scholarly journals Gamification as a Strategy to Increase Motivation and Engagement in Higher Education Chemistry Students

Computers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 132
Author(s):  
Guillermo M. Chans ◽  
May Portuguez Portuguez Castro
Keyword(s):  
Student Motivation ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Student Interest ◽  
Online Classes ◽  
Educational Strategies ◽  
Chemistry Students ◽  
Motivation And Engagement ◽  
Quantitative Results ◽  
Student Grades

In the last year, educational experiences have become increasingly challenging due to teaching classes remotely. For this reason, it has been necessary to develop educational strategies that accompany the use of new technologies to maintain student interest. One of these methodologies is gamification, implemented in school environments more frequently due to the pandemic and whose impact on student motivation and engagement needs to be explored. The literature shows that student participation in these contexts should be increased when applying this methodology, where teachers can also provide greater support. This research proposes improving these aspects by developing a gamification strategy that can be easily replicated in other environments. This study was carried out for a chemistry course at a university in central Mexico. This proposal details the short-, medium-, and long-term bonuses which stimulated and motivated students and achieved specific objectives. We also present the quantitative results of a questionnaire applied to 48 engineering students to identify their perceptions of how gamification could increase motivation and engagement in learning the subject of chemistry. In addition, pre- and post-knowledge tests were applied to determine whether there were changes in the learning outcomes. The results indicated that gamification increased student motivation and engagement, improved attitudes, promoted actions such as keeping the camera on during lectures and regular attendance, and improved student grades. This study fills the need for planning strategies to help improve student motivation in online classes and proposes an instrument to measure the results. It can be helpful to those interested in applying or adapting it in other disciplines.

scholarly journals A Year of Online Classes Amid COVID-19 Pandemic: Advantages, Problems, and Suggestions of Economics Students at a Bangladeshi Public University

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Musharrat Shabnam Shuchi ◽  
Sayeda Chandra Tabassum ◽  
MMK Toufique
Keyword(s):  
Evaluation System ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Sampling Technique ◽  
Online Classes ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
Concentration Problem ◽  
Class Schedule ◽  
Problem Class ◽  
Economics Students ◽  
University Level

Though there have been works highlighting the advantages and disadvantages of online learning, no study focused on university-level economics students. None of the studies explored students' opinions about improving the quality and effectiveness of online classes. Many used questionable samples, closed-ended questions, and all those researches were carried out at the beginning of online classes. In this paper, we overcome these limitations of earlier studies. Using a convenience sampling technique and open-ended questions, we collect data from 154 university-level economics students after being exposed to the online class for a year. Some advantages of online classes are: students can do classes from home without being exposed to health risks, easily accessible, flexible class schedule, students remained connected with the study, it saves costs, reduce the likelihood of semester loss, easy to understand, less stressful, and learning new technologies. Major problems from students' perspectives include network problems, difficulties in understanding the topic, unsuitable for mathematical courses, concentration problem, class not interactive, financial constraint, adverse health impacts, device issues, power outages, unfamiliarity with digital technology, internet problem, and unfixed class-schedule. Disadvantages outnumbered advantages. Students made several suggestions to improve the quality and effectiveness of online classes. Some of the vital suggestions are: using state-of-the-art digital tools, recording and uploading lectures, resolving internet issues, holding classes regularly, higher efforts to make the topics easier, resolving network issues, lowering class duration, institutional support, implementing a fixed class schedule, and introducing online evaluation system.

scholarly journals Model of Group Peer Assessment on E-Learning

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 56
Author(s):  
Komang Oka Saputra ◽  
Putu Arya Mertasana ◽  
Pratolo Rahardjo
Keyword(s):  
Student Motivation ◽  
Peer Assessment ◽  
Student Interest ◽  
Self Assessment ◽  
Final Grade ◽  
Group Assignment ◽  
Individual Solution ◽  
E Learning ◽  
Personal Skills ◽  
The Individual

