Kahoot! facts for kids
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Screenshot
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 |
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| Country of origin | Norway |
| Owner | Kahoot! ASA |
| Website | Main website: Game: |
| Commercial | Yes |
| Registration | None for quiz participation; required for quiz creation |
| Users | 7 billion non-unique players as of 2022 |
| Launched | March 2013 |
Kahoot! is a fun online platform from Norway. It helps you learn through games called "kahoots." These games are usually multiple-choice quizzes. Anyone can make a kahoot, and you can play them using a web browser or the Kahoot! app.
In July 2023, a group of companies led by Goldman Sachs Asset Management decided to buy Kahoot! This big deal was worth about $1.72 billion.
Contents
How Kahoot! Started
Kahoot! was created in 2012 by Morten Versvik and his team. This team included Johan Brand, Jamie Brooker, and Asmund Furuseth. They worked with Professor Alf Inge Wang from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.
The first version of Kahoot! was shown in March 2013 at an event called SXSWedu. It was a special "private beta" version. The public could start using Kahoot! in September 2013.
Growing Big: Funding and Acquisitions
In 2017, Kahoot! received $26.5 million in funding from companies like Northzone and Microsoft Ventures. By October 2018, Kahoot! was worth $300 million. By June 2020, its value grew to $1.5 billion.
Kahoot! also started buying other companies. In 2019, it bought Poio, a company that helps kids learn to read. It also bought DragonBox, which makes educational games, for $18 million.
Later, Kahoot! bought Drops, an app for learning languages. They also acquired Whiteboard.fi, a tool for digital whiteboards. Another company they bought was Actimo, which helps businesses train their employees. This helped Kahoot! offer more features for companies.
In March 2021, Kahoot! became a public company on the Oslo stock exchange. In April 2021, they bought Motimate, another company focused on learning for businesses. In 2021, Kahoot! announced plans to buy Clever, Inc. for $500 million. Clever is a platform that helps students and teachers connect to learning apps.
Kahoot!'s number of users grew a lot. From 2020 to 2021, their user base increased by more than 40 percent.
How Kahoot! Works
When you play Kahoot!, everyone usually looks at one main screen. This could be an interactive whiteboard, a projector, or a computer monitor. You can also play using screen-sharing tools like Zoom.
The game is designed so players need to look up from their own devices often. To join a game, players use a special game PIN. This PIN is shown on the main screen. Then, players use their own phone or tablet to answer questions.
In March 2017, over one billion people had played Kahoot! games. In September 2017, Kahoot! also launched a mobile app. This app helps students do homework using Kahoot!
The Idea Behind Kahoot! Games
The idea for Kahoot! started with Professor Alf Inge Wang at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in 2006. He wanted to make learning more like a game show. The teacher would be the host, and students would use their own mobile devices to play.
Early Prototypes and Testing
The first version of this game idea was called Lecture Quiz 1.0. It was made in 2006, even before modern smartphones were common. Students could play using their laptops or early mobile phones.
Tests showed that Lecture Quiz was easy to use. It also helped students learn more and made classes more fun. It even made students more motivated to attend lectures. Over the years, several versions of Lecture Quiz were made. Each new version was easier to use and had better technology.
Lecture Quiz 2.0 was the first version where both teachers and students used web pages to play. This made it even easier to use. The last version, Lecture Quiz 3.0, had a much better look and feel. It also added fun features like avatars and different game modes.
Research on Learning with Kahoot!
Since Kahoot! launched in 2013, many studies have looked at how it helps learning in classrooms.
One study found that using Kahoot! often didn't make students less interested. Students stayed engaged, motivated, and focused even after playing for five months. The study suggested that the competitive part of Kahoot! helps keep students' attention.
Other research compared Kahoot! to simple paper quizzes or other online tools. These studies showed that Kahoot! made students more motivated, engaged, and happy. However, it didn't always mean they learned more than with other methods.
Another study looked at how points and sounds in Kahoot! affect learning. It found that using both points and sounds made students more focused, engaged, and motivated. It also made the classroom feel more lively.
A big review of 93 studies on Kahoot! was published in 2020. It found that Kahoot! generally has a positive effect on learning, how classrooms work, and students' feelings. It can even help reduce student anxiety. Some challenges included technical problems, seeing questions, and feeling rushed.
In 2016, Kahoot!'s teaching quality was checked by Education Alliance Finland. They said Kahoot! is best for learning when students create their own quizzes. This helps them be creative and practice important 21st-century skills.
See also
In Spanish: Kahoot! para niños
