Promoting Student Thinking and Engagement Through Question-Based and Gamified Learning

Student engagement and enrichment are key factors as learners have shifted from the traditional classroom to the virtual classroom when a flexible learning environment has been in place. It has posed a challenge for educators to shift from traditional educational methods to the utilization of technology-enhanced learning all the more since online and flexible mode were often used since the pandemic. This paper intends to convey that students may exhibit engagement inside the virtual classroom by posting student-generated questions during a discussion forum in the Canvas LMS as question-based inquiries. More so, students have enjoyed and increase their academic performance by playing and participating in a gamified learning activity. This research discussed an activity in encouraging students' learning, curiosity, and involvement in online learning environments. The authors aim for this objective by fusing the 1) utilization of student-generated questions in the goal of promoting learning and thinking, and 2) boosting student engagement through the use of gamified activities which increases students’ academic performance. These intentions will be realized in the virtual classroom implementation and its assessment. Employing the Canvas New Analytics, 148 first year-second semester students questioned their teacher about a course topic and as their questions were each replied to, they were graded through discussion post with an average grade of 99% for all sections. The game Jeopardy was played as an examination review session for the same sections and 181 students from the four sections have an average grade score of 77.5% in their midterm examination. A course learning objective item is also measured with a university target that at least 60% of students should reach an average grade score of 80% and above. For the CLO target, average of four sections reached 68.3% which is descriptively attained. Generating questioned-based inquiry in the forum discussion showed an increase in engagement and enrichment from students. The findings have a positive impact on them as their posted inquiries and questions gained them grades which indicated high average grade for each section. Utilizing a gamified learning activity in a pure online setting for the school year 2021-2022, allowing the students to participate in educational games is necessary to boost engagement and enrichment as well.