I use Cooperative Bingo to get students actively involved with course content; to motivate them, to make them accountable for their own learning, and to add “zest” to exam preparation and content review. Here is how I organize the game.

Prior to playing, I ask students to send me electronically a set amount of questions divided into two types, factual ones and ones involving higher order thinking. The questions are submitted as the semester progresses so that all the content is potentially included in the review and so that there is time to return inaccurate or inappropriate questions for revision. I compile the questions by category and arrange them in the order I want them introduced. I also add questions I feel should be included.

Once I have the questions to be used in Cooperative Bingo, I prepare slides for transparencies or for projection. I put one question, marked as factual or open-ended, on each slide with the name of the person who submitted it. At the bottom of the slide is the answer, including, if appropriate, the page reference. I purchase needed supplies: skittles or M&Ms for the Bingo markers, and candy bars—large and snack sizes—for the prizes. Bingo cards are easy to make with a Word document consisting of five squares across labeled B-I-N-G-O and five squares
down. The squares below the header are randomly filled with numbers from one tot five.

To play the game, I pair students (weaker with stronger students for better coaching and teaching) and explain the procedure. Each pair gets markers and different colored work sheets (green for the factual; gold for the higher level questions) where they record their answers and if they were right or wrong. I pose the questions in sequence within each category, giving sufficient time based on their complexity. For example, I might pose this factual question submitted by John Student in a literature class: “What initial event prompts Hamlet’s decision to seek revenge?”

The pairs confer, writing down their answers on the green factual question sheet. The student who submitted the question, John, calls time and then serves as the expert/arbitrator who decides what answers, including alternative answers, are acceptable. Although John intended the correct answer to be, “Hamlet’s father’s ghost tells him he was murdered,” pairs may ask, for example, will you accept “Hamlet’s father dies under mysterious circumstances”? Pairs with correct answers place a marker on the designated square (e.g., B2 or O4). The square is determined by having the pairs in turn draw a scrabble letter (B,I,N,G,O) and roll a die (they roll again if a six emerges). Letters can also be made by cutting out uniform cardboard squares laid face down or by writing the letters on poker chips with a “sharpie” pen. Five-sided die are available in novelty stores, but they are hard to find.

I use the factual questions to speed up play and use the higher order thinking questions for class discussion/teaching. The first pair (often there will be ties) to cover five contiguous squares in any direction declares “Bingo!” They then clear their board and continue playing until the period ends. In a 50-minute period, I try to have every pair become “winners.” The winners pick their prizes, with those scoring first having the choice of the larger candy bars. As a follow-up, I give each student a copy of the questions and answers to use as a study guide or put them on the Web.

The results? Besides the active involvement with learning, the assessment value is phenomenal. Because the students submit the questions, I get an immediate sense of their knowledge, and they get feedback on the quality and fairness of their questions. As the question expert, they teach the material, making the class student-centered. I can review the work sheets with the recorded answers to get a sense of which questions students missed or did well on. Best of all, students are energetic and enthusiastic, “high-fiving” each other when they get a correct answer. They listen attentively to the answers and suddenly care about the material, even where the commas go in a bibliographic entry!

Barbara J. Millis is Director, Excellence in Teaching Program, University of Nevada, Reno.