Increasing Motivation to Learn through Group Work in a Competitive Environment

Abstract

In today’s digital era, learning apps have become increasingly important as they can change access to education and optimize learning processes. When developing a product for Mittweida University of Applied Sciences, the intention was to design an app that can be used in a supportive way in the university teaching of the Faculty of Social Work to improve the understanding of the learning material. This paper aims to find out whether learning motivation can be increased when a digital learning app is used in group work within a competitive environment. The digital learning app developed serves to create a space in which several students work together on the topic complexes through exchange or answer questions and motivate each other. To validate the increase in motivation, an evaluation was conducted with a group of students (n = 17) in which group work was simulated with the app. To create the competitive environment, the scores of the groups were openly compared. In addition, the best group received a prize. To determine motivation, questionnaires were used before and after the simulation. The questionnaires consist of a combination of the existing questionnaires on motivation FAM, MSLQ, and CMELAC. They are rated on a five- or seven-point Likert scale. The evaluation of the questionnaires shows that motivation cannot be increased in the simulation. Overall, no major change in motivation can be detected through the evaluation. In addition, the reward was not perceived as necessary. Thus, the question arose why no changes in motivation could be recorded via the snapshot. This may be due to various factors, such as the size of the period under consideration or the number of respondents. The evaluation also makes it clear that the main aspect of the app is not necessarily the motivation of the students.