Effects of Gamification on the Benefits of Student Response Systems in Learning of Human Anatomy: Three Experimental Studies

This paper presents three experiments to assess the impact of gamifying an audience response system on the perceptions and educational performance of students. An audience response system called SIDRA (Immediate Audience Response System in Spanish) and two audience response systems with gamification features, R-G-SIDRA (gamified SIDRA with ranking) and RB-G-SIDRA (gamified SIDRA with ranking and badges), were used in a General and Descriptive Human Anatomy course. Students participated in an empirical study. In the academic year 2019–2020, a total of 90 students used RB-G-SIDRA, 90 students employed R-G-SIDRA in the academic year 2018–2019, and 92 students used SIDRA in the academic year 2017–2018. Statistically significant differences were found between final exam grades obtained by using RB-G-SIDRA and SIDRA, U = 39.211 adjusted p = 0.001 and RB-G-SIDRA and R-G-SIDRA U = 31.157 adjusted p = 0.015, thus finding strong evidence with respect to the benefit of the badges used in RB-G-SIDRA. Moreover, in the students’ SIDRA systems scores, statistically significant differences were found between RB-G-SIDRA and SIDRA, U = −90.521 adjusted p < 0.001, and between R-G-SIDRA and SIDRA, U = −87.998 adjusted p < 0.001. Significant correlations between individual and team scores were also found in all of the tests in RB-G-SIDRA and G-SIDRA. The students expressed satisfaction, engagement, and motivation with SIDRA, R-G-SIDRA, and RB-G-SIDRA, thus obtaining a final average assessment of 4.28, 4.61, and 4.47 out of 5, respectively. Students perform better academically with gamified versus non-gamified audience response systems. Findings can be used to build a gamified adaptive learning system.

Affordances of Audience Response Systems: Effects of Instant and Regular Feedback

Audience Response Systems (ARS), also known as clickers, are wireless devices commonly used in instruction. The present study explored the effects of ARS on students’ performance in an introductory psychology course. The study also described the trajectories of students during the course. Participants in the experimental group used ARS to solve ten true/false questions throughout a three-hour lecture, held once a week. They received feedback immediately after providing an answer. The control group was exposed to the same questions in a paper-and-pencil format at the beginning of each lecture. They received feedback after seven days. The key dependent variable was quantitative performance on course quizzes and exams. Results show that students in the experimental group had statistically significant superior performance compared to the control group. Additionally, analysis of learning trajectories of students in both groups showed that the ARS group gradually progressed to higher performance, whereas the paper-and-pencil group maintained similar performance through the study. These results are discussed within the context of previous findings related to the effects of ARS on instruction. Particularly, we revisit research related to environmental affordances, learning monitoring, motivational factors, feedback density, and ecological validity. .

Digital Experiments in Higher Education—A “How to” and “How It Went” for an Interactive Experiment Lecture on Dental Materials

A digital lecture with motivating experiments—how can this be done in practice? This question shall be answered in the context of a case report from the field of material science. A digital experimental lecture as a substitute for a lecture with student experiments was evaluated by students to provide information on whether an adequate substitute for experiments in the digital teaching context is possible. This paper addresses the question of how to transfer a demonstrative experimental lecture to the digital space on two levels: (a) the procedure of an experimental lecture in the digital space with a focus on implementation, student activation, and audience response. A self-reflective assessment by the lecturer/author and an evaluation by the participating students was performed to judge the suitability of the digital experimental lecture in terms of students’ motivation. (b) Subject-specific experiments from the field of dental materials and their transfer from “students do it themselves” to a series of demonstration experiments. The detailed explanations of the procedure and the observed results shall serve as a basis for adaptation for other experiments or lectures. In conclusion, methods and tools (audience response systems such as joined blackboards, chat, and voting) suitable to activate students in partaking in the lecture by suggesting experimental parameters or speculating on the outcome of experiments are presented. The evaluation showed that with the help of these systems a demonstrative experimental lecture in the digital space can still be perceived as adequate experimentation if a certain student influence and animating approach to the audience is integrated, which might result in the students’ conclusion of, “It felt like you were “live” on site.”.

Maintaining Academic Performance and Student Satisfaction during the Remote Transition of a Nursing Obstetrics Course to Online Instruction

This study explores the effect of rapidly transitioning an in-person pre-licensure nursing specialty course to remote instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic. The redesign included the following learning technologies: live and recorded whiteboard lectures with Socratic-style questioning, electronic audience response systems, remote simulations, and virtual unfolding case studies to replace didactic and clinical learning experiences. Quantitative results indicate that learning quality was sustained, with no significant difference in students’ course performance or satisfaction. These specific technologies can be utilized in any discipline-specific course during emergency remote instruction to promote essential student-to-student and faculty-to-student interactivity.