Learning Tools

The Best Alternative to Quizizz in 2023

Looking for a free alternative to Quizizz? We look at the pros and cons of Quizizz for learner engagement and learning.
The Shiken Team
5 min to read
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Who Does it Better? Shiken or Quizizz?

Quizizz is a platform that looks at things from the teacher’s point of view. It is all about making things quick and easy for the teacher while delivering value for the student. With over 30 million pre-made quizzes to choose from, you can easily set tasks for students to complete. You can either go through them as a class or allow the student to complete the lessons in their own time.

For student-led learning, the leaderboard and live results help educators see who is doing well and who needs a little more help on a topic.

This is all very similar to Shiken, which also boasts an incredible database of questions and aims to make it ever easier for teachers to set, grade, and track student work.

It also promotes in-app note-taking and goal-setting. One of the biggest differences between these platforms is the mindfulness feature, which provides motivational nudges and suggests healthy break times. You can also study with soothing music, making it easier to focus and soak up the knowledge.

Create Quizzes and Play Learning Games To Engage Students

Quizizz has revolutionized the way students learn in classrooms by allowing them to play games. Famed for its interactive quizzes and lessons, Quizizz has made learning fun, engaging, and accessible for students of all ages. However, like all tools, it has its pros and cons.

Quizizz offers an array of unique features that have the potential to transform your classroom. One of the key selling points of quiz tool is the ability for teachers to create quizzes and interactive lessons on any topic. From language arts to social studies, teachers can tailor their quizzes to suit their lesson planning needs. The platform also comes with a plethora of existing quizzes that teachers can utilize for their class, saving precious time​.

Teachers can also create interactive learning and games to keep students engaged. These games, much like Kahoot games, provide a fun and interactive way for students to answer questions. The classroom games range from review games to live quizzes, catering to various teaching styles and student preferences. The live quiz feature allows students to compete in real-time, making learning a more dynamic experience.

Furthermore, Quizizz is highly versatile. It can be used for in-person teaching and remote learning, integrating seamlessly with Google Classroom and Microsoft Teams. This makes it an excellent tool for team meetings, online classes, and small groups alike. The platform also supports multiple choice, true/false, and fill in the blank formats, allowing teachers to customize their quizzes and lessons to their liking.

One of the best features of Quizizz is its emphasis on student engagement. The platform uses gamification elements like power-ups and scoring systems to keep students engaged. The power-ups, in particular, add an element of unpredictability that students love. They can also learn at their own pace, a feature not always available in games like Kahoot.

Does Quizizz Cost Money?

Quizizz offers both a free version and a paid version.

The free plan is quite robust, offering unlimited games, quizzes, and interactive lessons. Teachers can even create their own games and add images to their quizzes to make them more visually appealing.

The paid version, on the other hand, offers additional features like advanced reports, read-aloud questions, and the ability to assign quizzes as homework.

What Are the Cons of Using Quizizz?

There are some drawbacks to Quizizz that teachers should be aware of. While the platform allows teachers to create their own quizzes, the process can be time-consuming. Additionally, the free version has limitations, such as a cap on the number of questions per quiz and a lack of advanced features like math equations and word clouds. For these features, teachers will need to upgrade to the paid version.

Another potential downside is that while Quizizz is a fun way for students to learn, it may not be the best tool for all types of formative assessment. For instance, it may not be suitable for assessing complex skills like critical thinking or problem-solving. Instead, it is best used for reviewing factual information and basic concepts.

Moreover, while the ability to learn at their own pace is a benefit for some students, it may also be a drawback for others. Without the pressure of a timer, some students may become less engaged or take longer to complete quizzes. Teachers may need to find ways to motivate these students and keep them on track.

Although Quizizz can be used for live polls and live quizzes like Kahoot outside of the classroom for work it's primary focus is kids and on student engagement and learning games with the multiple choice quiz tool for interactive learning in class.

So, what else sets these two platforms apart, and which one is better for your classroom?

What are the Limitations of Quizizz

Quizizz is a fantastic learning tool, but it has two main issues that can be frustrating for users.

Lack of Question Types

With so many questions in the database, you might expect to have a whole range of quizstyles to display them to you. Unfortunately, you’ll only find straightforward question-answer and existing quiz types including multiple choice, type-answer, and word cloud with Kahoot games offering Kahoot alternatives which you can add images to

Lack of Customer Support

Getting hold of someone on the Quizizz team is pretty tricky. The website has a whole support section with frequently asked questions and links that allow you to report issues. But there is no way to speak to an actual person. Sometimes, a quick chat with someone who knows the app inside and out can fix everything and leave the user feeling satisfied.

 

What Is Better Than Quizizz?

