Research and Innovation in Language Learning 5(2) May 2022, pp. 98-108
P- ISSN: 2614-5960
e-ISSN: 2615-4137
http://jurnal.ugj.ac.id/index.php/RILL

Article

STUDENTS’ PERCEPTION OF GAMIFIED ONLINE QUIZZES

AND ITS IMPACT ON THEIR CLASSROOM ENGAGEMENT

Zahrotuz Zainiah

zahrotuz.19044@mhs.unesa.ac.id

Postgraduate Program of Language and Literature Education, Universitas Negeri

Surabaya, Indonesia

Nanin Verina Widya Putri

nanin.19029@mhs.unesa.ac.id

Postgraduate Program of Language and Literature Education, Universitas Negeri

Surabaya, Indonesia

Abstract

Gamification has been very popular in educational field. As a consequence, there were

many researchers interested to conduct a study on it. In order to give contribution for

enriching the resources for such study, this research investigated students’ view toward

the use of gamified online quizzes given by the teacher outside the classroom, as well as

to examine the impact on students’ engagement in the classroom. The method used was

qualitative, with questionnaires and interview as the instruments. The participants were

69 twelfth graders students of three classes who filled the questionnaires, as 9 students

among them were interviewed as the representatives. Results showed that students

perceived experience in using gamified online quizzes was positive. They recognized

such quizzes as interactive and useful for their learning. Moreover, they were found to

be engaged in using the gamified online quizzes. They showed their engagement in

behavior, emotion, cognitive, and agentic.

Keywords: gamification, online quizzes, students’ perception, students’ engagement

Sari

Gamifikasi sudah menjadi hal yang sangat popular dalam bidang Pendidikan. Sebagai

konsekuensinya, banyak peneliti yang tertarik mengadakan kajian tentang hal tersebut.

Untuk berkontribusi dalam memperkaya sumber data untuk kajian serupa, penelitian ini

ditujukan untuk menyelidiki pandangan siswa dalam penggunaan kuis online berbentuk

permainan yang diberikan oleh guru di luar kelas, sekaligus meneliti dampaknya pada

keterikatan siswa di dalam kelas. Metode yang digunakan adalah kualitatif, dengan

kuisioner and wawancara sebagai alat penelitian. Peserta penelitian terdiri dari 69 siswa

kelas 12 sebanyak 3 kelas yang mengisi kuisioner, dengan 9 siswa yang diwawancarai

sebagai perwakilan. Hasil menunjukkan bahwa siswa merasakan pengalaman yang

Research and Innovation in Language Learning 5(2) May 2022

p-ISSN 2614-5960, e-ISSN 2615-4137 99

positif saat menggunakan kuis online berbentuk permainan. Mereka menganggap kuis

tersebut menarik dan berguna untuk kelangsungan proses belajar mereka. Selain itu,

siswa juga terikat penuh dalam menggunakan kuis tersebut. Mereka menunjukkan

keterikatan secara perilaku, emosional, kognitif, dan agentik.

kata kunci: gamifikasi, kuis online, pandangan siswa, keterikatan siswa
Received 2021-12-21 accepted 2022-04-15 published 2022-05-30

APA Citation: Zainah, Z., & Putri, N. (2022). Students’ Perception of Gamified

Online Quizzes and Its Impacts on Their Classroom Engagement. Research and

Innovation in Language Learning 5(2), pp. 98-108

http://dx.doi.org/10.33603/rill.v5i2.6189

Introduction

In recent years, the term Gamification has been a famous trend in educational field.

Gamification is defined as a procedure to put game elements into non-game

circumstances (Campbell, 2016). It aims to transfer and to adapt the elements of game

into the real-world condition without neglecting the reality. In educational field,

gamification is considered as a method to have a game played in the classroom setting

without any intention to threaten or to risk the nature of a curriculum (Nolan &

McBride, 2014). Gamification has a potential to make the learning process to be more

entertaining so that it increases students’ motivation to study (Muntean, 2011).

