10 Teacher-Approved Online Review Games

Online review games for the classroom are wonderful modern education tools. They provide an engaging way for students of all ages to study essential lesson material while remaining active participants, often in a positive group setting. Additionally, digital games are familiar to students and teachers alike and can be easily introduced into classroom pedagogy. In today’s tech-driven environment, 99% of boys, 94% of girls, and 62% of teachers play video games.¹

This guide to 10 teacher-approved review games will help you learn more about the different classroom review games available and select which of these gaming programs will best fit your curriculum, your budget, and your students’ educational needs.

1. Kahoot!

If there is one review game platform on this list you’ve heard about before, it’s Kahoot!. Kahoot! is popular and boasts millions of users and more than 100 million ready-to-play games, according to its website². Kahoot! launched in 2012 and is designed for social learning.³ Kahoot allows you to create multiple-choice games, polls, and quizzes quickly for an exciting gaming classroom experience. Teachers can host live review games during class time, or display their “kahoots” on a shared screen to remote students participating from home. Students can play in classic mode, or team mode with shared devices. Kahoot! requires registration with a login. Once you’ve gained access there’s a basic, free version and a premium version to choose from.

Teacher Tip: Check out Kahoot!’s “curriculum aligned collections” to find games created by teachers.

2. Gimkit

For those interested in a free classroom review game that's made by students, for students, Gimkit is the answer! Gimkit’s Kahoot!-style gameplay is supercharged by delivering virtual dollars to players for correct answers. As an added bonus, players can get more money per correct answer as they level up. Gimkit “streak bonuses” deliver even more money for sequences of correct answers meaning student players are rewarded for their overall efforts. Gimkit’s increasing virtual rewards, based on question level and willingness to take risks, encourages strategic play among students and teams. Other features include “insurance,” “multiplier,” and “money per question.”⁴ It’s easy to get started with Gimkit. Just create a new “kit,” add an appropriate title, add your choice of cover image, create your questions, and go live. Paid versions of Gimkit allow you to edit your questions after your quiz has been created. Once your Gimkit review game is underway, it’s up to students to build value for their teams. They will be encouraged to do so with Gimkit’s exciting, monetized gameplay features.

Teacher Tip: Turn off Gimkit’s clapping feature to minimize distractions at the end of games.

3. Flipgrid

Flipgrid is perfect for discussion-based style classroom reviews or reviews which require a bulletin board style program to facilitate learning. Acquired by Microsoft in 2018,⁵ Flipgrid describes itself as a free video discussion platform that promotes social learning that’s both “fun” and “supportive.” ⁶

Educators start a Flipgrid by creating topic grids, setting sharing and access guidelines, and lastly, opening up grids for student participation. Students can create short video responses to grids that last anywhere from a short 15 seconds to five minutes in length. This online review tool also provides an accessible forum for students who are less talkative in a traditional classroom setting. With Flipgrid, all students can share at their own pace. To turn your grids into a game, have students post responses to practice quiz questions. In summary, Flipgrid is an easy-to-use conversation starter for students who are middle school age or older, including high school and college students.

Teacher Tip: Press the “disco grid” button to get already-created assignments by other educators that you can customize to your classroom needs.

4. Quizizz

Launched in 2015, Quizizz bills itself as “the world’s most engaging learning platform,”⁷ and is a great way for educators to create tech-based exams, pre-test reviews, unit tests, and impromptu tests for their online review activities. Educators can choose from Quizizz’s presenter-led or student-led setting options. Students have more autonomy with Quizizz and can work at their own speed on a variety of personal electronic devices. This online review program also allows teachers to see student performance data. As of late 2020, Quizizz has more than 65 million global users across 150 countries.⁸

5. Flippity

Flippity enables educators to turn their very own Google Sheets spreadsheets into different online reviews games including flashcards, crosswords, trivia games, and board games. Flippity is free to use, though some additional features are ad-supported. Flippity works on most browsers but does require Javascript to function. Each student can have his or her own version of the Flippity review game and teachers can have student results emailed to them for quick classroom progress tracking. A web connection is needed for each page to load, but no special application is needed to get the program.

