May 2020’s Brilliant Activities for Birth Educators suggestions are being offered in consideration of the fact that many childbirth educators are continuing to offer their classes virtually as a result of the COVID-19 global pandemic.  This type of childbirth education class may be a new venue and platform for many and expanding our skillset in this new “frontier” is important.  If you enjoy this post, please don’t hesitate to check out the entire Brilliant Activities for Birth Educators series here.

Introduction

Moving birth and parenting classes online has been of critical importance since it no longer became safe to hold classes in person due to COVID-19.  Just because classes are delivered through an online meeting platform does not mean that information should be shared only view a slide show presentation.  There are many ways to deliver interactive and engaging activities that promote understanding and retention amongst participants in a virtual learning environment.

One method that has been very well received by the families taking my classes virtually are quizzes and polls.  There is no doubt, many different platforms to deliver quizzes, games and polls online, but here are a few of my favorites that allow you to use your own questions.  Also, don’t forget that the online platform that you are using may have their own poll/quiz feature built in.  I am using Zoom, and there is an option for quizzes and polls available to me as a host. 

Kahoot!

Kahoot! is a product that makes learning feel like a game show!  You can customize your questions and offer a variety of different activities such as multiple choice, true or false, word clouds, short answer, polls and more.  It is easy to drop in an image to make it even more fun.  The program keeps score and celebrates the winners with some “cheesy” music and confetti!   You share the game board screen and participants answer the questions through the free app on their phones and rack up points for speed and accuracy.  It is easy to set up, and share with colleagues, and a lot of fun to play.  Kahoot! is offering a free premium subscription to educators during the COVID-19 crisis, but even the free basic subscription is plenty powerful for our purposes.  Go check it out.

Quiplash 2

Quiplash 2 is a game where people need to fill in a response, and it is just one of many games in the Jackbox games collection set.  It runs under 10 dollars for a version that lets you play in many different languages.  It is very campy and I prefer to play with the sound off, in order to avoid the annoying soundtrack.  It can be very fun and usually gets a lot of laughs.  From the tech side of things, it is a bit more complicated than Kahoot! but I found it worth my time to navigate the tech challenges of getting it up and running on my laptop.  Like Kahoot!, players answer the questions on their phones while you share your screen with them.  It is a lot of fun and this platform makes for some fun learning opportunities once you figure it out.

Mentimeter

Mentimeter is the most “professional” and formal of the three platforms listed here.  There are many different subscription options from the developer,  but I found that the free version was more than adequate for my needs.  Like Kahoot!, you have a variety of question styles to choose from (polls, true/false, multiple choice, sliders and many more.)  Your participants answer using their phones and you are once again sharing your screen.  This platform actually lets you build an entire presentation on it, with your custom quizzes embedded, so there is no need to switch between software (i.e., Powerpoint and a web browser.)  There is a ton of customization available and you can very easily modify the look of the quizzes to complement your brand.  Mentimeter offers the largest variety of options and is pretty simple to use. It can make any class more productive.

When to use these products

Quizzes and games such as these are great as ice-breakers, to deliver new material or as a review to make sure your families are understanding the concepts.  I think the key to keeping them fun is not to make them too long nor use them all the time.  That keeps the activity fun and interesting and something to look forward to.  My families were all pretty easily able to play without much confusion at all.  It is fun to find out who has a competitive streak and who is really retaining the information you are covering.  You could even take it further and ask them to design questions that you put into a quiz/game, so they are really synthesizing the material.

Conclusion

Moving to a virtual format requires often teaching an old dog (the childbirth educator) new tricks.  But with these three fun and customizable games and quizzes, you can be helping your families free prepared and confident while remaining engaged and having fun.  Are there other platforms that allow customizable games and quizzes to be created that you have found useful?  Please share in the comments below.

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