Moreover, the availability of scores and rankings as the instant feedback giving in

gamification can lead to students’ engagement in the learning process as and motivates

students to reach the targets (Glover, 2013). Gamification is also beneficial for teachers

as it provides a chance to track students’ learning achievement and triggers a transparent

assessment (Lee & Hammer, 2011).

As gamified online quizzes provide the instant feedback processing, it helps the teachers

to conduct a formative assessment related to students’ engagement in the classroom

(Delacruz, 2011). It is also explained that during the gamification process, monitoring

and assessing successful learning is likely to happen (Hassan et al., 2021). Similarly, the

use of gamified online quizzes allows the teachers to gather initial information of each

student’s learning progress so that it would be a possible option for assessing students’

engagement in the classroom (Huang & Hew, 2018). Furthermore, Shute (2011) also

mentioned that gamification allows the teachers to observe not only students’

http://dx.doi.org/10.33603/rill.v5i2.6189

Zainah, Z., & Putri, N.

100 p-ISSN 2614-5960, e-ISSN 2615-4137

achievement but also students’ emotion and behavior, which are parts of learning

engagement. Students’ learning engagement mentioned refers to a condition in which

students actively involved in teaching and learning process (Christenson et al., 2012).

In regards to students’ engagement in the classroom, there have been several research

conducted to investigate such concept. For instance, Huang et al (2019) investigated

two types of engagement namely behavioral and cognitive. Meanwhile as a more

complete version, Reeve and Tseng (2011) proposed four types of learning engagement

namely behavioral, emotional, cognitive, and agentic. Skinner, Kindermann, and Furrer

(2009) stated that behavioral engagement refers to students’ involvement in the learning

activity in relation to awareness, endeavor, and persistence. It means that students’

involvement in the classroom can be seen from their attitudes or behaviors. Moreover,

they also explained that emotional engagement refers to the existence of positive

emotions such as interest and enjoyment during the learning activity, and to the absence

of negative emotions such as anxiety (Skinner et al., 2009; Watt, 2004). When students

seem to be not interested in the classroom, it means that they are not emotionally

engaged in the learning process. The third engagement namely cognitive engagement

refers to students’ personal investment in learning activities such as self-regulation and

the use of learning strategies (Walker et al., 2006). Lastly, agentic engagement is the

fourth and newly proposed aspect of students’ engagement. It is a combination of action

and behavior which refers to student’s constructive contribution into what they have

received; it is their acts of asking questions, expressing preferences, and telling the

teacher what they need in order to create a more supportive learning environment for

themselves (Reeve, 2013; Reeve & Shin, 2020; Reeve & Tseng, 2011).

There have been several previous research concerning the use of gamified online

quizzes done in various field all over the globe (Andreani & Ying, 2019; Campillo-

Ferrer et al., 2020; Göksün & Gürsoy, 2019; Lin et al., 2020; Poondej &

Lerdpornkulrat, 2020; Roosta et al., 2016; Sanchez et al., 2020; Zainuddin et al., 2020).

A study by Göksün & Gürsoy (2019) investigated the gamification activities that are

used as a formative assessment tool based on academic achievement and student

engagement in learning environments of science education in Turkey. The study was

Research and Innovation in Language Learning 5(2) May 2022

p-ISSN 2614-5960, e-ISSN 2615-4137 101

done quantitatively by having three research groups that were two experimental groups

in which Kahoot and Quizizz were implemented and a control group where

conventional instruction was implemented. Similarly, Sanchez et al (2020) also

conducted a research exploring the benefit of gamification on student learning. It

involved 473 students of psychology department. Findings showed that students who

completed more quizzes performed better on subsequent tests and had better scores.

