Advanced

Certification

Spacing, testing, and smart practice

Welcome to Kahoot!’s Advanced 3. How to use the smart practice Here’s a reminder of how to open a
Certification course on unleashing the feature in the app Kahoot! challenge with the assignment:
power of spacing and testing in your
classroom, as well as maximizing benefits 1.  After downloading the Kahoot!
After you review the course material, you’ll
with Kahoot!’s smart practice feature. This app to your mobile device, log
be ready to take the assignment via our app
content is based on research from Olav in to your Kahoot! account – we
in order to receive your exclusive badge.
Schewe, Norwegian learning expert, public need this info to be able to send
speaker, and author. Before we get started, you your diploma and badge!
In order to complete the course assignment,
please don’t share these guides further,
you’ll need to download the Kahoot! app 2.  When prompted to open the
they are only for those getting certified! :)
to your iOS or Android device. You can find assignment challenge, click the
it in the App Store or on Google Play. URL to open the challenge in-
Once you complete this course, you’ll
app, or enter the PIN manually.
achieve the following learning objectives:

3.  You’ll then be able to accept the

1. Have an understanding of the challenge, and play the assignment,
science behind both spacing and which is structured as a multiple-
testing learning methods choice kahoot quiz. You can do the
assignment in short rounds taking
2. How to implement these learning
breaks in between, or all at once.
methods with Kahoot!
 Advanced
Certification

The quest to retain knowledge

Remembering as much as we can is one of the core goals of learning.
Our memory not only helps us retain knowledge, but also retrieve it
in the future to be able to apply it to practical problems.

However, many common learning techniques, such as re-reading,

cramming and consuming content in long, tedious sessions, aren’t
optimal when it comes to retaining knowledge. They do help us in
the short term, but a lot of acquired knowledge fades over time. Let’s
explore two more optimal learning methods: spacing and testing, and
how they can be used together for maximum learning impact.
 Advanced
Certification

What is spacing?
The spacing method isn’t about working harder, but smarter. In psychology, the spacing
effect means that we remember information more easily and retain it for a longer time by
learning it in multiple, spread-out sessions.

Many researchers believe that spacing works so In practice, some examples of using
well because it’s aligned with how our brain cells spacing in class can be:
are wired to store and retrieve information. ▶▶ Revisiting old topics some time after they were taught
▶▶ Mixing up tasks or problems related to different topics
▶▶ Incorporating some tasks related to
When was this method discovered? old topics into future homework
The spacing effect is one of the oldest findings in ▶▶ Giving frequent, low-stakes tests
experimental psychology: it was first described in
1885 by Herman Ebbinghaus, and a large volume
of research has confirmed its efficacy since then.

Ebbinghaus spent years memorizing syllables

he made up, and recording results to analyze his

1 2 3
memory. One of the experiments he ran during his
research was comparing whether he’d remember
more syllables by doing 68 repetitions one day,
then 7 the next, or just 38 repetitions spaced out 1 2
over three days. He achieved the same results
with both approaches, but it took much less time
and effort when repetition was spaced out.

1
 Advanced
Certification

What is testing?
Tests don’t have a great reputation with students and teachers alike. They’re often
perceived as a summative assessment tool, connected with stress, anxiety, and
cramming. However, this is not the only way tests can be used in education.

Another lesson from cognitive psychology teaches

us that tests can become a powerful learning
tool, when used frequently and shrewdly.
big
the t
tes
Using tests for practice after learning new knowledge helps us
retain it for a longer time. In this case, a test has nothing to do
with scores - it’s a practice tool to help students find out what
they don’t know yet and what they need to study more.
When the pressure is low, i.e. scores are removed, and testing
happens frequently, students don’t even need to prepare - it
becomes an expected part of the learning and review process.

When students answer test questions on a topic they test

learned before, they’re engaging in retrieval practice. test

test
It’s another memory booster that supports long-term
test
knowledge retention. Testing without pressure, i.e.,
when it’s not tied to any formal grading, gives students
a quick snapshot on how well they remember learning
content and what requires more learning focus.
 Advanced
Certification

What is testing?

