New Perspectives in Science Education

Mobile quiz applications have received a huge popularity in recent two years. They have brought the well-known game mechanic of a quiz to mobile apps as a new kind of media. Quizzes and underlying Multiple Choice Questions (MCQ) are an established assessment and learning aid. Therefore quiz apps can be considered as a potential educational tool. However, there has not been a commercially successful quiz application so far, which allows the integration of self-created content and therefore the facilitation of attractive game mechanics. This situation has changed in September 2015, when QuizUp, one of the main competitors in the quiz app market, was opened for individual content.

We employed QuizUp in two higher education courses of environmental engineering (n=24 resp. n=12) in two functions: First, the quiz app has been used as an accompanying learning aid in order to ensure a constant topic-relevant activity during the semester. Secondly, the app has been utilized as a media in selected lectures. Our main research questions are (a) if a quiz app is received as a motivating learning aid and (b) in how far gamification elements (e.g. duels between players, ranking lists, badges and time pressure) contribute to gaming experiences and (c) promote community building.

After the last lecture we conducted an online survey, which has been designed based on the results of guided interviews with 4 students. Furthermore, selected items of the Game Experience Questionnaire have been added. Additionally we measured students' activities with statistical data exposed by the app.

Among our findings, which draw an ambiguous picture, are: The usage in lectures as a medium is very accepted and led to both, high engagement and high immersion of students. The app was able to motivate only a small fraction of students to use it self-directed continuously. The received game experience has been impacted by the perception of the learning context negatively.