Abstract:

The demotivation and the lack of interest of students to learn and acquire quality knowledge are one of the main challenges that teachers must face within the university field. Moreover, currently, universities are committed to contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) of the 2030 Agenda, especially with SDG 4 "Quality Education". For these reasons, new teaching methodologies linked to innovation have recently emerged, which seek to change the classic teaching model (master classes) for a more dynamic one in which students can get more involve in the acquisition of specific and general skills. Within these innovative methodologies, the gamification is a fun, enjoyable and dynamic way of teaching and learning, with great acceptance by students. Accordingly, this innovative methodology has been implemented during several academic years (since 2019-2020 to 2022-2023) in the degree of Food Science and Technology at the Rey Juan Carlos University. Moreover, it has been performed in a coordinated way between two compulsory subjects of this degree: Food Analysis Techniques and Food Chemistry, so that students can see the relationship among them and acquire a more global vision of their degree. In the first academic course (2019-2020), the activity was implemented as a pilot experience and was voluntary for those students who wanted an extra score in their final grade, with a maximum of 20 participants. The experience was organized like a gymkhana, in which the students were divided in small groups and had to overcome different challenges proposed as laboratory practices. Due to the success of the experience, the activity was proposed for the next year (2020-2021) as a mandatory and evaluable activity for all the students enrolled in the subjects involved. However, due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the health restriction measures, the activity had to be adapted to a break-out format in the classroom using computers. In this case, each student worked individually to overcome the challenges posed (different quizzes needed to be resolved to unlock digital locks). Due to the big number of participating students (59), they were divided in two different classes and the activity was performed in "battle mode", establishing a competition between both groups to escape from the classroom. Although satisfactory results were achieved, the students indicated they preferred the gymkhana format and to work in teams rather than individually. Thus, in the following years (2021-2022 and 2022-2023), the activity was organized combining challenges in classroom (break-out format) and laboratory (laboratory practices), and it has been set as a mandatory and evaluable activity (weighing a 10% of the final grade in both subjects). Over the years, very good results have been obtained in terms of student satisfaction and the development of skills. This methodology also enables deeper teacher-student interaction, increasing the student motivation because of the involvement of teachers. However, the implementation of this type of activities also entails some difficulties for teachers: handling many students, workload to prepare interesting challenges in a coordinated way. Moreover, not all students may be enrolled in both subjects and, since it is a mandatory activity, the repeater students also must do it, so the challenges and dynamics of the activity have to be changed each year to keep the intrigue among the students.

Keywords:

Gamification, Food Science and Technology, Educational Innovation, Quality Education, Motivation, Dynamization, Gymkhana, Coordination.