Abstract:

The establishment of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) aims to change the modes of learning from lecture to other alternatives that are based on new information technologies (ICT) and new pedagogic strategies.

The basis of the project was the use of gamification as a pedagogical method, to increase student interest by the subjects they study transforming the learning process in something fun and playful.

The procedure involves inserting at the end of blocks of issues, employing an application for mobile devices, quizzes of various levels of difficulty that students must overcome assigning to each level exceeded a score that adds to their final mark. The questions are developed in part by the teacher and partly by students to encourage their participation in the process,the questions included in the different levels are decided by the professor. At the end of the game, the application expresses a ranking of students’ scores.

Our study compared two groups: a control group where professors held a lecture and an experimental group where the professors made an interactive class with Internet access devices (laptops, smartphones, computers and tablets) as clickers and applied the gamification methodology. A comparison of the results obtained by the two groups and a survey given to the students in the group where we used the continuous assessment system was conducted.

For the evaluation of the results, we took into account, among other parameters, the time commitment required for the preparation of questionnaires and game levels and the impact on the organization of the teaching itself, the difficulties encountered, the students’ reaction and the development of classroom lectures, improvement in the acquisition of skills and knowledge, as well as analysis of academic results obtained by students who participated and questionnaires answered by students.

In the comparison between the two groups, a 40% performance increase was observed in the group in which we introduced the use of clickers.

The questionnaire the students were given included the following questions:
1.Ease in handling the application.With a majority of responses from easy to very easy.
2.The application encourages class participation.With a majority of responses sometimes or always.
3.The system employed improves performance results.With a majority of responses from sufficiently to very much.
4.Do you consider practical using the application for the continuous evaluation of the subject.With most answers from practical to very practical.
5.The program used has helped to improve knowledge retention.With a majority of responses from sufficiently to very much.
6.The application is an improvement in the method of teaching. With a majority of responses from sufficiently to very much.
7.What is your assessment on the application.With a majority of responses from good to very good.

In conclusion: The system allows continuous assessment of students and incorporating a dynamic adaptive feedback, minimal cost compared to conventional clickers, avoiding compatibility problems those can generate and also has the possibility to create new functionalities.

The system improves student performance by increasing their participation in class and setting the knowledge provided by the teacher, and allowing the teacher to know which aspects of the class should be better explained before giving concepts for granted.

Keywords:

EHEA, gamification, pedagogical method, mobile devices, incloud application.