MILAGE LEARN+: Motivation and Grade Benefits in Computer Science University Students

This innovative practice full paper describes an experience of using MILAGE LEARN+ with Computer Science university students. Students motivation when in an academic setting is a very important aspect of how well they will learn the material provided. Many computer science students own smart phones, tablets, and computers in order to complete their work and study. Here we introduce MILAGE LEARN+ to fourth year computer science university students. MILAGE LEARN+ is a mobile educational application where students take quizzes, watch videos, and do assignments in worksheet format. This application integrates the gamification pedagogy with the usage of difficulty levels, a leader board, as well as self and peer-review in order to benefit students' motivation, autonomy, and their grades. While MILAGE LEARN+ has been used in many European countries with a variety of age groups and fields of study there has been no research done on how American students connect with the application. In this study we are examining how university students in computer science react to the usage of this application. MILAGE LEARN+ was integrated into a 400-level computer science course at a Research 1, land-grant university, for the usage of quiz taking. We have focused on usage of the leader board, peer-review, and self-review to answer the following questions: How does MILAGE LEARN+ affect students' motivation? Does it benefit their grades? And is it an overall positive experience for our students? Participation in this study was entirely voluntary and those who chose not to participate were given an alternative assignment using Canvas quizzes. The study was reviewed and approved by the IRB committee of our University. There were 38 students participating in this study. All of these students are majoring in computer science or engineering equivalent course. Students had four weeks to take a series of ten quizzes. These quizzes covered content covered in class and were worth ten points on each quiz. Most of the quizzes had five questions worth two points each with a select few having ten questions worth one point each. The quizzes contained a variety of answering styles including: multiple choice, true/false, and free response through the keyboard. We compared these quizzes to an exam on Canvas LMS. The Canvas exam had all of the same questions as provided in the MILAGE LEARN+ quizzes. These response styles were also a mix of multiple choice, true/false, and free response through the keyboard. Student users later evaluated the application and quizzes through electronic survey. The survey included 15 questions, 12 of which were answers based on the Likert-type scale. MILAGE LEARN+ was shown to have a higher percentage of students get a question correct on the quizzes in comparison to those using the Canvas learning management system. Though, MILAGE LEARN+ students were also shown to have issues with the application. While there were some limitations with our study, our results were statistically significant and shown that MILAGE LEARN+ does in fact boost students' grades, even if they encounter difficulties with using the application.