Interactive quizzing in online classes: The suitability of Kahoot! for face-to-face and online delivery in health sciences and medical education

Recent events have fast-tracked the transition of university teaching from face-to-face to online, remote delivery. The disruption to the delivery of standard classes, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, affected students across all levels of education. In order to continue teaching and learning, the delivery of content was replaced with live online modalities. This placed a significant challenge on tertiary educators to find learning activities that are transferrable between face-to-face and online teaching whilst promoting equal engagement. One such method, interactive quizzing, is a tool commonly used in face-to-face classes that could enhance engagement and enjoyability. The primary outcome of this study was to evaluate the suitability of using the interactive quizzing platform, Kahoot!, as a teaching tool that can be effective between face-to-face and online classes. In order to achieve this outcome, this study aimed to compare learner perceptions of the interactive quizzing platform Kahoot! when used in either a face-to-face or online setting within a health sciences and medical course. A total of 174 first-year health sciences and medical students from an Australian university enrolled in this study. Two study groups were formed based on whether the participants were currently enrolled in a face-to-face (n = 72) or online (n = 102) provision of their subject. Participants attended a one-hour physiology lecture, either in a face-to-face class or online during live sessions, then completed a 10-item Kahoot! interactive quiz based on the session content. Following the provision of the quiz, participants completed a four-question Likert scale survey related to their experiences and provided written responses to three open-ended questions regarding their perceptions of using the interactive quizzing platform. Overall, participants in both the face-to-face and online learning groups highly rated their learning experience using interactive quizzing. There were no significant differences (Student’s two-tailed t-test) between experiences from using Kahoot! during a face-to-face or online session. In particular, responses from the face-to-face and online participants on the Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree, 5 = strongly agree) for the statement “I enjoyed using Kahoot!” were 4.71 ± 0.54 and 4.81 ± 0.68, respectively (p = 0.3). Three overall themes emerged from qualitative analysis of student perceptions that were comparable between the two groups. These themes were (1) interactive quizzing is enjoyable, (2) interactive quizzing is engaging, and (3) interactive quizzing helps my learning. Participants utilising interactive quizzing in an online setting reported increased engagement whilst learning due to the fun, attractive environment and interactive nature of the platform, despite being isolated in a passive learning environment. This study identifies Kahoot! as a teaching tool that is equally effective across both face-to-face and online teaching sessions, and thus presents interactive quizzing as a variable instrument for assessment and revision that can be utilised in health sciences and medical courses. As many tertiary institutions are currently split between online, face-to-face or mixed-mode curricula, it is increasingly important to highlight technology that can be rapidly and easily transferred between various modes of delivery.