Abstract:

The arrival of Generation Z in university classrooms, coupled with the COVID-19 pandemic, poses a challenge for teachers.

This challenge stems from:
1) the fully technological Generation Z;
2) university students, in general, are becoming less and less motivated and;
3) COVID-19 affected and affects the behaviour of all individuals in almost all facets of their lives.

All of this is an impetus for university lecturers to use new methodologies to complement their lectures and connect with this type of student. In this sense, the continuous development of ICT and the high penetration of mobile devices among the general population and even more so, among our target audience, are good allies. From them, dynamic elements could be introduced to encourage student participation and interaction in order to achieve greater motivation and, consequently, better final learning outcomes. Thus, considering, in addition, the high interest of this type of public in online games, one of these dynamic elements can be gamification.

In this context, this paper analyses the effect that COVID-19 has had on students' final learning outcomes or grades, as well as whether the use of Kahoot in the classroom improves these results in times of pandemic.

In order to meet this objective, students of a basic subject taught in different degrees at the University of Jaén (Spain) have been involved. Specifically, it is the subject Fundamentals of Marketing, which is taught in: Degree in Business Administration and Management, Degree in Statistics and Business, Degree in Finance and Accounting and double degree in Law and Business Administration and Management. The academic years under study are 2017/18, 2018/19, 2019/20 and 2020/2021.

Overall, the results suggest that the pandemic, with all its circumstances, has had a negative effect on students' final grades and that the use of Kahoot, as an energising tool, does not seem to have compensated for this negative effect.

Keywords:

Kahoot, gamification, learning outcomes, student profiles, COVID-19.