Student motivation at class takes major role on achieving courses’ learning outcomes. Multimedia based content, game-based quiz, or self-assessment can maintain student interest to follow the learning process. Apart from the individual solution, working in group is one way to improve student motivation, however without proper arrangement, putting students in groups can degrade the competitive atmosphere of class, as less-smart students hang up to the more-smart students. Another alternative is implementing collaborative learning such as peer assessment that allows students to grade their fellows. However, objectivity between students must be concerned as students tend to give high-grade for their fellows. Combining group mode and peer assessment, this work proposed group peer assessment to improve student motivation on e-learning. Proposed method started by teacher open a group assignment on e-learning. Students then work on group to create solution. After the solutions are submitted, the extra-group peer assessment begins, where each group examines another group work. To maintain the objectivity of the peer assessment, final grade of each group obtained by combining grade from another group and grade from teacher.  In the meantime, cooperation atmosphere in each group is maintained by intra-group peer assessment, where each member asses all his/her teammates in terms of intra-personal and inter-personal skills.

scholarly journals The impact of online learning on student motivation in science and biology classes

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-87
Author(s):  
Mila Bulić ◽  
Ines Blažević
Keyword(s):  
Student Motivation ◽  
Online Teaching ◽  
Natural Sciences ◽  
Online Classes ◽  
Control Groups ◽  
Motivation For Learning ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Study Participants ◽  
And Control ◽  
The Impact

The research aimed to check for difference in learning motivation between students learning online and students participating in modern classroom instruction. The study participants included students attending grades 5 to 8, divided into experimental (online classes) and control groups based on pre-testing. The results show that there is no statistically significant difference in motivation between the tested sub-samples. Student motivation for learning natural sciences declines with their years of schooling, but this is not statistically significant. It can be concluded that online teaching of Science and Biology as a learning tool can be as motivating as modern teaching using active classroom methods.

The Impacts of Societal Context on Student Motivation and Engagement

2013 ◽  
Vol 1532 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan D. Stolk
Keyword(s):  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Intrinsic Motivation ◽  
Student Motivation ◽  
Course Design ◽  
Materials Science ◽  
Task Value ◽  
Engineering Studies ◽  
Societal Context ◽  
Motivation And Engagement ◽  
Integrated Project

ABSTRACTPromoting a sense of societal connectedness is critical in today’s engineering educational environment. The NAE’s Grand Challenges for Engineering point to broad human concerns — sustainability, health, vulnerability, and joy of living — and human connectivity as the future of engineering problem solving. Engineering studies, however, are often presented in a completely decontextualized manner, with an emphasis on technical content that is free of any human meaning. As a result, students may have difficulty identifying either personal or societal value in their learning tasks. Through their course design, instructors can help students situate themselves and their engineering learning experiences within the larger human system. Studying technologies and technological development within the broader societal context may, in turn, offer significant benefits to student motivation and engagement in learning. In this paper, we report findings from a three-year investigation of the effects of disciplinary integration on student motivation and learning engagement in introductory materials science courses. The quantitative results show that integrating materials science with humanities provides for increased student motivation and cognitive engagement in learning. Compared to students in non-integrated project-based courses, students in integrated project-based courses show higher intrinsic motivation and task value. In addition to these motivational gains, students in the integrated materials science-history course report significantly higher use of critical thinking strategies in their project work, indicating that an emphasis on societal context may help students cognitively engage in their engineering studies. Our findings also indicate that women in the integrated materials-history course report higher intrinsic motivation, task value, self-efficacy, and critical thinking strategy use compared to women in the non-integrated materials course. Overall, our research suggests that putting human contexts at the center of engineering learning can help students build a sense of societal relatedness that promotes better learning.

