The particular dialect or language that a person chooses to use on any occasion is called a code 2224 Copyright © 2022 The Author IDEAS is licensed under CC-BY-SA 4.0 License Issued by English study program of IAIN Palopo IDEAS Journal of Language Teaching and Learning, Linguistics and Literature ISSN 2338-4778 (Print) ISSN 2548-4192 (Online) Volume 10, Number 2, December 2022 pp. 2224 - 2232 The Benefits and Drawbacks of Kahoot: Students’ Perspective Gartika Pandu Bhuana gartika@ikipsiliwangi.ac.id Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris, IKIP Siliwangi, Cimahi, Jawa Barat Received: 2022-10-05 Accepted: 2022-12-31 DOI: 10.24256/ideas.v10i2.3508 Abstract Technology and education are inseparable. Many schools or universities have integrated the use of technology in the classroom. The purpose is not only to bring the effectiveness of the teaching, but also to enhance students’ motivation and participation in learning. Kahoot is one of the online educational games that teachers mainly use. Unfortunately, some students think that there are problems with its usage. This study is intended to investigate the benefits and drawbacks of Kahoot from students’ perspectives. The descriptive qualitative method was considered suitable to be used. There were 50 students at an institution selected as the participants of the study. The data were collected through questionnaire and interview. Overall findings revealed that most of the students had a positive attitude toward the implementation of Kahoot. It offered advantages and conditions that conventional methods could not offer. For example, it provided positive competitiveness and a lively atmosphere in the class. However, some drawbacks were found. It dealt with technical problems, such as internet connection, the absence of discussion, and the frequency of its usage. Finally, it is suggested that the second language lectures consider some aspects in implementing Kahoot. Keywords: Kahoot; perspective; students Introduction In today’s digital era, information and communication technology has been integrated into the classroom teaching and learning. The teachers have shifted their “chalk and talk” method, which induces boredom, to the modern one. They adopt technology in the classroom. They use smartphones or tablets that are very close to the students’ life nowadays. They even apply popular technological trends in education, such as mobile learning, online learning, and educational games. One of the educational games primarily used in the classroom is Kahoot. Kahoot is an educational online learning platform (Bicen & Kocakoyun, 2018) with 70 http://u.lipi.go.id/1457703302 IDEAS, Vol. 10, No. 2, December 2022 ISSN 2338-4778 (Print) ISSN 2548-4192 (Online) 2225 million active users (Harrell, 2019). It is mainly used for assessing students, constructing quizzes, or reviewing the concept material learned (Lofti et al., 2021). It integrates the graphics, music, points, and leaderboard. Plump and LaRosa (2017) found that Kahoot is easily used for both teachers and students and requires no prior training to be implemented. For the teachers, for instance, they can utilize Kahoot to project multiple/survey questions to which students respond the question using a web browser on their smartphone. The questions can be added by pictures and videos. The teachers, here, can control the pace of play by setting up the time for the students to answer the question. For the students, they just have to enter the access code or pin to participate in the game. They then determine their nickname. To answer the question prepared by the teacher, the students just have to press the button for the correct answer. Students whose nicknames appear on the board indicate active participation. Students are also awarded points for answering the questions correctly, and the timelessness of incorrect responses also impacts the points awarded. At the end of the game, there is the recapitulation of students’ scores. The teacher can determine which students dominantly give the correct answer and vice versa. Several studies (e.g. Prieto et al., 2019; Licorish et al., 2018; Bicen & Kocakoyun, 2018; Barrio et al., 2016; Yien et al., 2011; Wang, 2015) found that Kahoot offered several advantages for teaching and learning process. It fosters students’ attention and engagement (Licorish et al., 2018 ; Barrio et al., 2016; Wang, 2015; Wang & Lieberoth, 2016). It improves classroom dynamics as the students get direct feedback on their performance (Plump & LaRosa, 2017; Iwamoto et al., 2017). It also enhances students’ sense of community since they can create, share, and exchange content with others in the class (Wang, 2015). Moreover, Kahoot also can increase students’ motivation because it includes competition in which it displays students’ points on the screen (Licorish et al., 2018; Bicen & Kocakoyun, 2018; Wang, 2015; Cameron & Bizo, 