A very important feature in PanQuiz! is the ability to share your quiz (or, better, your live quiz) with your students and play with them in real-time, both in presence or at a distance. In this way, students have fun and learn through play, strengthening and expanding their range of knowledge. According to research, using games in teaching can help increase student participation, foster social and emotional learning, and motivate students to take risks.
In presence
If you use PanQuiz! in presence (that is, with all the students in the same class or computer room), game effectiveness and fun are better. This is the recommended mode anytime you are in a position to do it.
Starting the game
As a teacher, you are the game presenter and all your students are instead the participants. Your computer or tablet should be connected to a projector, digital whiteboard or a TV, so that you can display your screen to all the students (because, normally, they will read questions and answers right from your screen).
In your live quiz list, click the button Play and then the button Start playing. The game starts and a PIN code (a 6-digit random number) is issued: students will need to enter this PIN code to join the game.
Note The PIN code is always random and changes every time you start a game, so you need to tell it to your students every time.
Joining the game
To join the game and answer questions, students can use any mobile phone, tablet or computer. They don’t need to have a PanQuiz! account but they can easily choose one of the following methods to join the game:
- With their default browser they navigate to https://play.panquiz.com and enter the PIN code
- Or, if they are using a mobile phone or tablet, they can download the PanQuiz! app from the corresponding App Store (both for iOS and Android, they can simply search the store for PanQuiz!). Using the app is not mandatory, but it makes playing a game easier and more fluid.
Now, after entering the PIN code and their name (or a nickname), students see their name on the teacher’s screen. After all students join the game (that is, all their names appear on the screen), the teacher can click the button Start, in the bottom right, to start the game.
Hint If a student joins a game by mistake or you, as the teacher, want to remove him/her from the game before starting it (for example, because they entered a bad name), click his/her name and you'll be able to remove it.
Game options
Before starting a game, the teacher can set some additional options. For example, you can Show questions also on players’ devices: if you enable this option, question texts will be displayed also on the students’ devices (mobile phones, tablets, computers). This feature is useful when not all students can easily read the teacher’s screen (for example, because the room is large, the screen is small or they have reading difficulties), and they might be penalized. The similar option Show answers also on players’ devices displays, instead, answer texts.
Note Only question and answer texts can be displayed also on the students' devices. The partial ranking as well as the final podium, instead, are only displayed on the teacher's screen (to increase game effectiveness and student engagement).
After starting the game and while waiting for the students to join, the teacher can also change other options clicking the icon :
- Mute: enables or disables background music (if available). This option is useful when the game is played not in presence but at a distance, to reduce bandwidth.
- Hide background: hides or shows the background. This option is useful when the game is played not in presence but at a distance, to reduce bandwidth.
- Full Screen: sets the full-screen mode to play the game. This is recommended so that students aren’t distracted.
- Exit: stops the game and disconnects all the connected students.
At a distance
PanQuiz! can also be used at a distance, for example during a videoconference, without the need for the teacher and the students to be in the same place, face-to-face. Using this mode, the teacher must share his/her screen so that all students can read questions and answers. Each student, instead, should use two devices: the first one (for example, a computer) to be connected to the videoconference and see the teacher’s screen; the second one (for example, a mobile phone or a tablet) to be able to answer the questions.
Hint A student can also use a single computer: in this way, he/she should use two different browsers or two different tabs of the same browser. The first tab will be used to connect to the videoconference and see the teacher's screen; the second tab to be able the answer to questions.