Another study conducted by Zainuddin et al (2020) was to investigate the differences in

learners’ performance and perceived engagement between three intervention groups in a

Science class, using mixed method design by involving two types of pedagogical

intervention: traditional instruction with paper-based quizzes and gamified instruction

with gamified e-quizzes as formative assessments. The results showed that the

employment of innovative gamified e-quiz applications and paper-based quizzes were

found to be effective in evaluating students’ learning performance, particularly as

formative assessment after completing each topic. The previous mentioned studies were

mostly done using quantitative and mixed method. Moreover, they were not happened

in Indonesian EFL contexts. Even though there was a study conducted by Andreani and

Ying (2019) that examined the use of a game namely PowPow to support the English

vocabulary learning in Indonesian elementary school, this study was done quantitatively

and it focused only on students’ enhancement on the vocabulary mastery. It did not

investigate the aspects of students’ engagement in the classroom.

Concerning the previous research aims and findings, more studies on the use of

gamified online quizzes and its impact on students’ learning engagement in the

classroom, especially in Indonesian EFL context is still worth doing. Therefore, this

research attempted to fill the gap by conducting such study in Indonesian EFL

secondary school, more specifically to investigate the use of gamified online quizzes

outside the classroom and students’ perceived engagement in the classroom by using

qualitative research method. Therefore, this study addressed the following research

questions:

1. How do students perceive the experience of using gamified online quizzes

outside the classroom?

Zainah, Z., & Putri, N.

102 p-ISSN 2614-5960, e-ISSN 2615-4137

2. How do students perceive their engagement by the use of gamified online

quizzes?

Methods

This research involved 69 students of twelfth grade of Senior High School in Gresik.

They have experienced using such gamified online quizzes (quizziz, wordwall) as

required by the teacher for about a year. The content of the online quizzes was made

based on the instructional materials and objectives that have been taught. In order to

address the research questions, qualitative research method was employed. The

instruments used were open-ended questionnaires and semi-structured interview. The

questionnaires were distributed to all students while the semi-structured interview was

conducted to 9 students to represent the total number of the students. Before gathering

the data, the participants were asked for their consents to be involved in the study and

they were also told that their identity would be kept confidential.

The interviews were conducted online using voice and video call over the application,

Whatsapp, as the agreement of both author and the participants of the study. The

interviews were conducted in the participants’ first language, Bahasa Indonesia, to

prevent the language barriers existed. The questionnaire items about the usefulness of

the gamified online quizzes were mainly adapted from Hilman (2012) and the interview

questions about students’ perceived engagement were adapted from Reeve & Tseng

(2011). The data from questionnaires and interviews were organized, selected, and

analyzed in order to meet the results.

Results and Discussion

Students’ Perceived Experience in Using Gamified Online Quizzes

Table 4.1. Students’ Perceived Experience of Gamified Online Quizzes

No. Category Frequency Percentage

1 Attractiveness 64 93%

2 Usefulness 67 97%

Research and Innovation in Language Learning 5(2) May 2022

p-ISSN 2614-5960, e-ISSN 2615-4137 103

The results from questionnaires showed that 93% students agreed that having gamified

online quizzes outside the classroom was pleasant. Some students said that such quizzes

could be a stress reliever after having a long day at school. In terms of usefulness, 97%

students said that such quizzes were helpful in a sense that it helped them being

prepared for the exams and gave them opportunities for recalling the materials given by

the teacher. As Student 1 said in the follow up interview, “By using that quiz, I gain

better understanding of what have been explained by my teacher in an attractive way.”

(Student 1). It was also explained by another student “It helps me to review the

materials so that they will stick longer in my brain.” (Student 3).

Even though the students had positive experiences in having the gamified online

quizzes, there were also obstacles that they might found. The most common problem

was the internet connection. “It is annoying when you are very serious in doing the

quiz, then the internet connection troubles suddenly.” (Student 2). Student 1 also

explained “We need to have the best signal since there will be an error happened to the

quiz server if the signal is not that strong.” (Student 1). Aside from the issue of internet

connection, several students mentioned the issue of duration. They felt that sometimes

the quiz duration was too fast so that they had limited time to give the correct answer.

Moreover, they also explained that there was no “undo” feature in the quiz so that they

could not edit the answer given, as Student 5 mentioned “Sometimes I am not sure

about the answer but the thing is I cannot undo or edit it.” (Student 5).