In comparison, Shiken offers its questions in a wide range of ways. From flash cards to game templates that can be used on google classroom you'll find quizzes, games, question-answer, and speech games.. As well as this, there are regular motivational quotes,and break reminders, to stop them from feeling burned out. Relaxing music and cute study buddies make for a pleasant learning experience that students will want to return to again and again.

The Shiken free plan offers live quiz for in person learning as well as remote learning for kids and adults. It is much better for formative assessment and for professional learning with a mini-LMS built in to manage learner progress more deeply.

The Shiken contact process is also far more straightforward. There is an easy to find form on the website, as well as an email address. The team aim to get back to questions as soon as possible.

It is the small details that really make this app stand out. Add notes to have students answer questions themselves, see student progress with a quick glance at the teacher dashboard, and enjoy video courses that enhance learning.

 

Key Features of Shiken

Mindfulness

Students who are calm and focused tend to remember things much better than those who are panicked or stressed. That is why mindfulness is such a big part of the Shiken platform. This includes tranquil music to study to, motivational nudges, andbreak reminders.

Quizizz does not integrate mindfulness throughout the app like Shiken, but it does have a mindfulness course that users might want to take to supplement their study strategies.

Question Library

How many questions are enough? 10,000? 20,000? How about 75,000? That’s how many currently sit in the Shiken question library. This means that no two sessions are ever exactly the same, but topics are repeated enough to ensure they stickin the mind.

The Quizizz library has over 30m customizable activities, allowing teachers to set classroom and homework tasks that will supplement the exact topic students are learning.

Ability to Set Goals

Shiken is an app that tries to be more than just a teacher’s aid. That is why you can set goals for your student inside the platform, or they can set them for themselves. Having a goal is great for motivation and can help speed up learning.

Quizizz doesn’t have the goal-setting feature, but it does have a course on setting goals that can help users do this outside of the app.

Ability to Take Notes

It’s a simple feature that you will find incredibly useful, but in Shiken you can add notes to questions. This is great if you want to talk to the students about something off the back of a question, or you simply own questions and want to bookmark one to come back to at another time.

Again, Quizizz has a course on effective note-taking, but you cannot currently attach notes toany questions that you save.

Exams

Nothing shows progress like an exam. The ones on Shiken are slightly less pressure than the official internal exams many students face, but they help build essential exam-taking skills. Students are given a certain amount of time to complete the tests, which you can set under typical conditions, ensuring nobody can cheat.

Quizizz offers Test Mode, which is very similar.

Teacher Dashboard

Check student progress, set tasks, and plan lessons from the teacher dashboard. This is a unique feature of Shiken that makes the whole learning platform a little more user-friendly. It is a great way to pinpoint students that might need a little extra support or deserve recognition for their hard work.

The Quizizz dashboard is also very simple and easy to use, allowing teachers to access code and to set tasks for their students to complete in class or in their own time.

Spoken Questions

The spoken questions feature of Shiken is another way to add variety to the questions. It is particularly useful for languages but can be used in any lesson to add a personalized experience. The study bots can have a whole conversation with you via Alexa, allowing you to speak your answers hands-free!

You can record audio clips on Quizizz.

Video Courses

You canlearn whole topics on Shiken via the video courses. These video lessons are split up with questions to ensure comprehension and help students retain the key facts included. These are a great option for homework, allowing the students to watch the videos in a quiet space in their own time.

You can upload videos to Quizizz if you like. Share from YouTube if a topic matches your current learning plan.

Price

Shiken is free for one teacher in each school and then £10 per additional teacher. If you want to access all the features and have unlimited usage, it is £1500 a year.

Individual teachers can sign up to Quizizz for free. However, the cost of the school plans are not printed on their website. You’ll have to contact them to find out the price.

 

So, Which Platform is Better?

There are many similarities between the two platforms, so it all comes down to exactly what you want. If customer service is important to you, you might not like to use Quizizz which doesn’t really offer this. But it has many of the same features as Shiken, without the mindfulness and useful teacher details.

Both platforms provide feedback that can be worked to suit your school’s needs so that every student gets the same level of support in their learning. However, Shiken is more transparent in its pricing, making it a better choice for those that want to get started right away.

Is Quizizz a suitable alternative to Shiken? We don’t think so! But why not decide for yourself by setting up your free teacher account on Shiken today?

FAQs

Which is better Kahoot or Quizizz?

 Both a very similar and your choice will largely depend on your preference of UX and price. Both lack deep learning features and learner management and both have been around for some time with complicated pricing.

What is Quizizz used for?

Quizizz is largely used by schools and teachers for class-based games.

‍How to detect cheating on Quizizz?

Quizizz doesn't have any proctoring or cheat detection built in. It's more of a game-based learning platform.

What is better than Quizizz?

There are a number of Quizizz alternatives. Shiken features AI tools, mindfulness, notes, goals and tonnes more features to help you learn deeply and for teachers to manage students.

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