Abstract
This study investigated whether the use of a gamified mobile learning app influenced students’ academic performance and boosted their engagement in the subject. Created to better engage students in lecture content, the app was used to deliver multiple-choice content-based quizzes directly to students’ personal mobile devices post-lecture and pre-tutorial. After measuring the relationships between students’ app usage and their engagement, retention and academic achievement in the subject, it is suggested that following the app’s introduction, student retention rates and academic performance increased, and there was a positive correlation between students’ scoring highly on the app and achieving higher academic grades. While the app’s affordances for learning are promising, the causal relationship between the app usage and improved student outcomes requires further investigation. Conclusions made in the context of the wider scholarship of mobile app enhanced learning and applied game principles in HE.
Highlights
Mobile applications used as learning and teaching tools are not uncommon in Higher Education (HE) (Pechenkina, 2017)
What makes an educational mobile app effective is a subject of ongoing interest to academics, lecturers, learning designers and other stakeholders invested in education (Hirsh-Pasek et al, 2015)
Recent studies report on various HE mobile app offerings which despite the differences in their design and intended uses are united by a common goal of enhancing learning to improve student outcomes
Summary
Mobile applications (apps) used as learning and teaching tools are not uncommon in Higher Education (HE) (Pechenkina, 2017). Other recent research found that students generally hold positive perceptions of gamified learning and appreciate social interaction, engagement and immediate feedback it affords (Cheong, Filippou, & Cheong, 2014) Taking all these success factors into account, when strategically embedded into an online learning initiative, game elements have a potential to improve student outcomes (Hirsh-Pasek et al, 2015; Jere-Folotiya et al, 2014; Ke, 2015; Laine et al, 2016; Werbach & Hunter, 2015). All students in the accounting unit were invited to download the app Those who elected to use the app would receive regular post-lecture and pre-tutorial push notifications delivered directly to their mobile devices, inviting them to test their knowledge of the concepts introduced in-class by taking a multiple-choice quiz. – Did the app’s introduction correlate with improved student retention rates? – Did the app’s student usage correlate with improved academic performance? – Did students’ app performance correlate with their academic performance in the unit?
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