The experience of having gamified online quizzes outside the classroom was perceived

both positive and negative. The positive experiences were in terms of the attractiveness

and usefulness brought by the platform. Students enjoyed having the gamified online

quizzes since it gave them fun and different experience in understanding the given

materials, even acted as a stress reliever. It was also perceived as a helpful tool because

it helped the students to be prepared for the class as well as the exams. It was also

perceived as a promising tool to recall and to review the previous materials in the

classroom.

Zainah, Z., & Putri, N.

104 p-ISSN 2614-5960, e-ISSN 2615-4137

In terms of the usefulness brought by the gamified online quizzes, results of this study

supported the previous research by Sanchez et al., (2020) which found that students who

completed the gamified quizzes had significantly better scores on the tests. Similarly,

the attractiveness of the gamified online quizzes were previously highlighted by

Andreani and Ying (2019) which mentioned that such gamified online quizzes were

considered successful in attracting students' interest in learning English.

Students’ Perceived Engagement in Using Gamified Online Quizzes

Results from the semi-structured interviews showed that there were four kinds of

engagement appeared when students involved in the use of gamified online quizzes.

There were behavioral, emotional, cognitive, and agentic engagement. Behavioral

engagement refers to the students’ involvement seen from their attitudes or behavior.

The interview question related to the behavioral engagement was about their attitudes

when they did the quiz as well as when they had the feedback giving session from the

teacher.

There were various responses from the students such as “Of course. I listened to the

teacher carefully during the feedback giving.” (Student 2). It was also said “I pay

attention to the teachers while she gave us the feedback so that I can understand more.”

(Student 9). They showed that their behavioral engagement formed as an act of listening

to the teacher carefully. Meanwhile, student 3 perceived her engagement by asking

questions. She said “I usually ask some questions during the feedback session.”

(Student 3). Another form of behavioral engagement also mentioned by student 5 and

student 8. “I tried my best to answer every question in the quiz.” (Student 5). It was also

mentioned “Even though I do not really sure about the answer, I am still working on

it.” (Student 8). They showed that the effort for answering the quiz is also a form of

behavioral engagement.

The notion of emotional engagement in the use of gamified online quizzes could be

highlighted from several students. For instance, student 5 said “It is always fun to have

the quizzes after the teacher gave the materials.” (Student 5). Moreover, it was also said

“I am excited to have the quizzes after lesson.” (Student 2). Furthermore, student 8

Research and Innovation in Language Learning 5(2) May 2022

p-ISSN 2614-5960, e-ISSN 2615-4137 105

mentioned “Even if the materials are quite hard for me, it is always fun to do the quiz, it

is like challenging.” (Student 8). They showed that they were emotionally engaged by

expressing their excitement of having the quiz. Another student furtherly said “When it

comes to the end of the quiz, I feel curious about the correct answer” (Student 3). It

expressed the curiosity as her emotional engagement in doing the quiz.

The results of semi-structured interviews also found the notion of cognitive engagement

from the students in various form. For instance, student 1 mentioned “Well, I am able to

remember the materials from the quiz.” (Student 1). It was also said “Through the

discussion, we are able to solve the quiz problem.” (Student 6). Furthermore, Student 4

mentioned “I guess, I am improving my critical thinking skills since the quiz has

various type of questions.” (Student 4). They showed that they were cognitively

engaged in using the gamified online quizzes since they had their own learning

strategies.

Lastly, agentic engagement was also found in the interview process. Agentic

engagement is related to student’s constructive contribution into what they have

received. It can be seen in several forms. For instance, student 6 mentioned “Sometimes

I give suggestion to prevent the quiz to be boring.” (Student 6). Moreover, it was also

said “I expressed my feeling about what I liked and disliked from the quiz.” (Student 4).

Furthermore, student 8 explained “After the feedback given, I usually say what I need in

order to improve my learning progress.” (Student 8). They showed that their agentic

engagement formed in a way they told the teacher what they need for better learning

experience.

