Abstract:

Motivation plays an important role in the teaching-learning process in education. In the context of motivation and the university, teaching-learning process may be affected by new methodologies used in the classrooms such as Mobile-Learning methodology.

In one hand, it has been recognised that the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) has growth in all spheres of society, from home to Public Administration, going through elementary school, secondary school and Higher Education, forcing teachers and researchers to develop, implement and evaluate strategies to integrate ICT within the classroom in order to help the student to develop the skills that allow active, critical, effective and equal participation in classroom. We live in a society highly permeated by ICT, whose influence seems to affect everything and everyone.

On the other hand, it is a fact that motivation influences learning, to the point of becoming one of the main challenges of teachers. Therefore, to make it easier for students to be interested and strive to understand and learn, different researchers have studied the factors on which it depends and have developed instructional models on the basis of which to create environments of learning that facilitate that it is faced with the right motivation.

Based on these ideas, we can think that working on new methodologies used in the classrooms such as Mobile-Learning methodology, and introducing a sort of technological tools, can be seen as a means to encourage students’ participation and motivation, and also can help them to improve their results.

The objective of this study was to know what extent the grade obtained by the student has been influenced by the use of different Apps based on Mobile-Learning methodology in the classrooms. Following this perspective, we hypothesise that there is a linear association between academic performance and class attendance and test score Kahoot. Our sample is based on 92 students of different courses, subjects and semesters included in the syllabi of the Degrees in Business Administration and in Finance and Accounting. They were evaluated in different tests all through the module as formative evaluation and at the end of it.

For the evaluation, a 10-question multiple-choice test programmed in Kahoot was used (with only one correct answer). The students answered individually using their mobile devices and receiving a final feedback upon completion. When the students finished, they completed a satisfaction questionnaire about the usefulness of the Mobile Learning methodology. The results of the satisfaction questionnaire were analysed using descriptive statistics to obtain frequencies and response percentiles.

Based on these data we can conclude that there is a positive lineal relationship between the marks obtained with Mobile-Learning methodology and the academic performance, according with past research. Moreover, the findings also show that there is no evidence that class attendance impact on the academic performance.

This research is innovative in the sense that it investigates the relevance of using the new technologies in class to attract students to the sessions and, at the same time, to motivate students to learn/study the subject in order to obtain a better final mark.

Acknowledgement:
Work funded by the University of Malaga (PIE-108).

Keywords:

Innovation, technology, Kahoot, Student Response System, smartphones, motivation, academic improvement.