Kahoot! It: Gamification in Higher Education

Play is a social-centred process, able to boost motivation and promote learning across all levels and ages. With the growing push for creativity in the classroom as well as the application of effective technology in teaching and learning, it can be a daunting task for educators to find fitting competitive or game-based learning platforms. Foremost, educators need to consider elements such as motivation and whether the platform is likely to foster and reinforce learning. In the present study, a cohort of undergraduates at a public university in Malaysia were exposed to the use of Kahoot!, a game-based learning platform, during their weekly lectures for one semester. The participants were students of English for the Media, which covers theoretical and practical dimensions. The latter dimension includes the learning and application of media language features and devices. Survey data (51 respondents) on the whole, indicated that the students found Kahoot! to be beneficial in terms of: 1) inducing motivation as well as engagement, and 2) fostering and reinforcing learning (for both theoretical and practical aspects). The 33-item questionnaire created by the researchers was also tested for reliability, with returned values indicating high internal consistency, thus making the instrument a reliable option for use in future studies. The findings of this study are of relevance to researchers, educators, course designers, and designers of game-based learning applications.