Abstract:

In response to the need for online classes, and the need to engage students, we used gamification activities, 3D anatomy slides and very short videos with questions at the end. Virtual platform tool, shared from Blackboard, aimed to help students follow classes with a different online dynamic experience. Classes have become livelier with more feedback, and student results obtained by this platforms provide information about the student's online learning and ensure that the knowledge has been acquired.

The general objective of this work was to implement an online teaching innovation activity to improve academic performance by introducing gamification elements from virtual platforms.

The students who participated in this teaching innovation belong to the first year of Dentistry.

Due to the need to make changes in the teaching procedure, in order to get the the students’ attention, we have chosen to use, in addition to BlackBoard, power points or activities, a virtual platform, that not only the information related to the subject was available but also that the student can carry out gamification activities online in real time. Also 3D anatomy slides were incorporated to illustrate the class and we uploaded videos that linked to our presentation without leaving it. Quizzes and surveys were added to get feedback from students.

The principal reason has been, based on gamification theory, to provide an incentive for students to find the subject more interesting and dynamic subject when they find themselves in a forced immersion in international education.

We observed that students were more engaged and this activities helped them to focus in improving results in the quizzes. We asked the students in polls and 94% of the students liked the new activities and 92% considered that it was helpful in order to reinforce concepts and to follow the classes better.

In recent years, at a pedagogical level, there has been a commitment to greater permissiveness for students to expand their way of learning outside the conventional, and it is in this environment where gamification processes can be considered beneficial to stimulate curiosity in students.

Keywords:

Virtual platform, 3D anatomy slides, gamification, online learning, online teaching.