Abstract:

This study presents an innovative methodology that has been implemented in the third year of the Marine Engineering Degree at the Bilbao School of Engineering (University of the Basque Country, UPV/EHU), specifically in the subject of Cold and Refrigeration Techniques during the 2025-26 academic year. The activity replaces the traditional resolution of individual exercises with the completion of these exercises in collaborative working groups, adding a competitive component with the aim of improving students’ motivation. The activity consisted of 16 students (aged between 19 and 34) working in groups of 5 or 6 people to solve thermodynamic problems related to refrigeration cycles (ideal, real and cascade cycles). To do this, similar problems were given to each group with slight modifications in each one, such as changing the units. The three groups had to solve the exercise simultaneously on the blackboard, with the winner being the first group to complete the exercise correctly. The same was done with exercises on ideal refrigeration cycles, then real cycles, and finally cascade cycles. A competitive element was added by awarding points for each exercise solved correctly, with each exercise having three different scores. Each member of the winning group was given sweets. In order to measure both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, as well as students' perceptions and enjoyment, questionnaires were administered before and after the activity. Both questionnaires used a five-point Likert scale.

Thanks to these activities, it was observed that students became more interested in solving these exercises in groups, although they revealed that what really boosted their preference was the gamification component (+0.62 points). Likewise, thanks to this methodology, there was a notable improvement in intrinsic motivation (up to +0.7 points in enjoyment). As well as certain parameters of extrinsic motivation (+0.38 in classroom atmosphere), although greater anxiety was detected among students (+0.24 points).

This reflects that this collaborative competition methodology can help improve students' intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, although it is true that it increases anxiety. Therefore, this type of activity can improve the results that students can obtain in university courses in the field of marine engineering, although it could also be extrapolated to other engineering fields.

Keywords:

Collaborative Learning, Gamification, Motivation, Marine Engineering, Engineering Education, Active Learning.