Below are some of the best platforms and tools to use with your students to create educational games. No coding skills are required. Designing learning games is a great way to develop students' analytic thinking and foster self-expression. It is also an effective way to introduce students to basic coding and programming concepts and help them cultivate the 21st century learning skills.
1. Code Academy
Code Academy offers tons of educational tutorials and guided lessons to help students learn coding. Through hands-on learning activities, students learn how to use programming languages (e.g., HTML, JavaScript, SQL, Python3, Java, CSS, C++, ETC) to construct various creations such as games, websites, pages, quizzes, and more.
Students can join the Community Chapters to interact with other students from all around the world, learn about their coding projects, and help each other. Code Academy offers a special subscription for students called Code Academy Pro Student which costs $149/year and provides access to all the tools and resources in the site.
2. Kahoot
Kahoo allows you to create learning games and trivia quizzes on any topic and in any language. You can host your games live with questions on a projected screen or your can share them with remote players. Kahoots are games and challenges you create using the tools provided by the platform. Your kahoots can embed various types of questions and answers.
They can include media materials such as videos and images, and many more. Kahoots can be hosted live in class (Teach mode) or be assigned as self-paced learning challenges that students can play at their own pace (Assign mode). After kahoots are completed, teachers can access insights and stats on students performance and identify learning difficulties.
3. GameSalad
GameSalad is an online platform that allows you to create educational games using visual programming. GameSalad offers a wide variety of educational resources to use with your students in class. These include full lesson plans, in-class activities, step-by-step student tutorials, and many more.
As students build their video games, they get to develop their computational thinking skills and enhance their computer science knowledge. GameSalad offers various subscription options: Basic ($17 per month billed annually), Home Edu ($8 per month billed annually), and Pro ($25 per month billed annually).
4. Gimkit
Gimkit is a game-show application designed for use with learners in and out of class. Teachers can set up classes, invite students to join, and start creating and sharing game quizzes known as kits. Teachers can either choose to host a live game/kit in which case students join the play in real-time or assign kits as homework activities. Gimkit games support both individual and team mode and boost engagement by providing students with incentives in the form of virtual money they earn for correct answers. Students can use the earned currency to buy power-ups and in-game items. As students complete the kits, Gimkit automatically grades their submissions and provides teachers with detailed reports on the performance of both the whole class and individual students.
5. Sporcle
Sporcle also enables you to create your own learning games to share with others or to embed on your class blog or website. You can make your game private in which case it will not be shown in search or on your profile. You can still share the link of your private game with friends, play it, and see results. You also have the option to create playlists on Sporcle and save your games in a single place.
You do not necessarily need an account to play Sporcle games, however, having an account will enable you to track your game plays, view your best scores, create quizzes, earn badges, comment on and rate games, follow users, and get email alerts for new games.
6. Baamboozle
Baamboozle is a game-based learning platform that contains over one million learning games ideal for use with students in and out of class. These games are designed by fellow teachers and educators and work for students of all ages and abilities. Baamboozle also enables teachers to easily create their own games and share them with others. The site is simple and easy to use and no prior technical knowledge is required.
7. Factile
Factile is a free learning website that enables teachers to create jeopardy-style quiz games that can be played both in classroom or remotely using Buzzer Mode. Teachers can create their games from scratch or they can search among thousands of premade game templates to start with .
Teachers can also create their games on Excel or Google Docs and upload them directly to Factile. Factile also provides the option to create flashcards from games and share them with students for individual review and practice .
8. JeopardyLabs
JeopardyLabs is an excellent web tool that allows you to easily create Jeopardy-like games without the need for PowerPoint. The process to design a customized Jeopardy template is simple and easy and does not require registration. If you don't want to create your own Jeopardy template you can use ready-made templates created by other users, edit them the way you want and share them with your students.
9. Quizlet
Quizlet is an excellent tool to create educational review games. You can either construct your game from scratch or use other teachers quizlets to customize for your own teaching needs. If you have not already tried it, Quizlet is definitely a great game-based learning tool with huge educational potential. However, most of the really great stuff in Quizlet is provided in the premium plan including the ability to track students progress and create unlimited classes.
10. Quizizz
Quizizz allows you to create various learning games to engage students in deep and meaningful learning experiences. You can create both teacher-paced and student-paced quizzes and lessons. Using Quizizz editor, you can easily design your own quizzes embedding various types of questions (multiple choice, open ended, polls, fill in the blanks, etc.) and media (e.g., images, videos, voice clips, and audio recordings).
Alternatively, you can use Quizizz library to search thousands of ready-made quizzes and lessons spanning several subjects and grades. You can adapt these quizzes to your teaching needs, edit them the way you want, import questions right into your quizzes and share them with your students.
11. Blooket
Blooket is a game-based learning platform that allows teachers to create educational games to share with students. You can host live games that students can play using a generated ID or assign games as homework for students to play at their own pace.
As a teacher, you can create your own question sets or use ready-made sets created by members of the Blooket community (Blooket lingo refers to games as question sets and I use both terms interchangeably in this review).
Students are not required to register to play the games. However, having a student's account allows students to "track their stats, place in global leaderboard rankings, buy and sell Blooks, and participate in upcoming community-wide events!"
12. Quizalize
Quizalize is another powerful tool to create educational games. You can use Quizalize to create quizzes from scratch or you you can search the site's internal library (i.e., Resources section) for existing quizzes created by other teachers. You can either allow students to take quizzes live in class using one of the two gaming modes Play Leaderboard or Team Vs Team, or you can assign your quiz as a homework for students to take on their own pace.
13. Gamilab
Gamilab enables teachers to create a wide range of learning games to share with students. The site's library contains tons of games to choose from or you can create your custom game from scratch. Gamilab games includes all the interactive and motivating features found in the gaming world including badges, points, stars, avatars, and high scores. Gamilab 's free version has limited features and supports only 10 players per game. Premium version offers unlimited access and costs $35 per year.
14. Crossword Puzzle Makes
In this collection I featured some of the best crossword puzzle makers that you can use to easily create and share a wide variety of crossword puzzles. All of these crossword puzzle generators are easy to use, no technical skill is required.
Simply type in or paste your words and answers and click on generate to create your crossword puzzles. You can share your puzzles online, embed them on any website or blog, or print them out and use them offline. This post originally appeared in Educational Technology and Mobile Learning ( www.educatorstechnology.com ).
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