With 98% accuracy rate on the review “Blooket” in any class, one could still be at risk of being in last place.
“Blooket” is a review game used in many classes around school. It has different game modes that slightly shift the task in the games. All of them have one thing in common, they are terrible at incentivizing students to truly understand the class content.
One game mode in “Blooket” is called “Gold Quest.” In this mode, one will answer questions to open chests which contain either more gold, less gold, nothing or a chance to swap with another player. This creates a game that relies heavily on luck, rather than accuracy of questions.
While the opportunity to have varied rewards does give struggling students a chance to place higher, it does not reflect an understanding of the class.
“Blooket,” however, sees this as a positive. In a video from their YouTube channel, a representative of the company said only having positive rewards is “A recipe for your top-performing students to compete while the rest of the class disengages.”
But, the emphasis on the reward in each round makes it more about the game instead of the learning.
Other game modes are even more frustrating in this aspect, too. The game mode “Café” lets one answer questions for coins and then go to a different section of the game to fulfill orders with the earned money. This is very similar to “Papa’s Pizzeria,” a nostalgic game for many members of Gen Z. The issue with this mode is that there are so many extra steps to doing the tasks that the actual reason for playing the game, to review, is lost in all the distractions.
The aforementioned issue of motivation in review games is not a completely baseless issue. As a former AP Psychology student who did not grasp many of the concepts in the first semester, I was in the same situation. Doing review games such as “Kahoot” felt pointless.
“Kahoot” is a similar concept to “Blooket,” but instead of giving opportunities to lose units of the reward, one must answer more quickly to beat their classmates. While “Kahoot” is still not as distracting as “Blooket,” the format that relies on speed rather than accuracy is frustrating for many students.
So what is an effective way to review?
The most just choice is “Quizziz.” A review website similar to “Kahoot” and “Blooket,” yet that can be free of the extra distractions and time restrictions that inhibit the effectiveness of those.
In the “Classic” mode, students can answer a set of questions at their own pace and rejoin once they’ve completed it. The reduction of the timed pressure makes answering the questions about accuracy rather than speed. The opportunity to rejoin the game allows for personal improvement rather than competition with peers who may understand the content at different levels.
Overall, review games in any format should be conducive of internal motivation rather than fleeting competition. School is to learn, not to win.
