Abstract:

Introduction:
Keep the student's motivation, engagement, and concentration in university classrooms is one of the most important teachers' objectives because this can improve academic outcomes. Therefore, introducing learning strategies that enhance all these components may be essential. Nowadays, the introduction of digital devices in the university classroom is a fact. One of the main challenges in the educational field is determining how these tools can contribute to education's objectives and needs. The use of gamification tools like Kahoot! is an example of that. This free platform allows teachers to create their own surveys and obtain feedback from students in real-time. The aim of this study was to compare the academic outcomes of introducing Kahoot! tool versus the traditional methodology in the University Degree in Physiotherapy.

Methodology:
Two hundred and five students of the Physiotherapy Degree at the University of Valencia participated in this two-year study. All of them attended the theoretical Kinesitherapy subject in the second year of the degree, 98 students in the first year of the study and 107 students in the following year. The Kahoot! tool was applied only in the second year, comparing the academic results of this group with the results of the previous year students, which received traditional classes and acted as a control group. On the intervention group, the first day of class, during the presentation of the subject, the teacher explained to the students how Kahoot! tool worked and presented an example of its use. Moreover, a calendar indicating which sessions included the use of Kahoot was delivered. Five of the ten lessons included the use of the gamification tool. This intervention consisted of answering ten questions related to the class content at the end of the session. The time to answer the questions was limited, and their score was obtained considering the response time and the correction. Academic performance was assessed using the Kinesitherapy subject marks of the students of each year, and the effectiveness of both options was evaluated by comparing students’ marks means.

Results:
The game-based learning strategy increased academic performance on Kinesitherapy subject of the Degree in Physiotherapy. Comparison of the results of academic performance, assessed with the Kinesiotherapy students' marks, showed a significant difference between compared methodologies. The analysis of the mean differences in Kinesitherapy marks revealed a statistically significant increase (p = <.001) in the group with classes supplemented with Kahoot! [mean 7.38 (.98)] respect to the sessions without gamification [mean 6.33 (1.08)].

Conclusions:
According to the results, the conclusion is that the introduction of Kahoot! tool in the university classroom has proven to be positive for the students’ academic performance in Physiotherapy degree. Future studies should be done to ensure these results with many samples, as well as compare it with other gamified education strategies.

Keywords:

Education, innovation, gamification, technology, pilot study.