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Easily Create Your Own Online Games with Oodlu



I recently learned about Oodlu from Larry Ferlazzo's blog. Oodlu is a tool for creating and playing self-paced games digitally.  You can access Oodlu on the web HERE and it is also available for iOS and Android. A bank of over 2 million questions that have already been created is available for teachers to duplicate and add to their game creations. You can also create your own questions!

My Experience

After learning about this tool I set out to create an online game for students to practice Synonyms and Antonyms. I was pleasantly surprised how intuitive the platform was and I love the different types of questions that can be included.
Easily Create Your Own Online Games with Oodlu


What is really neat about Oodlu is that once you create your bank of questions and press Play you can choose the theme for the game that will pop up between some of the questions.

Easily Create Your Own Online Games with Oodlu

When I created my Synonyms and Antonyms game I initially tried to play it as if I were a student but got confused when I submitted my answers. Sometimes I would receive a happy face and other times an unhappy face even though my answers were correct like in the example below:

Easily Create Your Own Online Games with Oodlu

I reached out to Oodlo and in a matter of minutes I received a response from Dougi who explained:

"When you get a question correct there is a random selection mechanism that appears afterwards where the Oodlu smile ticks a few times resulting in either a smile or a sad face.  A smile gives game play, where a sad face does not.  However, this is not related to whether the answer was correct or not.  It only shows if you have correctly answered the question (in formative mode)."

I then learned that the question does not advance if it is answered incorrectly. Instead it says have another go and students try again until they get it!

Is it Free?

Yes it is! There is a premium version that costs 99 CENTS per month but the standard version is completely free.  They even state that their standard plan will always stay free.

Easily Create Your Own Online Games with Oodlu

Play My Game

Easily Create Your Own Online Games with Oodlu

Click HERE to play my Synonyms and Antonyms game. The premium version will allow you to embed any game into your blog/website which would be really nice. 

Student Use

Like in my example above, you can send students a link to any game you create for them to play in their own time without having to sign in. However, Oodlu does have the option for students to create an account simply by visiting https://oodlu.org/clicking on Student, and typing in a username, password and teacher code that can be found under the teacher's dashboard once he/she creates a Group. You could create one group for your entire class or if you want to differentiate by sending specific games to certain students, you could create multiple groups (just make sure students join the correct group). Under the Content and Games section of the teacher's account you can assign games under the Action dropdown menu and select Set to a Group.

Easily Create Your Own Online Games with Oodlu
  
Below is the student view when they sign into their account and see that a game has been assigned to their group. Students click on Play and then are given the option to choose the theme of the game they get to play randomly in between questions. This provides a different experience for each time they play!

Easily Create Your Own Online Games with Oodlu

Under the analytics tab you can see what percentage of questions students answered correctly the first time. More detailed analytics are included with the premium version.

Give it a try if you are looking for a customizable way for students to review content in a fun way!

Easily Create Your Own Online Games with Oodlu