Kahoot and Quizizz Comparison

Students love playing games. Unfortunately they may not enjoy studying for tests or reviewing material as much. Fortunately for teachers there are two great tools that get students excited about reviewing and studying. Kahoot! and Quizizz are both web based formative assessment tools that work on any device. Because of the competitive, game based aspect students are excited and motivated to answer the questions. There are several advantages to using these digital tools.

• Most students are naturally competitive. The leader boards on these games encourage students to try harder so their names will appear.
• Both tools are web based so it doesn't matter what device students have: desktop, laptop, iPad, cell phone, Chromebook - they all work.
• Students can work in pairs or small groups to discuss and answer and submit it together.
• As with all digital formative assessment tools, these quizzes are graded automatically and provide immediate feedback for students and teachers.
• The reports for both platforms are phenomenal, breaking down responses by student and question.

Although both platforms are game-based and have many similarities, there are a three big differences that teachers need to be aware of.

Question/Answer Projection

Kahoot! shows the question and answer choices on the classroom projector. On their device, students only see buttons that correspond to the answer choices. They have to look back and forth between the large screen and their device. Kahoot! has a very good reason for being setup like this.

Quizizz, on the other hand, doesn't need the class projector at all. Both the questions and the answer options appear on the students' devices. This frees up the teacher's computer so they can view the game's results in real time.  Tony Vincent, on his Learning in Hand blog, has an excellent graphic illustrating this point.

Pace

With Kahoot! the teacher sets the pace. The teacher determines the response time for each question. They can also choose to pause after each question, discuss answers and deal with any misconceptions. This enables a deeper discussion of the material and why certain answers are correct. However, the teacher gets to determine the pace - all students have to answer the same question at the same time. Because Quizizz is player-based, students can work through it at their own pace, answering questions quickly or taking their time. Response time in Quizizz can be set up to 15 minutes.

I consider myself a smart person, but sometimes I just process information a little slower. Games like Kahoot! are frustrating for me because I feel rushed and cannot take the time I need to 1) process the question 2) look for the answer and 3) find the answer on my device. Because Quizizz is player-based, I can work at my own pace and take the time I need to process the information, provided the teacher has set enough response time.

Homework

Kahoot!, by design, is meant to be played whole class. Because of that, games cannot be assigned to students as homework or to work on later. Quizizz can be assigned as homework that students have up to two weeks to complete. If you are using Google Classroom, Quizizz has full integration, letting you create Classroom assignments right from within the quiz.

I love both platforms and believe teachers need to have both tools in their formative assessment toolbox. They each have their strengths. Both are extremely easy to use and provide great data for teachers.  These are both great tools when its time to review and prepare students for tests.