How has testing effect Kahoot! is a great tool for combining spacing
been verified? and testing - where a test would come in the
One of the most known studies of testing effect form of an interactive, stress-free and engaging
was run by psychologists Henry Roediger and quiz, to give students instant feedback on
Jeffrey Karpicke. They ran experiments with how well they remember learning content.
groups of high school students who studied
content through re-reading and compared them Next, let’s learn how to put spacing and
to groups who studied with repeated testing. testing into practice with Kahoot!

The study revealed that students who took tests

recalled much more after a week than students
in a repeated-study condition (61% vs. 40%), even
though students in the former condition read
the text 3 times vs 14 times in the other group.

The advantages of the testing effect

for teachers and students:
▶▶ It helps students identify what
topics need more work
▶▶ It makes studying more efficient
▶▶ It improves long-term knowledge retention
▶▶ It removes the stress out of testing when
it becomes a frequent exercise
▶▶ For teachers, it provides actionable feedback,
revealing topics that need reinforcement.
 Advanced
Certification

Using Kahoot! for spacing and testing

Replay previous quizzes some time later
The simplest way to use Kahoot! for spacing and testing
is to replay the same live quiz in class some time after
the topic was initially taught. There are different opinions
on how many days each spacing interval should be, so
experiment over a period of time and discover a schedule
that works best for you depending on your subject. The
general rule is to leave enough time to keep the knowledge
fresh, but not too close to the original introduction. Click to
enlarge

Use data from game reports to

identify topics that need attention
Stats in Kahoot! reports will give you an indication
of how well the knowledge from the kahoot was
retained. If you replay the same kahoot with your Click to
students, you can compare results and track how enlarge
performance changed over time. Reports also give
you actionable feedback on topics or questions that
need additional attention or even reteaching. This is
especially helpful during review and test prep season!

Click to
enlarge
 Advanced
Certification

Using Kahoot! for spacing and testing

Play kahoots focused on

previous topics to review
Kahoot!’s flexibility allows you to create games on any
topic, with any number of questions. When you’re
preparing kahoots for review, you can mix up questions
on different topics from your previous kahoots, and spice
up the practice for your students. Or, you can always start
a kahoot on a new topic with a few questions recapping
on previous topics, to give your students a refresher.

Send homework challenges

that incorporate questions
from previous topics
Here, you can use the same kahoots that were played
live, or create custom quizzes to mix up different topics
for your students. Going through questions at their
own pace, they’ll get instant feedback on questions
they answered incorrectly - no need to wait until you
check their homework and provide feedback! Our
personalized app reports will also show you which
students you should follow up with and flag the questions
and content students are struggling with most.
 Advanced
Certification

Smart practice in the Kahoot! app

To help students better retain knowledge they obtained in class, we
added a feature to be able to restudy difficult questions, and retrieve
those learnings many weeks after content was taught.

Learners can access smart practice The app will remind learners once
after playing a live kahoot or a the next step is ready to play. Here,
challenge where they answered they will again replay the original
some questions incorrectly. They kahoot until they score 100%.
will be prompted to start it when
By acing kahoots, learners can collect
a game is completed. Completing
rewards – emotes! These are animated
smart practice step by step, they’ll
reactions with different characters that
eventually ace the kahoot by
players can use to express themselves
remembering all correct answers.
in challenges. On top of learning
impact, collecting emotes adds
▶▶ Step 1 can be played any time after
more motivation to complete smart
the initial game. The learner will be
practice, especially for young learners.
taken through questions answered
incorrectly until they score 100%.
With smart practice, replaying
▶▶ Step 2 will unlock 24 hours later. questions from a kahoot brings That wraps up Advanced Certification:
They will be prompted to play up the testing effect, and, with Spacing, testing, and smart
the original kahoot again with the steps distributed in time, it’s practice! Once you’re ready to take
answers randomized until they enhanced with the spacing effect the assignment, you can find the
answer all questions correctly. to maximize knowledge retention. challenge link on the Kahoot! Certified
page, and follow the instructions.
▶▶ Step 3 will unlock 48 hours after that.