Lecture hall games (as a web application)
Lecture hall games offer an opportunity for game-based learning in a classroom lecture. This form of learning stimulates ambition, promotes social interaction, motivates students to develop solutions and thus makes learning easier.
It is implemented in various forms depending on the lecture contents and the number of participants. In most cases the games ideas come from common board games. In addition, learning apps or applications especially developed for lecture hall games can be used in combination with mobile end-devices to implement these.
Why deploy lecture hall games?
Lecture hall games combine the dissemination, consolidation and revision of teaching content together with playful elements and can be played in lecture halls and seminar rooms with variable sizes of groups. Often the quite unchanging seating position of the students is also taken into consideration in the process.
The use of lecture hall games is especially suited to promoting interaction between students and motivates the students to examine (in more depth) the teaching content.
How do I deploy lecture hall games?
With the lecture hall game application, a web application is now available to all teachers at the University of Göttingen under www.hoersaalspiel.uni-goettingen.deto with which a lecture hall game can be easily set up and implemented. Several groups of students compete in a team against each other and answer quiz questions.
The involvement of the students’ own smartphones and tablets here in particular makes it possible to implement lecture hall games flexibly and to achieve greater student participation.
A quick graphic guide to the creation and implementation of the lecture hall game applicationcan be found here.
The lecture hall game application is suitable for...
- ...test preparation with a question duel,
- ...activation of existing knowledge at the beginning of a topic unit,
- ...question-answer games in which instead of questions, answers are given and the matching question must be found (jeopardy principle),
- ...the preparation of a lecture. Here, students generate questions for individual categories, and these are discussed in the course of a student duel,
- ...and much more!
By means of direct response to the questions they have answered, students receive direct feedback on the status of their knowledge. Competitive ambition amongst the students is additionally increased by using points and a ranking.
Using games gives teachers the opportunity to receive direct feedback about the status of the students’ knowledge. Correct and incorrect answers can be discussed with the students during the game and thus knowledge gaps can be filled.
The app’s range of features includes multiple choice questions, single choice questions, free text questions and questions with pictures. Both the game field and the point score can be individually configured.
What are the stumbling blocks?
To ensure smooth operation, the reference to the topic, the size of the group and the time available must be taken into consideration. Implementation should not be too complicated /associated with too much effort so that negative emotions are not triggered in the students. The social climate of the group is an important factor in implementing such a learning method. Game scenarios which are voluntarily set up in the group result in a positive relationship between the teachers and the students.
How do I set up lecture hall games? / Where can I get help?
A graphic overview of the use of these lecture hall games can be found here.