6. Quizlet Live

Quizlet helps students build their soft and hard skills while they use this collaborative classroom game to solve quiz questions. You’ll need at least six students to run the game and both the students and the classroom education will need an electronic device to participate. To get started, teachers should divide students into groups. With Quizlet, only one student’s device has the correct answer, per group. This ensures student teams must cooperate and communicate in order to find the correct answer and progress to the finish as a group. Teachers can track each team’s progress along the way. The more effectively teams work together, the faster they can win. Wrong answers put teams back to the start to collaborate together again. Students do benefit from Quizlet’s method of group learning and seven different study modes. According to Quizlet, 90% of students who use Quizlet report higher grades.⁹

Teacher Tip: Quizlet Live can be accessed from a browser or the Quizlet downloadable app.

7. Padlet

Padlet is recommended for Grades 2-12 and is a great way for your students to share their ideas and their work with the entire class. Padlet has a free basic version that provides three “padlets,” or bulletin boards, and comes with an ample amount of storage space for classroom use. If you need more padlets or storage space, select the paid pro version. Any type of file can be posted to Padlet and students can type in responses to a question as well as share work files from external applications. Classroom educators can customize Padlet backgrounds and content to keep material visually interesting and conducive to classroom learning. To get started with this online review game, create a new Padlet, decide on the layout, and give it a name and description. Further customize it as you like to your classroom needs. For classrooms that need more monitoring, select “require approval” for each student comment to review that material before it is posted for the group. Padlet’s approval option works best if you want more control over classroom content and if you have time to check Padlet regularly to prevent content approval backlogs. Lastly, have your students sign in to free Padlet accounts to launch their experience and you’re ready to go.

Teacher Tip: Turn on Padlet’s “attribution” feature to see what each student has shared. Turn on comments to get students engaging with one another. Keep “reactions” off to tamp down on student competition over who has the most “likes.”

8. Quizalize

Quizalize is your tool to help create and share your online review quizzes while conducting formative assessments.¹⁰ Quizalize allows teachers to track individual student progress accurately and to see which students have mastered which skills. Tailor each quiz to your curriculum’s needs or utilize the application’s existing quizzes, designed by fellow educators, that are tied to common curriculums. Quizalize motivates students individually but also on the team level and can be played from a variety of devices (laptop, cellphone, tablet) that are internet-connected. To get started with Quizalize, select from their free, teacher-made quizzes or create your own review quizzes. You can add images to your quiz and correct answer explanations. Next, choose quiz length and then save. With Quizalize, you have the ability to add as many questions as you’d like and you can customize the quiz delivery options for students. Once all of your preferences are set for your classroom needs, your Quizalize quiz is ready to launch!

Teacher Tip: Select “mastery mode,” to have students receive individualized questions based on information they need to show improvement with.

9. Bamboozle

Need to boost your students' vocabulary skills? Bamboozle is a great online review game option for vocabulary building. It’s also free. Bamboozle is easy to launch, is great for all classroom levels, and has the ability to be replayed in the same classrooms as its games are randomized. To get started quickly, search for games in a category, preview the questions and pictures, pick the number of teams, and the number of questions. Next, set up scoring and additional game options and you're ready to launch. You can also set up your own Bamboozle games from scratch.

Teacher Tip: Once your game is ready to play, increase the fun levels in class by calling on your students individually, asking them to pick a numbered card and answer the question that appears. Click and show the correct answer after each individual student has participated to review answers and reinforce group learning.

10. Bookwidgets

No online classroom review games list would be complete without Bookwidgets. With more than 40 exercise templates to choose from, Bookwidgets empowers teachers and curriculum developers to evaluate, grade, and give valuable feedback to students.¹¹ Bookwidgets can interface with Google Classroom, Microsoft Teams, Canvas, Schoology, and Moodle. Games you can create with Bookwidgets include flashcards, quizzes, bingo, crosswords, and math exercises. Customize your tests for a variety of devices including tablets, PCs, and Chromebooks. Create your very first widget and follow the series of prompts to get started. Though free for students, Bookwidget does have a cost for teachers. Pricing plans start at $49 for a year-long subscription for individual educators. Discounts apply for group purchases. For those who want to try Bookwidgets before committing to a full purchase, a 30-day trial version is available.

Teacher Tip: Share your newly created widget with students and other teachers via Bookwidgets’ customized, shareable links.

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