Abstract:

The use of Kahoot as a gamification tool was implemented to improve the teaching process of chemical composition, identification and nutritional value of animal feeds practices, taught from September to December 2020 in the Animal Nutrition subject of the Veterinary Degree at the University of Murcia. Therefore, the objective of this work was to evaluate the students’ satisfaction and usefulness of applying this tool during these practices.

The free version of Kahoot platform was used, in which teachers registered and created accounts to generate the quizzes that would be used during the implementation of the activities; while students accessed the platform (from their mobile devices) with the participant role, to perform the proposed tests. Six Kahoot quizzes were conducted for the practices of chemical composition (1), feed microscopy (3), feed labelling study (1), and determination of the nutritional value of feeds (1). The quizzes were developed during the practices in which this educational intervention was carried out, and the students answered questions related to the topic of each practice, accumulating points based on the correct answers and the time used to answer. During this gamification, the teacher can clarify in detail the answers that have been missed. Finally, the platform shows the students who have received the highest score.

After the implementation of these practices, an anonymous and voluntary survey was conducted among the students, to get information about their perception of the ease of use, usefulness, and satisfaction of using this intervention. The questionnaire included 8 items: 4 with a Likert scale (from 1 to 4, from least to most) on ease of use, usefulness, satisfaction, and recommendation for using this tool, and 3 other items to indicate whether they had used the tool previously, and in which practice they found it most useful; also, an open-ended question to provide any comment, they wanted to make, was incorporated. Data collection was carried out in paper format, obtaining a total of 97 questionnaires from a universe of 109 students. This represents a confidence level of 99%, with a margin of error of 4.5%. The results obtained shown: the ease of use and support to familiarise yourself with the subject by this tool, reached high levels (3.29±0.785 and 3.29±0.672 points, respectively); highlighting the perceived usefulness for a correct development of the practices (3.65±0.538 points), and even the recommendation of its use (3.63±0.503 points). In addition, the students indicated that the practices where the use of Kahoot had been most useful was in microscopy (81.44%).

In conclusion, the implementation of the gamification tool “Kahoot” in the teaching practices of chemical composition, identification, and nutritional value of animal feeds, obtained a positive impact on the perception of the students in relation to the satisfaction and usefulness to improve the development of the practices, in which this teaching intervention was carried out.

Acknowledgement:
This communication is made under the call for “Promoting projects and actions for innovation and improvement, Academic Year 2020/2021, of the University of Murcia (Spain)”.

Keywords:

Higher education, gamification, technology, satisfaction.