2019; Pais et al., 2018). More importantly, it offers fun, engaging and rewarding activities to make students feel positive (Iwamoto et al., 2017; Yu ru k, 2019; Cameron & Bizo, 2019; Wang & Lieberoth, 2016) and learning process to be more effective (Bicen & Kocakoyun, 2018). A study by Wibisono (2019) and Zarzycka-Piskorz (2016) revealed that Kahoot effectively improved students’ language skills, such as reading and grammar. It is also proven to be able to improve the target language effectively (Yu ru k, 2019; Ares et al., 2018; Licorish et al., 2018). Apart from the benefits of Kahoot, Lofti et al. (2021) found that Kahoot offers some drawbacks in its implementation. Some students feel it is ineffective for teaching and learning as there is no further discussion from the teacher related to the questions asked. Thus, they do not get clarification of why their answer is incorrect. Moreover, there is also a technical problem when the teacher or students use it. This technical problem is related to the internet connection and quota. Thus, its usage in the classroom should be considered. The above studies basically had given a brief description about the benefits and drawbacks of Kahots in the classroom. Unfortunately, they have not fully examined Sokhira Linda Vinde Rambe Exploring Interaction Patterns in EFL Teaching and Learning Context 2226 the students’ perspective. The study conducted by Amalia et al. (2022), Sibatuara (2021), Mawarni et al. (2021), and Setiawan (2020), for instance, only investigated the effectiveness of Kahoot in improving students’ language skills. Moreover, the studies piloted by Salam et al. (2022), Dyanti et al. (2022), and Artati (2021) just examined the effect of Kahoot on students’ learning outcome and motivation. Regarding this, this study intends to fill the gap by investigating further students’ perspective on the implementation of Kahoot. It particularly aims to answer the question, what are students’ opinion toward the benefits and the drawback of using Kahoot in the language classroom? Investigating students’ perspective is required as it can give subjective feedback for the teachers to consider the use of Kahoot in the classroom. Method A descriptive qualitative method was considered adequate for this study. It allowed to describe the data, facts, and conditions naturally. Kim et al. (2017) mention that qualitative descriptive generated the data that describes who and what from a subjective perspective. This statement is in line with the aim of the study, which investigated the benefits and drawbacks of Kahoot from the students’ perspective. The participants of the study were 50 undergraduate students (30 females and 20 males) at an institution in Cimahi. They have been experienced using Kahoot in their classroom. In other words, they have taken the class in which the lectures implemented Kahoot as part of the learning process. In collecting the data, the questionnaire and interview were used. The questionnaire consisted of 20 questions developed from the benefits and drawbacks of Kahoot proposed by some experts. The questionnaire was a five-point Likert scale ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree. Meanwhile, the interview was a semi-structured interview. Similar to the questionnaire, the question in the interview was developed from several theories about the drawbacks of Kahoot. Questionnaire data was processed by calculating the answer from each point and question based on the Likert Scale formula. The gained score was then categorized into the interval score proposed by Pranatawijaya et al. (2019). Table 1. The Interval Score of Likert Scale Calculation Meanwhile, the data from the interview were transcribed. It was then analysed and used to support the questionnaire data. 0 % –19.99 % Strongly Disagree 20 – 39.99 % Disagree 40 – 59.99 % Neutral 60 – 79.99 % Agree 80– 100 % Strongly Agree IDEAS, Vol. 10, No. 2, December 2022 ISSN 2338-4778 (Print) ISSN 2548-4192 (Online) 2227 Results The discussion of the findings elaborates on the result of the questionnaire and interview data. The data gained from the questionnaire will be directly related to the interview data. Thus, the differences can be obviously revealed. Based on the Likert scale calculation of the questionnaire related to the benefits of using Kahoot as a learning tool, it was found out that 69% of students agreed that Kahoot offered advantages. The detail of students’ answers is presented in the following table: Table 2. The Benefits of Using Kahoot from Students’ Perspective Table 2 shows that most of the students felt happy about the implementation of Kahoot in the classroom. They liked to play it as it was easy to be used. They also thought that Kahoot was a fun game. It was not only formed a lively atmosphere for the learning process, but also prompted them to be active and motivated them to get a good score. Several