Gamification as a Strategy to Increase Students' Motivation, Effort and Concentration in University Education

Abstract

This research is focused on the use of gamification as a strategy to enhance students' motivation, effort and concentration in the classroom. For this, mobile platforms - allowing online questionnaires-were proposed, as nowadays all students have a cell phone in their pockets. Also, this type of activity was chosen because students are digital natives and the use of platforms in which a dynamic competition is presented in real time makes them actively participative in activities, which generally require an effort. The main objective of this research is to verify the level of satisfaction from students after applying gamification technique in the classroom and explore the motivation, predisposition and the approach of the student to the most tedious subjects. The research was carried out in the Escuela Tecnica Superior de Edificacion of the Universidad Politecnica de Madrid. The methodology was to implement several knowledge tests using Kahoot platform, once the theoretical explanations were completed. This process was done in different groups of students in the same subject. Once the Kahoot's questionnaires were completed, a satisfaction survey was carried out in order to obtain data and make a quantitative evaluation of the experience.