Gamification during Covid-19: Promoting active learning and motivation in higher education

Virtual teaching modalities urgently implemented during the Covid-19 pandemic require strategies to motivate students to participate actively in higher education. Our study found that gamification using a reward-based system is a strategy that can improve the educational experience under exceptional circumstances. This article reports the results of two gamified undergraduate courses (Calculus and Development of Transversal Competencies) designed with a reward system. The results derived from analyses of online surveys, the final grades, and their correlations revealed that gamification helped motivate students to participate actively and improved their academic performance, in a setting where the mode of instruction was remote, synchronous, and online. From the results we conclude that gamification favours the relationship between attention, participation, and performance, while promoting the humanisation of virtual environments created during academic confinement. Implications for practice or policy: Gamification using a reward based system promoted active class participation and improved student performance after the transition from face-to-face to virtual instruction required as a result of the global pandemic. Systemic recognition in a reward-based system improved the participants' emotional states, reducing their anxiety and the feeling of isolation caused by the pandemic, and leading to student engagement with. Gamification works as an accompaniment for students to help the increasement of teacher-student and student-student interactions.