Students and Teachers Using Mentimeter: Technological Innovation to Face the Challenges of the COVID-19 Pandemic and Post-Pandemic in Higher Education

J Ignacio Pichardo,Esteban F López-Medina,Esther Isorna,Virginia Jiménez,Mónica Ramos-Toro,Oriol Borrás-Gené,David Carabantes-Alarcon,Alejandro Hernández-Melián,Isabel González-Enríquez,Mónica Cornejo-Valle,Maribel Blázquez-Rodríguez,Marina Logares,Olga Mancha-Cáceres

doi:10.3390/educsci11110667

J Ignacio Pichardo, Esteban F López-Medina + Show 11 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci11110667

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Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted higher university lecturers to develop their digital skills in order to adapt to online teaching. A group of university teachers decided to evaluate the educational uses of Mentimeter to promote student participation and active learning. A questionnaire was answered by 400 students and 12 participating academics. These 12 academic respondents also participated in a focus group after experiencing this software during an academic course. Qualitative and quantitative data was collected and analyzed to conclude that this software not only facilitated student participation during the pandemic (both face-to-face and online) in synchronous and asynchronous ways but also improved attention, engagement, collaborative learning and interaction. Immediate feedback made it possible for teachers to monitor the students’ learning processes and to adjust the content and pace accordingly. Students and educators highlighted the inclusive potential of this tool, as it allows participation from a diverse audience with different backgrounds and capacities, ensuring inclusive and equitable education for all. Some opportunities for improvement were also identified, namely more functions to make the software more attractive and adapt it to different educational objectives.

Highlights

Technological innovation has been a key element to promote methodologies that facilitate the active involvement of students [1]
The use of information and communication technologies (ICT) has been shown to “contribute to improving the understanding of concepts related to a specific subject, amplify the possible teaching strategies and contribute to students acquiring a dimension of greater responsibility towards their own teaching and learning process” [2]
A group of university lecturers decided to innovate through the use of online software (Software as a Service, or SaaS) during the 2020–2021 academic year, to promote and facilitate participation, collaborative learning and interaction between all the individuals involved in the learning process

Summary

Introduction

Technological innovation has been a key element to promote methodologies that facilitate the active involvement of students [1]. Two of them are highlighted here [4]: online learning, sometimes in combination with face-to-face teaching, has assumed a leading role in its different modalities and, teachers have had to quickly incorporate and develop their digital skills In this context, a group of university lecturers decided to innovate through the use of online software (Software as a Service, or SaaS) during the 2020–2021 academic year, to promote and facilitate participation, collaborative learning and interaction between all the individuals involved in the learning process. We initially explored a variety of tools, including Kahoot, Mentimeter, Socrative, Wooclap and Quizizz, that enable students to be actively involved during classes This software facilitates gamification strategies, offering significant motivation for the students and a great opportunity for innovation to enhance teaching and learning processes [5,6]

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