The Best Kahoot Alternative

Kahoot has been around for a while and it started off as a game-based learning platform designed for teachers to hold the attention of classroom students by making learning fun through quiz games.

As a game based learning platform and a fun, engaging means of content review and assessment, Kahoot is great but does it hold up as an effective learning tool?

Kahoot The Game Based Learning Platform

Users can create their own Kahoots or play ready-to-play Kahoots designed by others. Kahoot! is available in numerous languages, including Brazilian Portuguese, opening doors for global engagement.

Kahoot provides an array of games, ranging from maths to trivia, suitable for all ages from kids to adults. These engaging quiz-based learning games, provide a dynamic, interactive platform that encourages audience participation, increasing engagement and making training awesome. The game can be played individually or in team mode, enhancing collaboration and promoting competition.

Kahoot's integration with video conferencing apps enables users to host Kahoots live, facilitating distance learning, training and virtual meetings. This feature allows users to join Kahoots hosted live by their teachers or company employees, providing a seamless transition from in-person to online learning or training.

A Kahoot game provides the option for users to answer questions via mobile device, making it accessible for all family members and mobile device families. Players submit answers in real-time during a Kahoot live session, allowing hosts to assess progress and learning outcomes instantly while showing the questions on a big screen to encourage audience participation. Following the game, hosts can generate reports as part of the the host kahoot platform's premium features, providing insights into players' performance and progress.

Is Kahoot a free app?

Kahoot is a freemium app. Basic features like playing a quiz, joining a quiz game or creating your own kahoots are free with usage limits and then to unlock advanced features you will need to pay.

Kahoot's pricing structure is pretty complicated and it varies depending on whether you are a student, teacher or corporate learner and pricing is tiered by features and number of game hosts and participants. Let's take a look.

For students Kahoot Basic is the free tier and limits you to 10 players in a game and limits the type of questions you can create your own kahoots with to multiple choice

Kahoot Start is the entry-level paid plan that adds more question types and premium images and raises the game participants to 25.

Kahoot Premier adds in slides so you can create presentations and customization options so you can personalize your quizzes and add images and image effects and extends to 50 players.

Kahoot Max for students is the most expensive plan and features all question types as well as advanced team features and brainstorming.

Teacher pricing is slightly different than for students. With each tier offering a slightly higher number of players per game for teachers.

Kahoot's work pricing is slightly different again with many of the same features of the student and teacher plans rebranded. Each tier adds a higher player limit and adds in more questions types like word cloud questions and visual customization options such as adding your own brand logo to a game.

In terms of its use beyond the classroom, Kahoot has gained popularity among trivia fans and for other occasions. Users can host Kahoots at events or play Kahoot games with friends directly. Business users can use Kahoot to break the monotony of traditional presentation virtual meetings, and infuse them with interactivity reports company employees.

In addition to the platform costs Kahoot also offers the Kahoot Access Pass that features a selection of premium content if you don't have time to create your own Kahoots.

All plans offer optional upgrades that come with additional features under a paid subscription.

What are the Limitations of Kahoot?

Despite its many fans around the world, Kahoot users agree on a few downsides of this platform.

Built For Students

Kahoot's main focus is live quizzes and over the years lots of other features have been added on. This has led to a fairly confusing experience. While the core live quiz questions are great there is a lack of deeper learner progress, analytics and mapping concpets to key skills.

Volume of Questions Over Quality

Kahoot has lots of questions but this can make finding high-quality questions tough. If you're preparing for an exam you want to just get into practicing questions rather spending all your time searching.

Busy Dashboard and Confusing Plans

When it comes to actually using Kahoot, it’s not that easy! Users find the dashboard cluttered, making it difficult to find what it is that you want. Meanwhile, the wealth of plans means it is hard to choose which one is best for you. This is a platform that takes some trial and error before unleashing it onto a class full of students.

Make Learning Awesome With Shiken's Learning Games

One of the biggest benefits of Shiken over Kahoot is the simple, streamlined approach to learning. It is incredibly easy to find exactly what you are looking for,and the plans are clear and easy to understand. The database is immense, with over 75,000 questions in the library, ensuring no two quizzes are ever exactly the same, and the approach to studying is very student-led, encouraging breaks,motivating students, and ensuring they place mental health high on their list of priorities. The result is that students learn faster and can retain information for longer, making this an extremely useful study tool.

Mindfulness

Mindfulness is at the heart of the Shiken experience. As well as encouraging breaks and providing motivational boosts, this platform also works to reduce procrastination and plays soothing music which can aid the learning process. This music can be played in the background of any study session, even when the student is not working on Shiken. Kahoot does not seem to have this same focus on mindfulness.

Question Library

With over 75,000 questions in the Shiken question library, users have a wide database from which to dive into engaging quiz based games. Shiken has a wide range of study modes and like you can create kahoots you can create your own study sets and question in Shiken which is perfect for lifelong learners.

Ability to Set Goals

Goal setting is a key part of motivation and achieving success, which is why it is included within the Shiken platform. Learners and teachers can set weekly learning goals or deadlines for upcoming exams.

There is no goal-setting feature in Kahoot and no way to track progress or to assess learning outcomes.

Ability to Take Notes

Want to talk through a question with your students? Or want to research a question further? You can write notes directly onto the questions in the Shiken app, so you can refer to them again and again. It negates the need to write heavy notes outside of the app and ensures clarity when you look at it with your students.

In Kahoot,you can’t write directly on the question.

Exams

Did you know, the word ‘Shiken’ means ‘exam’ in Japanese? So, of course, the app had to include an exam function. Set the questions that you want to answer and then maintain exam conditions as they work through them. It is the very best way to ensure comprehension and practice for life-changing exams.

Kahoot has lots of tests and encourages its use as preparation for exams, but it doesn’t have the same exam-style feature.

Progress Dashboard

Shiken features enterprise-grade learner management, skills progression and works like a LMS/LXP. For schools can easily manage student progress and assign homework and corporate customers can create office superheroes and increase engagement in work context on a virtual meeting or in-person.

The Kahoot dashboard is less comprehensive with only game reports generated.

Play Other Study Modes

Shiken features open ended questions to simulate soft-skills scenarios like interview practice or oral examinations like in language subjects. This is not currently a feature that Kahoot offers.

Video Courses

Learn whole chunks of a topic via video courses on Shiken. These make great homework options, as they are short, concentrated videos specializing on a single topic,with questions at the end to ensure comprehension. You can use Kahoot to host a video lesson, but there are no courses currently available on the platform.

Shiken Vs Kahoot: Shiken Wins!

Whether it's in an educational, work, or social setting, Kahoot is useful. But Shiken with it's emphasis on game-based learning, along with its diverse offerings from the ability to create and play interactive quizzes to the amount reports premium features and premium features offered, makes it a versatile platform that offers simpler pricing and a more streamlined e-learning experience that blends AI and mindfulness.

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