It is important to turn vocabulary practice into a routine to learn many words. That is why Teacher Virpi Père from School of Tesoma in Tampere creates small lists of vocabulary as homework, which are also practiced during lessons, and always have a context of a story in the students’ books. 

However, many students tend to take this homework too lightly, and then lack vocabulary when they are supposed to express themselves or understand texts. This is where gamification steps in. 

Online quizzes have the advantage, that they are easy to make – sometimes you can also find ready-made quizzes. They can also be really engaging for the learners. “I have used many digital learning tools, and Gimkit is maybe the most engaging of them” says teacher Virpi. What makes Gimkit different from other online quiz tools? - Its additional game-like elements.

Gimkit is an online quiz (classroom polling) tool, designed to support individual and collaborative problem-solving, competitive play and self-paced problem solving (see an introduction video). In Gimkit, students earn points (called money in the tool) by answering questions correctly. They can then use this money to buy “powerups”, like in a video game. For instance, they can buy a multiplier that increases the amount of money they earn per question answered correctly or decrease the amount they lose after an incorrect answer. There are also powerups that students can use on other players. For instance, students can “freeze” another player’s device for a while, make them lose or send them money points as a gift. Students can also “buy” a shield to protect themselves from such negative impacts coming from other players. Through this strategic thinking process, students tend to learn without noticing. 

Gimkit works for any age group, provided that the students can read fluently. Teacher Virpi observes that students of 9-13 years get most enthusiastic about collecting “money” in the game.

Gimkit can be played live in the class with the usual number of students (about 25), or as a self-paced assignment, in which any number of students can participate with the link given by the teacher.

The aim is to support students’ engagement, to see how they progress with their learning and to spot their needs for support. Besides the language skill itself, the Finnish curriculum of foreign language emphasises the student’s development as a learner: being in charge of your own learning, setting goals and finding strategies. Online quizzes seem to help students to develop perseverance, even if in small steps.

To set up the game, the teacher needs a computer connected to a projector. Students can join the game by using computers or mobile devices. 

The teacher creates a set of words on the Gimkit homepage, or by looking for a readymade set. Virpi’s vocabulary sets contain both single words and more complex sentences so that students can practice and assess their understanding and use of vocabulary in the context of different sentences.

The game can start either as a live game or a self-paced assignment. The teacher can set the duration of the game and the goal sum of “money” that can be won. Teacher Virpi sets Gimkit activities to last 10 min, which she finds ideal for the amount of vocabulary she puts in sets. 

By looking at the results on the Gimkit dashboard page, the teacher can have an overview of how well students have acquired the vocabulary. The teacher also often sees the development of engagement by students, who otherwise would not be so interested in the vocabulary. Many students do the game again and again to score better results. 

The teacher can spot the different needs of learners and intervene if some student does poorly in the game. Teacher Virpi describes: “I have different ways of intervening: Mostly it's remedial teaching. Often when the student has had more practice, he or she can redo the same quiz to get a concrete glimpse of how their learning has improved. I also use many other quizzes, for example, Kahoot Homework, Quizizz and Quizalize Homework. I have created many sets of different difficulty levels, and there are also many ready-made sets by others, of course. I use various digital platforms, so the follow-up exercises are very flexible too“. The teacher can also offer more practice and scaffolding support for the student. To check if the practice has been helpful, the student can be asked to redo the same quiz. 

The challenge according to Teacher Virpi is to develop vocabulary sets which combine both easy single words and more complex sentences to make the game both quick to play but also challenging enough. “Making word sets can be arduous because there should be quite a lot of words in one set. Since the game brings up the same questions again, a short list might become repetitive too quickly.

Another challenge is that practice quizzes can be a rather solitary activity. It is good to keep it short and frequent as a complementary part of collaborative work. Students can also be put in teams to answer questions collaboratively.

For whole-classroom exercises, students can follow Gimkit quizzes and scores from the teacher’s shared screen on a conferencing tool, rather than on the classroom projector or digital board. They can answer questions through their mobile device or home computer. The exercises can also be assigned as homework.