Is it possible to motivate students without offering them incentives tied to their final grade in the subject?

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.31637/epsir-2025-649

Keywords:

teaching innovation, motivation, gamification, games, applications, Quizizz, statistics, assessment

Abstract

Introduction: During the 2022/2023 academic year, we implemented an initiative under the VI Call for Teaching Innovation Projects at the University of Cantabria, specifically in the descriptive statistics courses of the Business Administration and Management Degree, Economics Degree and the Labor Relations Degree. The mathematical complexity of the content, its instrumental value, the timing of its delivery, and the characteristics of the students present challenges that make student motivation a significant concern for educators. The objectives of the project were to make these statistics courses more engaging, as well as reinforcing complex concepts to facilitate continuous and autonomous learning. To achieve this, we leveraged new technologies, with a particular focus on gamification due to its advantages in the teaching-learning process. Methodology: Competitive question games through the Quizizz application. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse the results. Results: Although it initially seemed an attractive proposal that we used as an anonymous quiz throughout the course, the level of participation was lower than expected. However, the results improved in the course in which we implemented the project. Conclusions: The need to provide incentives related to the final grade to achieve higher participation in these activities.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biographies

Carmen Trueba, University of Cantabria

Carmen Trueba is Associate Professor in the Area of Quantitative Methods in Economics and Business in the Department of Economics at the University of Cantabria. She is also a researcher at SANFI and a researcher associated with the Chair of International Cooperation with Latin America and the Spanish Network of Development Studies. She has taught more than 2,400 teaching hours and has published two manuals, eight book chapters and one article on teaching innovation. As a result of his research activity, he has published several academic articles in leading journals. In addition, he has participated in several competitive projects funded by different Ministries and in a dozen projects of knowledge transfer to the productive sector.

Lorena Remuzgo, University of Cantabria

Lorena Remuzgo is a Permanent Lecturer in the Area of Quantitative Methods in Economics and Business in the Department of Economics at the University of Cantabria. She is also a member of the Environmental and Resources Economics Policy Group of the Basque University System and a SANFI researcher. She has taught more than 1,800 hours of teaching and has published a manual, eight book chapters and a teaching innovation article. As a result of her research activity, she has published several academic articles in leading journals. In addition, he has participated in competitive projects funded by different ministries and in other projects for knowledge transfer to the productive sector.

References

Alexander, B., Ashford-Rowe, K., Barajas-Murphy, N., Dobbin, G., Knott, J., McCormack, M., Pomerantz, J., Seilhamer, R. y Weber, N. (2019). EDUCAUSE Horizon Report: 2019 Higher Education Edition. EDUCAUSE. https://tinyurl.com/y2vfkjxq

Barata, G., Gama, S., Jorge, J. y Gonçalves, D. (2014). Improving participation and learning with gamification. Proceedings of the First International Conference on Gameful Design, Research, and Applications, Gamification ’13 (pp. 10–17). ACM. https://doi.org/10.1145/2583008.2583010 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/2583008.2583010

Cabero, J., Castaño, C., Cebreiro, B., Gisbert, M., Martínez, F., Morales, J. A., Prendes, M. A., Romero, R. y Salinas, J. (2003). Las nuevas tecnologías en la actividad universitaria. Pixel-Bit. Revista de Medios y Educación, 20, 81-100. https://bitly.cx/KTOu

Jaramillo-Mediavilla, L., Basantes-Andrade, A., Cabezas-González, M. y Casillas-Martín, S. (2024). Impact of gamification on motivation and academic performance: A systematic review. Education Sciences, 14(6), 639. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci14060639 DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci14060639

Khaldi, A., Bouzidi, R. y Nader, F. (2023). Gamification of e-learning in higher education: a systematic literature review. Smart Learning Environments, 10. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40561-023-00227-z DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s40561-023-00227-z

Lopes dos Reis, F. y Martins, A. E. (2010). Virtual teaching in a society of learning. Revista de Formación e Innovación Educativa Universitaria, 3(1), 1-7. https://bit.ly/4cRb4sa

Manzano-León, A., Camacho-Lazarraga, P., Guerrero, M. A., Guerrero-Puerta, L., Aguilar-Parra, J. M., Trigueros, R. y Alias, A. (2021). Between Level Up and Game Over: A Systematic Literature Review of Gamification in Education. Sustainability, 13, 2247. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13042247 DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/su13042247

Montenegro-Rueda, M., Fernández-Cerero, J., Mena-Guacas, A. F. y Reyes-Rebollo, M. M. (2023). Impact of gamified teaching on university student learning. Education Sciences, 13(5), 470. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci13050470 DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci13050470

Quizziz. (2024). Portal de Quizziz. https://quizizz.com

Remuzgo, L. y Trueba, C. (2019). Innovación educativa en el aula: una revisión comparada de las herramientas disponibles. En B. Cantalapiedra Nieto, E. Trigo Ibáñez y I. C. Santos Díaz (Coords.), Formulaciones docentes novedosas (pp. 363-375). Ediciones Pirámide.

Sharples, M. (2005). Learning as conversation: transforming education in the mobile age. En Proceedings of conference on seeing, understanding, learning in the mobile age (pp. 147-152). Hungary. https://bit.ly/3S6uvW3

Sharples, M., Taylor, J. y Vavoula, G. (2007). Towards a theory of mobile learning. En R. Andrews y C. Haythornthwaite (Eds.), The Sage Handbook of Elearning Research (pp. 221-247). Sage. https://bit.ly/3zGdgEJ DOI: https://doi.org/10.4135/9781848607859.n10

Trueba, C. y Remuzgo, L. (2014). Nuevas Tecnologías en el ámbito educativo. En J. F. Durán Medina y I. Durán Valero (Coords.), La Era de las TT.II.CC en la Nueva Docencia (pp. 621-630). Ediciones Universitarias McGraw-Hill. https://bit.ly/3W2osD4

Zicherman, G. y Cunningham, C. (2011). Gamification by Design: Implementing Game Mechanics in Web and Mobile Apps. O’Reilly Media.

Downloads

Published

2024-11-28

How to Cite

Trueba, C., & Remuzgo, L. (2024). Is it possible to motivate students without offering them incentives tied to their final grade in the subject?. European Public & Social Innovation Review, 10, 1–17. https://doi.org/10.31637/epsir-2025-649

Issue

Vol. 10 (2025)

Section

Education

License

Copyright (c) 2024 Carmen Trueba, Lorena Remuzgo

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
  1. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under Creative Commons Non Commercial, No Derivatives Attribution 4.0. International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.), that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
  2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
  3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).