USE OF A GAMIFICATION TOOL IN THE UNIVERSITY CLASSROOM TO MOTIVATE A NEW GENERATION OF STUDENTS

In recent years in teaching systems have been introduced in which active participation and gamification is stimulated through personal response systems that motivate the student. Through this type of systems, students will participate actively by answering the teacher's questions through an electronic device. One of the digital platforms that is currently being used is Kahoot, which allows questionnaires and online surveys through any device with internet access such as tablets, smartphones or laptops. The objective of this study was to verify the practical utility of Kahoot within the subject Human and Cell Physiology, as an additional assessment methods that can bring great value to both students as well as professors and who intend to make these evaluation tests much more enjoyable and effective. These activities were performed 3 times in the semester, at the end of various thematic blocks of the subject Cellular and Human Physiology (nervous system, endocrine system, digestive system). It was used in order to clarify doubts, and review points and aspects on which the students expressed some difficulty during the lectures. The application is compatible with any browser and can be applied to any type of mobile device. Its implementation in the classroom is convenient through the Wi-Fi connection. After having carried out the sessions, a questionnaire was applied to the students in order to obtain an assessment regarding the possible benefit and usefulness of the mentioned platform, as well as to detect faults, problems during the use or potential inappropriate uses. Among the aspects consulted the students we highlight issues related to technical and operational aspects of the application, influence on the learning process and motivation of the student. In general, it has been observed as a positive characteristic in all the activities that the participation of the student has increased considerably in class and that the professor-student relationship is more cordial and relaxed, generating in the student a more positive attitude towards the subject. From the point of view of the professor, it is positive to be able to generate follow-up reports of the different questionnaires to carry out subsequent analyzes, as well as to collect not only statistics of global results but also the individual results of each student. The interactive questionnaires through kahoot are a good tool to increase in a fun way the participation in the classroom, the interest in the subject, the interaction between professors and students and the debates in the classroom. As aspects to improve we emphasize that launching the questionnaires requires a lot of time until all the students get it. The students liked the experience, because after the questions we explained the doubts that had caused their mistakes. The visualization of the global results of a question or of the complete questionnaire allows the professor to detect the most common faults and deficiencies and to make additional clarifications in this regard.