Gamification to increase participation in maths practice quizzes in Level 1 Engineering modules

Project leader(s): Silvia Varagnolo
Theme: Supporting students
Faculty: STEM
Status: Current
Dates: June 2024 to December 2025

The aim of this project is to improve students’ engagement with maths exercise through the gamification of existing practice quizzes. The specific context is T192 (the first module in the Engineering Qualification) which already features weekly maths practice quizzes. However, the proposed intervention is meant to be easily applicable with limited resources to any module that embeds Moodle quizzes not necessarily based on maths questions.

Students’ engagement with the T192 practice quizzes decays in time while maths concepts essential for the study progression are covered in the later parts of the module. Hence, we are looking to gamify the quizzes to maintain the initial level of practice through the module. Furthermore, the gamification would prompt students who do not achieve a satisfactory outcome to repeat the quiz, which they can do without any detriment.

The gamification will be based on three small interventions: 1) a modification of the way the practice quiz is presented, 2) a modification of the feedback and 3) the introduction of a reward.

Students will be told that they will win a reward (a badge) if they complete a set of practice quizzes with a score above a certain threshold. For each completed quiz they will get a piece of that badge. The badge will have a name indicating their engagement with practicing maths.

The quizzes’ introductory webpage will be more eye-catching, and the gamified quizzes will be ‘advertised’ through different channels, like forums, news items and postcards sent by tutors.

The feedback will become conditional: it will praise students who achieved the threshold to get the badge and will encourage students to repeat the quiz if the threshold was not achieved, possibly after revising the corresponding maths contents. In both cases, the feedback will encourage students to undertake another quiz (either the following one in the gamified quiz or the same one) to keep them practicing maths to obtain the full badge.

The design of the gamification will be informed by a literature review, the analysis of the students’ engagement with the practice quizzes in past presentations, and input from students. The effectiveness of this approach will be evaluated through a survey, in-depth interviews with T192 students and analysis of the number of clicks on the quizzes.

If successful, a guidance to design and implement this model of gamification on other modules will be developed.

The project fits with the eSTEeM strategic priority area of Continuation and Completion as it attempts to retain and upskill students around areas of the module that are known to be a barrier to further study.