer classes as well as a “brain break” halfway

through class. I also created a survey (Appendix B) and used it to ask the students what they

thought of Kahoot! Would they recommend other teachers use it? Why do they like (or dislike)

using Kahoot!?

Some of the concerns I had along the way included my feeling that I was trying to collect

too much information. I wanted to use the program with all of my classes to get a good study

sample. At one point, I considered cutting the sample back to two classes, but, instead, I was able

to enlist someone to help me with the observations.

Project Timeline

Week 1: Prior to gathering data, I introduced Kahoot! to the students during the week of

October 5th. After explaining how it worked, I had students create their own user names. I asked

students to incorporate their names into their user names, as I needed names for my data

collection. I gathered data once a week after each use of Kahoot! I printed out the spreadsheet

that Kahoot! offers.

Week 2: I had students play Kahoot! and collected data each time they played. I observed

the students using the program. I had created a Kahoot! quiz to play with them. I used it the first

couple of times and later changed it up a bit.


Week 3: I did a survey to gather students’ impressions of Kahoot!. I then went over the

data I had collected over the past few weeks and analyzed it to see if there was an increase in

student participation.

Participants

I used Kahoot! in all of my 7th grade classes. I have a variety of students in each class. In

one class, I have several special education students; in this class I often go over material very

thoroughly. One class is made up mostly of boys who are very active and talkative. Another class

includes six boys who are ADHD and very inattentive, and the last class is made up mostly of

gifted students. A total of 98 students participated in the study by working on Kahoot!, and 72

filled out a survey.

Data Analysis

I used Kahoot! with each class over a period of two weeks. I collected data through

observation, note taking, capturing screen shots, making a copy of the results of the game, and

conducting a student survey.

I started the study on October 6, 2015, and used it in all of my classes—two on October

6, 2015, and two on October 7, 2015, and, the following week, on October 13 and October 14. I

took notes of my observations of students’ interactions with the program and saved Kahoot! quiz

results to my Google Drive.

I observed that, overall, the students were excited to use Kahoot! Students would yell out

“Yea!” or put their hands in the air when they got an answer right. Students were clapping their

hands and moving in their seats. They were also making audible comments like “Yes, I got that

right!” or “Oh no! I got it wrong!” I also heard them exclaim “I am first!” or “I am behind so and

so.” Kahoot! lets you see which place you are in and also displays it at the front of the room.


These kinds of reactions were observed, with a slight amount of variation, in all participating

classes.

Overall, I felt everything went well. I saw an increase in participation by observing

behaviors and screens. On my computer, I have access to what every student is looking at, and I

saw that every computer screen was on Kahoot! (Appendix A). The students really enjoyed it

and expressed disappointment on the days I told them we wouldn’t be working with the program.

I also conducted a survey with the students, and the results showed mostly positive

feedback for students’ Kahoot! experiences (Appendix C).

Findings

The findings from this study suggest the answer to the research question “Does Kahoot!

increase participation in class?” is “Yes.” Both my observations of students’ behaviors and the

information I got from the screen shots indicate that the program improved student engagement.

Even after a few weeks of playing Kahoot! the students were always excited to play it. They

often asked, “Are we going to play Kahoot! today?” Also, looking at the screen shots I took,

most of the student users were engaged.

By surveying the students, I learned that of the 24 (14 boys and 10 girls) in the gifted

class, 67% liked Kahoot! and 33% did not like it. 63% would recommend it to other teachers and

37% would not. 88% believed the program increases participation and 12% said it doesn’t. 67%

said yes, Kahoot! does increase learning, while 33% said it does not.

In a class of 10 boys and 8 girls, 83% said they liked Kahoot! and 17% said they didn’t

like it. 95% (all but one) said they would recommend it to other teachers. 89% believed the

program increases participation while 11% said it does not increase participation.


In another class of 18, all but six (30%) liked Kahoot! So 60% liked Kahoot! 72% or 13

students would recommend it to other teachers. Five students (27%) would not recommend it to

other teachers. 100% of the students in this class thought it increased participation.

In the fourth class surveyed, there were 18 responses, with 16 (89%) liking Kahoot! and

two (11%) who didn’t. All 18 (100%) thought it increased participation and all (89%) but two

(11%) thought it increased learning. 13 out of the 18 (72%) indicated they would recommend it

to other teachers.

It was interesting to see survey results from four different classes. Looking at these

results, it is clear that most students like Kahoot!, would recommend it to other teachers, and

think it increases their participation and learning.

Conclusion

What I have learned from the research is that Kahoot! does make a difference in learning.

I have now incorporated it into my classes, and we use it weekly or every other week. If I were to

do another research project like this, I would see if students’ learning increases over time using

Kahoot! I assume students learn more when they are engaged, so it might be interesting to me

and helpful to my colleagues to measure the positive effects of this new technology in another

study.


References

Bharti, P. (2015). How Kahoot! Can Help Teachers to Engage Students. Retrieved September 26, 2015.

Collins, K. (2015). Kahoot!! is gamifying the classroom (Wired UK). Retrieved September 26, 2015.

D. Bullock, V. LaBella, T. Clingan, Z. Ding, G. Stewart, and P. Thibado, “Enhancing the student-instructor interaction frequency,” The Physics Teacher, vol. 40, no. 9, pp. 535–541, 2003.

EdTech: Kahoot! Is Gamifying Quizzes & Classroom Participation | TechFaster. (2014). Retrieved September 26, 2015.

E. Wit, “Who wants to be. . . the use of a personal response system in statistics teaching,” MSOR Connections, vol. 3, no. 2, pp. 14–20, 2003.

File, T., & Ryan, C. (2013). Computer and Internet Use in the United States: 2013. Retrieved September 26, 2015.

J. Roschelle, W. R. Penuel, and L. Abrahamson, “Classroom response and communication systems: Research review and theory,” in Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Diego, CA, pp. 1–8, 2004.

Kiryakova, G., Angelova, N., & Yordanova, L. (2014). Gamification in education. Proceedings of 9th International Balkan Education and Science Conference.

Matthews, J., Matthews, M., & Alcena, F. (2015). EDD-7914–Curriculum Teaching and Technology.

QoE in a Cloud-Based Classroom Response System: A Real-Life Longitudinal and Cross-Sectional Study of Kahoot!!.

Vasek, M. (2015). Technology Tool-Hoot Hoot! Kahoot!! Retrieved October 3, 2015, from http://www.texasreaders.org/uploads/4/4/9/0/44902393/spring_2015_newsletter.pdf.

http://www.texasreaders.org/uploads/4/4/9/0/44902393/spring_2015_newsletter.pdf


Appendix A: Screen Shots



Appendix B: Survey

1. Are you a boy?

2. Are you a girl?

3. Do you like Kahoot!?

4. Would you recommend it to other teachers?

5. Do you think it increases participation?

6. Do you think it increases your learning?


Appendix C: Survey Results

Blue = No Red = Yes


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