The interview results showed that students’ perceived engagement in using such

gamified online quizzes formed in four aspects of engagement proposed by Reeve and

Tseng (2011) namely behavioral, emotional, cognitive, and agentic engagement. They

showed their behavioral engagement by their efforts in doing the quizzes as well as their

participation in the feedback giving session. Moreover, their emotional engagement

could be seen from their excitement and curiosity of having the gamified online quizzes.

Furthermore, the cognitive engagement could be seen from the way the students formed

their own learning strategy as well as their recognition of their responsibility of their

Zainah, Z., & Putri, N.

106 p-ISSN 2614-5960, e-ISSN 2615-4137

learning. Lastly, agentic engagement was also found when they were constructively

giving opinion for making a better learning environment. The results were

contributively supported the previous finding by Zainuddin et al., (2020) who found that

applying games in the classroom could be a promising tool to engage their students in

learning process.

Conclusion & recommendation

This current study revealed that EFL secondary school students perceived the

experiences of using gamified online quizzes positively. They perceived such quizzes as

new, fun, and interesting way of gaining better understanding of class materials.

Moreover, they perceived such quizzes as helpful tools to prepare them for the exams as

well to recall the knowledge they had received in the classroom. Aside from the positive

experience, they had also some obstacles such as the internet connection and the

absence of edit feature for the answer. Students were also actively engaged in using the

gamified online quizzes. They were engaged in terms of behavior, emotional, cognitive,

and agentic. This research is limited in a sense that the results cannot be generalized to

all classroom situations. Moreover, the future research also encouraged to have the point

of view of the teachers as the one who prepared the gamified online quizzes in their

classroom. Furthermore, future research can also focus specifically on certain skills.

References

Andreani, W., & Ying, Y. (2019). “PowPow” interactive game in supporting English

vocabulary learning for elementary students. Procedia Computer Science, 157,

473–478. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2019.09.005

Campbell, A. A. (2016). Gamification in Higher Education : Not a Trivial Pursuit. St.

Thomas University.

Campillo-Ferrer, J. M., Miralles-Martínez, P., & Sánchez-Ibáñez, R. (2020).

Gamification in higher education: Impact on student motivation and the acquisition

of social and civic key competencies. Sustainability (Switzerland), 12(12).

https://doi.org/10.3390/SU12124822

Christenson, S. L., Wylie, C., & Reschly, A. L. (2012). Handbook of Research on

Student Engagement. In Handbook of Research on Student Engagement.

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-2018-7

Delacruz, G. C. (2011). Games as Formative Assessment Environments: Examining the

Impact of Explanations of Scoring and Incentives on Math Learning, Game

Performance, and Help Seeking. CRESST Report 796. National Center for

Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST).

Glover, I. (2013). Play as you learn: gamification as a technique for motivating learners.

Research and Innovation in Language Learning 5(2) May 2022

p-ISSN 2614-5960, e-ISSN 2615-4137 107

Edmedia+ Innovate Learning, 1999–2008.

Göksün, D. O., & Gürsoy, G. (2019). Comparing success and engagement in gamified

learning experiences via Kahoot and Quizizz. Computers and Education,

135(January), 15–29. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2019.02.015

Hassan, M. A., Habiba, U., Majeed, F., & Shoaib, M. (2021). Adaptive gamification in

e-learning based on students’ learning styles. Interactive Learning Environments,

29(4), 545–565. https://doi.org/10.1080/10494820.2019.1588745

Hillman, J. (2012). The Impact of Online Quizzes on Student Engagement and

Learning. In Introduction to Abnormal Psychology.

Huang, B., & Hew, K. (2018). Implementing a theory-driven gamification model in

higher education flipped courses: Effects on out-of-class activity completion and

quality of artifacts. Computers & Education, 125, 254–272.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2018.06.018

Huang, B., Hew, K. F., & Lo, C. K. (2019). Investigating the effects of gamification-

enhanced flipped learning on undergraduate students’ behavioral and cognitive

engagement. Interactive Learning Environments, 27(8), 1106–1126.

https://doi.org/10.1080/10494820.2018.1495653

Lee, J., & Hammer, J. (2011). Gamification in Education: What, How, Why Bother?