The role of authentic contexts and social elements in supporting organic chemistry students’ interactions with writing-to-learn assignments

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael N. Petterson ◽  
Solaire A. Finkenstaedt-Quinn ◽  
Anne Ruggles Gere ◽  
Ginger V. Shultz
Keyword(s):  
Organic Chemistry ◽  
Peer Interactions ◽  
Careful Consideration ◽  
Writing To Learn ◽  
Student Interest ◽  
Student Interactions ◽  
Course Content ◽  
Chemistry Students ◽  
Student Affect ◽  
Survey Responses

Student affect is an important factor in the learning process and may be especially important in gateway courses such as organic chemistry. Students’ recognition of the relevance of the content they are learning and interactions with their peers can support their motivation to learn. Herein, we describe a study focused on how Writing-to-Learn assignments situate organic chemistry content within relevant contexts and incorporate social elements to support positive student interactions with organic chemistry. These assignments incorporate rhetorical elements—an authentic context, role, genre, and audience—to support student interest and demonstrate the relevance of the content. In addition, students engage in the processes of peer review and revision to support their learning. We identified how the authentic contexts and peer interactions incorporated into two Writing-to-Learn assignments supported students’ interactions with the assignments and course content by analyzing student interviews and supported by feedback survey responses. Our results indicate that assignments incorporating these elements can support student affect and result in students’ perceived learning, but that there should be careful consideration of the relevance of the chosen contexts with respect to the interests of the students enrolled in the course and the complexity of the contexts.

Research approval assessment: A methodology to cultivate electrical engineering students’ attention through stimulating their interesting studies

2020 ◽  
pp. 002072092090143
Author(s):  
Jinsong Tao ◽  
Muhammad Waqas ◽  
Xiaoxing Zhang ◽  
Zhe Wang ◽  
Yang Shu
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Students ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Electrical Engineering ◽  
Electrical Power ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
Assessment Process ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Aging Workforce ◽  
Engineering Software ◽  
Electrical Engineering Education

In the 21st century, electrical power enterprises face the flood of new technologies and an aging workforce of professional engineers. To address this shortage, heightening the competences of current electrical engineering students is essential. Although researchers have raised these issues and presented expedient methodologies, they have not enhanced graduation rates because many young students are declining the electrical engineering major due to many factors. Nevertheless, the declining percentage must be addressed in the electrical engineering education system; hence this article implemented a research approval assessment technique to engage electrical engineering students’ interest with their major, enhance academic research and professional skills, and excel at their electrical engineering degree in the School of Electrical Engineering at Wuhan University, China. The assessment process assists students in recalling and integrating their interests to fulfill degree requirements and select future research, practicing engineering software, and enhancing the collaborative skills necessary for their future engineering careers. Although many students were involved in research approval assessment process, this article focuses on a Pakistani student’s approval process, detailing their topic of Pakistan power sector challenges (ferroresonance presence as high profile challenge), and evaluation results. The results indicated that students’ interests not only engage them effectively but also motivate their success.

Nurturing Creativity and Design Teaching: Are We Doing All We Can?

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gu¨l E. Okudan ◽  
Ann McKenna ◽  
Carolyn Plumb ◽  
Hyun K. Ro ◽  
Alexander Yin
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Data Collection ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Supporting Evidence ◽  
Major Theme ◽  
Skill Levels ◽  
Engineering Programs ◽  
Quantitative Results ◽  
Contextual Awareness ◽  
Faculty And Administrators

In this paper, we report on the results from a qualitative study of six exemplary engineering programs focusing on the ways and the extent of nurturing creativity in engineering students. The study (P360: Prototyping the Engineering of 2020) included data collection from students, faculty, and administrators at the six institutions. This data collection focused mainly on three student outcomes, including design and problem solving. Creativity and how creativity was nurtured, both inside the classroom and outside, often emerged as a major theme. We also support our qualitative findings with quantitative data. Overall, the results indicate that although students improve their creativity in design settings, this result is mostly a by-product of design teaching, and creativity is not taught per se. Quantitative results show that program emphasis on creativity and innovation significantly correlates to skill levels in design problem solving, interdisciplinarity, contextual awareness, and recognizing perspectives. Qualitative data provide supporting evidence for this.

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