Comparison of traditional and gamified student response systems: does more fun come at a cost?

Student response systems (often called “clickers”) are typically used in college and medical courses as a form of active learning to increase engagement and promote learning. Recent modifications to student response systems include “gamification” where game‐like elements (such as competitions, earning points for speed, winning medals, etc) are added with the goal of further increasing participation, engagement, and excitement in the classroom. However, little is known about the relative impacts of traditional student response systems compared to those of gamified systems when both are used in the same course. The goal of this study was to compare student performance with and perceptions of a traditional student response system (iClicker) and a gamified version (Kahoot!) that were both used in the same course. Our hypotheses were that student performance from iClickers would be more predictive of exam performance than Kahoot!, but that students would perceive Kahoot! as being more fun and engaging than iClickers. Students from two sections of a large enrollment undergraduate human anatomy course (n = 254) answered in‐class iClicker questions for participation credit and voluntarily answered in‐class Kahoot! questions for no credit. Students also completed end‐of‐course surveys rating their perceptions of both systems. Multiple linear regression models were used to analyze exam performance as a function of student performance on iClicker questions and Kahoot! questions (while controlling for student demographics). The models showed that both iClicker performance and Kahoot! performance were significantly positively correlated with exam performance with nearly identical effect sizes. Additionally, student survey data showed that over 80% of students rated both systems as being both fun and effective ways to learn. However, while >95% of students reported that while iClickers should be used in every day of class, approximately 66% of students reported that Kahoot! should only be played once a week. These results suggest that student performance with traditional and gamified student response systems may be similarly correlated with exam performance but that gamified systems may need to be used more sparingly than traditional systems in order to maintain high levels of engagement. Support or Funding Information Funding provided by the UC Irvine Office of the Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2018 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal .