Introduction to Gimkit – The Engaging Online Learning Platform

What is Gimkit?

Gimkit is a free web-based platform that allows teachers and students to create engaging learning games called “gimkits.” These gimkits transform traditional study materials like flashcards and practice quizzes into fun, interactive competitions.

To play a gimkit, students join a game code provided by their teacher. They then race to answer multiple choice and free response questions correctly to earn points. For each correct answer submitted, students also earn virtual currency that they can use to buy power-ups and sabotages, like skipping questions or stealing points from opponents. This gamified format introduces an exciting new element to studying that captivates students’ interest and motivates them to keep playing.

In addition to playing pre-made gimkits, the platform also provides easy tools for teachers and students to build and customize their own gimkits on any educational topic. These gimkits can then be shared with a class or with the Gimkit community.

Key Features of Gimkit

Gimkit stands out from other educational games and flashcard apps with these main features:

Customizable Games

• Educators can quickly create interactive quizzes and games or import existing quiz questions.
• Gimkit’s template options and customization settings give creators total control to tailor the look, content difficulty, game length, and more.

Multiplayer Competition

• With game codes, the entire class can join in real-time and race to answer questions.
• As a multiplayer game, Gimkit incentivizes speed and creates excitement.

Virtual Economy

• Students earn virtual currency with correct answers, which they strategically invest into power-ups and tools to pull ahead of the competition.

Teacher Controls

• Teachers can monitor student progress, keep students on track with topic material, and control the pace of games.

Benefits of Using Gimkit

Gimkit innovates learning for the digital age. This platform brings together engagement, collaboration, and instant feedback as key ingredients for student achievement.

Boosts Student Engagement

The multiplayer games transform studying into exciting competitions, which greatly increases student motivation and time-on-task compared to traditional study tools. Rather than drudging through flashcards alone, they actively participate against peers in racing to recall key information.

Encourages Mastery Through Play

The games reward quick recall and frequently expose students to material multiple times in one session, leading to better memory retention. Power-ups even incentivize revisiting harder content. Winning the game requires genuine mastery of the content.

Provides Instant Feedback

As soon as students submit an answer, they immediately know if they were correct or not. Getting real-time feedback enables self-adjustment and learning from mistakes right away.

Fosters Collaborative Learning

While the competitive format motivates each player to excel as an individual, the games also bring students together in working toward a shared goal of understanding the review content. Classmate ability levels also motivate each other.

Helps Teachers Spot Gaps

With live game data dashboards, teachers can monitor student progress and see where most kids are struggling in real-time. This allows them to provide targeted guidance and re-teaching where necessary.

Supports All Learning Styles

The multimedia integration of review content caters to visual, auditory, reading/writing, and kinesthetic learning styles. Students who absorb information differently can all thrive in the stimulating, fast-paced game environment.

How Teachers Can Use Gimkit

Many teachers have already implemented Gimkit into their classrooms for memorizing key facts, preparing for high stakes tests, and reviewing for exams across all grade levels and subject areas.

Gimkit games work well for:

• Foreign language vocabulary practice
• Geography and history fact recall
• Math facts fluency building
• Literature plot point, character, settings review
• Science definitions and concept review

The platform is extremely flexible to adapt for whatever content needs reinforcement. And it can be used for both pre-learning new information or assessing retention of past lessons.

Teachers also find great benefit using it for test prep by creating gimkits from actual exam questions or standards. When played in the weeks and days leading up to big assessments like midterms or finals, the games provide quality practice under pressure.

Some teachers devote certain class days to tournament-style Gimkit competitions to inspire students. While other teachers integrate short 5-10 minute Gimkit review games to the last few minutes of certain lessons for quick recollection before moving onto something new.

Getting Started with Gimkit

Ready to add some healthy competition into your lessons and study sessions? Just follow these three easy steps to begin engaging your students on Gimkit:

1. Create a Teacher Account

Go to www.gimkit.com and click “Sign Up” to create your free teacher account. Add your name, email address, password, school name, and grade level(s) taught.

2. Build Your First Gimkit

Dive right into the “Build” tab to launch the gimkit builder. Name your game, add questions and answers, customize settings like time limit and question types, and publish when done!

3. Launch with Students

On the “Play” page, click host to view your game code. Share this with students so they can join your game by going to www.gimkit.com, clicking “Play”, entering the code, and inputting their name. CAST the game to your digital display and let the fun begin!

Review the teacher tutorials for additional tips to master the platform, including importing quizzes from Google Forms or Excel. Feel free to also browse the Explore tab to play existing games made by other teachers first to get familiar.

The versatile library already had tens of thousands of free pre-made gimkits spanning every academic level and subject. Tap into these as-is or use them as inspiration to model your own.

Gimkit Memberships

While the core platform will always remain free, Gimkit does offer two paid membership tiers that unlock additional features for power users. However, most educational functionality is available without these upgrades.

Here’s an overview of what’s included at each tier:

Free Version

• Create unlimited gimkits
• Play unlimited gimkits
• Multiplayer games
• Class progress dashboard
• Customizable question types and game settings
• Access thousands of pre-made public gimkits

Gimkit Plus – $4.99/month

Everything in Free plus:

• Create private gimkits only shared via game code
• Track student progress over time
• Unlimited questions per gimkit (vs. 50 with Free)
• Advanced analytics and charts
• Priority support

Gimkit Pro – School Site License

District-wide access for all teachers and schools to the full platform capabilities, plus:

• Rostering and SIS integration
• Single sign-on with Google Classroom
• Custom domains and branding
• Priority support and onboarding
• Usage analytics dashboard

Pricing scales based on number of students. Gimkit offers free 14-day trials for districts interested in Pro.

Conclusion

Gimkit has built a product beloved by students and educators alike for making studying more engaging and effective. Its web-based access and simplicity allows seamless integration into nearly any classroom workflow.

If the goal is mastery, Gimkit games incentivize and reward genuine content retention unlike traditional homework. The replayability also encourages revisiting material multiple times. Between the customization and multiplayer competition, the platform outpaces paper flashcards and solo digital study alternatives.

For any teachers frustrated over boring students into learning, Gimkit’s lively approach flips the script into wanting to play for understanding.

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