students thought that the use of Kahoot also helped them to understand the material that had been explained by the teacher better, even though 17 students disagreed with the statement. Kahoot also allowed them to collaborate with their friend. They did a discussion with their friend to find the correct answers. It also created positive competition in the classroom. That is why some students believed that Kahoot was effectively to be used in the classroom. The above findings corroborated the data gained from the interview. In the interview, most of the students thought that Kahoot was definitely a good learning tool. They were happy to use it in the classroom. In their opinion, Kahoot could make them to be more active. They also felt that Kahoot created a lively learning ambience in the classroom. In the interview, it was also found that Kahoot also motivated them to study better. It helped them focus on the material explained by the teacher as they feared getting a bad score when they played Kahoot. Some of the students’ answers are provided below: No Statements SD D N A SA 1 I am happy when the teacher use Kahoot in the learning process 0 0 14 22 14 2 I like to play Kahoot 0 0 13 14 23 3 Kahoot is easy to be used 0 0 15 16 19 4 Kahoot offers some advantages for the learning 5 9 10 12 14 5 Kahoot is a fun educational games 0 0 13 22 15 6 Kahoot creates attractive atmosphere for the learning process 2 6 16 19 7 7 Kahoot prompts me to be active in the classroom 0 2 13 26 9 8 Kahoot pushes me to get a good score 0 4 12 17 17 9 Kahoots increases collaboration with some friends in the classroom 0 3 14 17 16 10 Kahoot allows me to understand the learned material better 7 10 13 14 6 11 While the teacher use Kahoot in the beginning of the lesson, it can grab my attention 2 5 19 17 7 12 Kahoot can foster my engangement to the learning process 2 4 17 20 7 13 Kahoot create competitiveness in the classroom 0 3 13 20 14 14 Kahoot is effective to be used in the classroom 7 2 18 16 7 Sokhira Linda Vinde Rambe Exploring Interaction Patterns in EFL Teaching and Learning Context 2228 The Likert scale calculation of the questionnaire also found that 67% of students agreed that Kahoot had the drawbacks in the learning process. These drawbacks included connection, the absence of discussion, and time allocation. The result of students’ answers to the question is shown in the following table: Table 3. The Drawbacks of Using Kahoot from Students’ Perspective The above data was a little bit different from the interview data. In the interview, it was found that the problems of using Kahoot in the classroom dealt not only with connection and the absence of discussion, but also with the frequency of its usage. It was revealed that some students thought that the teacher used Kahoot a lot. They were getting bored of it. Therefore, they suggested the teacher to find another educational game or limit its usage. In addition, the students also thought that they had not gained a particular competency after playing with Kahoot. They only knew that they had played a game. They were not sure if this material was tested, they could answer the No Statements SD D N A SA 15 There are a lot of problem in using Kahoot 3 0 29 16 2 16 Internet connection become a problem in using Kahoot 0 0 9 20 21 17 I cannot answer the questions in Kahoot as I had poor internet signal 0 7 14 13 16 18 The questions asked in Kahoot need further discussion from the teacher 1 4 10 20 15 19 The teacher rarely do discussion after playing Kahoot 0 0 11 19 20 20 The time allocation to answer the question in Kahoot is too short 6 5 15 15 9 S1 I like to play Kahoot. It was fun. I thought Kahoot offered several advantages. It helped me to become an active learner. It also motivated me to focus on the learning material, as the question in Kahoot was related to it. S2 Kahoot is fun. I like it. It created good learning conditions. S3 Kahoot created a fun learning atmosphere. I like it. I participated actively in playing Kahoot. I also discuss the correct answer with my teammate. S4 Kahoot was good. It could melt the situation. When we felt tired of learning, Kahoot helped us. S5 Kahoot was fun. I felt that Kahoot helped me to participate actively in the game. It also motivated me to choose the correct answer as my score was displayed. S6 I thought Kahoot helped me a lot. It, for instance, helped me to be active. I always tried to choose the correct answer. I also tried to focus on the teacher’s explanation S7 Yes, I agreed with my friend. I always participated in playing Kahoot. I also actively discussed the answer with my friend. It helped us to focus on the learned material. IDEAS, Vol. 10, No. 2, December 2022 ISSN 2338-4778 (Print) ISSN 2548-4192 (Online) 2229 question correctly. All of this information is gained from the following statement: Discussion Based on the findings, it can be concluded that from the students’ perspective, Kahoot offers both advantages and disadvantages. This corroborates with the study conducted by Lofti et al. (2021). Related to the advantages, it is undeniable that online educational classrooms can create condition that cannot be gained in the conventional method (Licorish et al., 2018), such as an enjoyable, lively, and competitive learning atmosphere. This is due to the attractive display of Kahoot. As previously discussed in the background of the study that Kahoot combines colourful graphics and upbeat music. This can reduce stress and boost the students’ mood (Baltazar et al., 2019). Moreover, the display of points and leader board of Kahoot support the students to be more active and competitive in answering the questions. Kahoot also creates a meaningful learning process (Prieto et al., 2019) and supports the development of students’ cognitive and motivation (Licorish et al., 2018). This is proven by the data from the questionnaire and interview, in which the students can pay attention and focus on the teachers’ explanation while they know the teacher use Kahoot in the post activity. Besides, as there is a “group” mode in Kahoot, it allows the students to collaborate with their classmates in answering the question. They can intensively discuss the correct answer of the questions. As a result, classroom condition become livelier. Although there are so many benefits of using Kahoot in the classroom, the teachers should pay attention to several things on its implementation. The study finds that there are some drawbacks of using Kahoot. Internet connection becomes the main obstacle here. As Kahoot is an online application and the display is colourful, it requires a large amount of data bandwidth. Thus, a good internet connection is really needed. To cope with this problem, the teachers can basically do some strategies. For example, the teachers can group the students who have poor S1 Sometimes, I felt bored with it. Maybe, the teacher had to use another educational online game platform S2 Hmm, I thought the teacher had to find another game because the frequency of using Kahoot is too much S3 The teacher had to limit its usage. She used it more than seven times in the semester. She can find another game. S4 The teacher probably could use another game. She was very often to use it. Then, I thought it would be better for a teacher to discuss why my answers were wrong. S5 I felt that the time given to answer the question was too short. S6 My internet signal impacted a lot in using Kahoot. Besides, there was no discussion of the wrong answer. S7 The internet signal. I thought I could answer the question correctly if the material presented in Kahoot was officially tested because I felt I had just played a game. Sokhira Linda Vinde Rambe Exploring Interaction Patterns in EFL Teaching and Learning Context 2230 internet signals with the good ones. Thus, every student can participate in the activity. The second problem deals with the absence of discussion. This is in line with Lofti et al. (2021) study. In the investigated institution, it is found out that the teachers rarely did any review after playing Kahoot. Most of them use Kahoot as a post-activity as a formative test, quiz, or additional activity to spend the learning time. They do not make it as an integral part of the whilst-activity. Thus, at the end of the learning process, the students do not get any clarification of why their answers are wrong, as well as any conclusion of the material learned. Regarding this, Dadheech (n.d) says that care should be taken while using game learning approach as it can be challenging to align with the learning objective. Instead of getting something to learn, the students will gain nothing to learn. The other problems are related to the time allocation and frequency of its usage. It is better for the teacher to limit the use of Kahoot although its benefit is quite tempting. Or, the teacher can find another educational online game that has the same impact as Kahoot in the classroom, such as Quizzes or Wordwall. Conclusion The finding indicates that, in students’ opinion, Kahoot offers advantages and disadvantages. The advantages of using Kahoot in the classroom include: 1) creating a pleasing ambience for the students to learn; 2) providing a good competition in the classroom; 3) helping the students to be more active, whether in participating in the classroom activity or in doing a discussion; 4) increasing the students’ motivation in learning, and 5) pushing the students to be more focus on the material learned. On the other hand, the drawbacks of using Kahoot in the classroom are:1) the internet connection; 2) the absence of discussion session, especially clarification of the wrong answer; 3) time allocation to answer the questions; and 4) the frequency of using Kahoot in the classroom. 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