Abstract:

The lack of student motivation and engagement in learning has emerged as an educacional problem. Therefore, this reality implies a change in the methodological strategies used, and active learning should be introduced to the education system as a new approach. In this regard, both new technology and learning content must be at the service of the learning processes and the interactions that take place.

The aim of this study was to investigate whether the use of different work methologies has a different impact on student learning, leading to a difference in academic achievement and engagement.

The experience was carried out on the first year students of the degree in Food Science and Technology in the subject of Biochemistry and the activity consisted of the development of the practices related to this subject. Three research groups were determined; two experimental groups where the laboratory practices were carried out through an instructional model gamified with Socrative and Visual Thinking and a control group where a conventional teaching method was implemented. Then, the analysis of the results has been carried out, and improvement strategies were proposed to be put into practice.

According to the results obtained, the experience has been positive and the approach has been motivating and useful to promote good expectations of results and effective learning. The inclusion of innovative training tools such as Socrative and Visual thinking allows that the students can build their own learning process, acquiring competences that are in line with the expected learning outcomes.

Keywords:

Socrative, visual thinking, innovative tools, gamification.