Kahoot! facts for kids
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The homepage of the Kahoot! website
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| Available in | English, Dutch, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Malay, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, Ukrainian, Arabic, Chinese, Vietnamese |
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| Country of origin | Norway |
| Owner | Kahoot Learning Game Group |
| CEO | Eilert Giertsen Hanoa |
| Website | Main website: Game: |
| Commercial | Yes |
| Registration | Optional for quiz participation; required for quiz creation |
| Users | 12 billion non-unique players by 2025 |
| Launched | December 21, 2012 |
Kahoot! is a fun online platform from Norway that makes learning feel like a game! It offers many learning games, often called "kahoots." These are quizzes, usually with multiple-choice questions, that people create themselves. You can play Kahoot! using a web browser on a computer or by downloading the Kahoot! app on your phone or tablet. While the idea started in 2006, Kahoot! became super popular around the world in 2020, especially when many students were learning from home.
Contents
The Story of Kahoot!
How the Idea Began
The main idea behind Kahoot! started with a project called "Lecture Quiz." Professor Alf Inge Wang at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) developed these early versions in 2006. The first "Lecture Quiz" allowed teachers to create quizzes and students to answer using their mobile phones or laptops.
Over time, these early versions improved. By 2011, both teachers and students could use web browsers to access the quizzes. The final "Lecture Quiz" in 2012 looked much better and even included fun features like avatars and different game modes. These early steps were crucial in shaping what Kahoot! would become.
Kahoot! Grows Up
Kahoot! was officially founded in 2012 by Morten Versvik, one of Professor Wang's students. Other co-founders, Johan Brand, Jamie Brooker, and Asmund Furuseth, helped design the platform to be user-friendly and engaging. A test version of Kahoot! was launched in September 2013, letting people try it out.
The platform quickly became a global hit. By March 2017, over one billion people had played Kahoot! games. In September 2017, Kahoot! launched a special mobile app, making it easier for students to play games for homework or review.
Kahoot! kept growing by adding new features and services. In 2019, the company bought Poio, a Scandinavian education company, and DragonBox, which made educational games. These additions helped Kahoot! offer even more ways to learn.
By 2020, Kahoot! was valued at a huge amount, showing how successful it had become. The company continued to expand, acquiring other learning apps like Drops, which teaches languages, and Whiteboard.fi, a digital whiteboard tool. They also acquired Actimo and Motimate to help businesses with training. In March 2021, Kahoot! became a public company, meaning its shares could be bought and sold on the Oslo stock exchange. Later in 2021, Kahoot! acquired Clever, Inc., a platform that helps students log into many learning apps with one account.
In 2023, a group of investors, including Goldman Sachs, bought Kahoot! This showed how valuable and important the platform had become in the world of education.
Why Kahoot! is Great for Learning
Many studies have looked at how Kahoot! helps students learn.
- Boosts Creativity and Skills: In 2016, experts from Education Alliance Finland found that Kahoot! is especially good for learning when students create their own quizzes. This helps them be creative and practice important skills needed for the future.
- Makes Class More Fun: A big review of 93 studies in 2020 showed that using Kahoot! in class makes lessons more exciting. It helps students learn better and can even reduce stress about tests.
- Gamified Learning Works: A study in 2023, which combined results from 41 different research projects, confirmed that learning through games, like Kahoot!, really helps students learn more effectively compared to traditional teaching methods. It makes learning outcomes much stronger!
See also
In Spanish: Kahoot! para niños
- Quizlet
- Anki
- Chegg
- Course Hero