Academic Exchange Quarterly, 15, 1–5.

Lin, C. J., Hwang, G. J., Fu, Q. K., & Cao, Y. H. (2020). Facilitating EFL students’

English grammar learning performance and behaviors: A contextual gaming

approach. Computers and Education, 152(March), 103876.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2020.103876

Muntean, C. (2011). Raising engagement in e-learning through gamification. Proc. 6th

International Conference on Virtual Learning ICVL.

Nolan, J., & McBride, M. (2014). Beyond gamification: reconceptualizing game-based

learning in early childhood environments. Information Communication and

Society, 17(5), 594–608. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2013.808365

Poondej, C., & Lerdpornkulrat, T. (2020). Gamification in e-learning. Interactive

Technology and Smart Education, 17(1), 56–66. https://doi.org/10.1108/ITSE-06-

2019-0030

Reeve, J. (2013). How students create motivationally supportive learning environments

for themselves: The concept of agentic engagement. Journal of Educational

Psychology, 105(3), 579–595. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0032690

Reeve, J., & Shin, S. H. (2020). How teachers can support students’ agentic

engagement. Theory into Practice, 59(2), 150–161.

https://doi.org/10.1080/00405841.2019.1702451

Reeve, J., & Tseng, C.-M. (2011). Agency as a fourth aspect of students’ engagement

during learning activities. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 36(4), 257–267.

https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2011.05.002

Roosta, F., Taghiyareh, F., & Mosharraf, M. (2016). Personalization of gamification-

elements in an e-learning environment based on learners’ motivation. 2016 8th

International Symposium on Telecommunications (IST), 637–642.

https://doi.org/10.1109/ISTEL.2016.7881899

Sanchez, D. R., Langer, M., & Kaur, R. (2020). Gamification in the classroom:

Examining the impact of gamified quizzes on student learning. Computers and

Education, 144(August 2019), 103666.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2019.103666

Zainah, Z., & Putri, N.

108 p-ISSN 2614-5960, e-ISSN 2615-4137

Shute, V. (2011). Stealth Assessment in Computer-based Games to Support Learning.

Computer Games and Instruction, 55.

Skinner, E. A., Kindermann, T. A., & Furrer, C. J. (2009). A Motivational Perspective

on Engagement and Disaffection. Educational and Psychological Measurement,

69(3), 493–525. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013164408323233

Walker, C. O., Greene, B. A., & Mansell, R. A. (2006). Identification with academics,

intrinsic/extrinsic motivation, and self-efficacy as predictors of cognitive

engagement. Learning and Individual Differences, 16(1), 1–12.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2005.06.004

Watt, D. (2004). Consciousness, Emotional Self-Regulation and the Brain: Review

Article. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 11, 77–82.

Zainuddin, Z., Shujahat, M., Haruna, H., & Chu, S. K. W. (2020). The role of gamified

e-quizzes on student learning and engagement: An interactive gamification

solution for a formative assessment system. Computers and Education, 145,

103729. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2019.103729

Conflict of Interest

No potential conflict of interest was reported.

About authors

Zahrotuz Zainiah is a master student of Universitas Negeri Surabaya majoring

Language and Literature Education. She received her bachelor degree from the same

University in English education program. She is interested in researching classroom

assessment and teacher autonomy. She is currently doing her thesis proposal for

achieving the master degree.

https://orcid.org/ 0000-0002-2722-0287

Nanin Verina Widya Putri is postgraduate student of Universitas Negeri Surabaya,

Indonesia. Her research interests are EFL teaching, students’ self-regulated learning,

digital literacy, assessment literacy, and teacher feedback. She has translated academic

documents. Then, she currently focuses on her thesis examination.

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1607-1914