Could a Game Show Format Work at University
Educators, are you ready? Hands on your buzzers.
Here we go with our first starter for 10:
do television quiz show formats offer a useful tool for teaching?
Anyone? Well, OK, it was a bit of a tricky one.
But the correct answer is yes, or so says
at least one international institution of higher education.
Some British universities, already under fire for dumbing down,
may be wary of the idea. Others may be susceptible
to the showbiz appeal of a bit of classroom University Challenge.
In America, the Montgomery County Community College
has discovered that tuning into the format
of a popular television quiz show adds a bit of extra relevance,
and fun, to its student review sessions.
At the college's annual technology conference
in Utah this week, computer science instructor
Patricia Rahmlow explained how she divides
her students into teams, handing each an electronic buzzer
while cueing the theme music of the popular quiz programme,
Jeopardy, to create the right ambience
as she and her teaching colleagues fire off the day's questions.
The winning team gets 10 points
of additional credit for their efforts.
Among the software available for such sessions is
the rather nifty-looking Gameshow Prep,
which allows educators to set up their own
“universal question library” that stores questions,
information about the various teams and players,
point values for correct answers, logo graphics,
themes and opening music.
Another academic institution uses
something similar for its Shakespeare classes.
(And for the not-so-faint of heart,
here's another American institution
that incorporates a television show format
into its pedagogical bag of tricks.)
And why not? For more than a decade now,
some scholars have argued for the intellectual benefits
of allowing young people a greater exposure to
the likes of Who Wants To Be a Millionaire and even Wheel of Fortune.
Bringing the same format into the classroom
may sound a little desperate, but who's to say that,
used judiciously, it can't jolly things along.
As Rahmlow told the recent American conference,
she had never had students ask her
“when are we going to do the review?”
until she took the televisual plunge.
Ready for the next question? Marvellous.
Oh wait, I think I hear a gong. We've run out of time.