Abstract:

The usage of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in higher education has increased within the last years and, among them, gamification is one of the most used technique. Gamification is the use of game elements and game-design techniques in non-game contexts, to engage people and solve problems. Adding fun into the education system not only make learning and training much more enjoyable and compelling, but far more effective as well. This paper presents the results from investigating the effectiveness of using the game-based student response system (GSRS) Kahoot! as a support for the teachers, in terms of test design and student evaluation. With this purpose, an experiment was conducted by using Kahoot! during two years of a civil engineering course, to collect data. Statistical Shapiro-Wilk test was used to verify the normality assumption of the Kahoot! scores, which consider not only the correct answers but also the response time. The results show that the normality distributions can be assumed for the Kahoot scores, while by removing the response time factor and considering only the correct answers, as a traditional classroom test, the normality was not verified. Normality assumption permits using parametric statistics in order to model the group with basic parameters, such as the mean and the standard deviation, and to analyze Kahoot! results. Parametric statistics can be used for analyzing the goodness of the test design, by comparing different Kahoot carried out by the same group, or for evaluating the student’s level, by comparing different groups with the same Kahoot.

Keywords:

ICT, Kahoot, Higher-Education, Gamification, Parametric statistics.