Games in the classroom? Analysis of their effects on financial accounting marks in higher education

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine Kahoot! in higher education, specifically in subjects of financial accounting, and explore if its use means higher marks. We analyze the marks of 232 students of Financial Accounting of the Business and Management Degree of the University of Murcia (Spain). The sample comprises two groups of students, depending on whether or not games are used in the classroom, and the marks of the continuous assessment exercises, the final exam, and the final mark in the subject are compared to check if there are differences between groups. This means that we finally analyze a database of 794 marks. The results indicate that students who played get better academic results than those who did not use Kahoot! The current pandemic situation has changed the way of teaching and at university, it is mainly virtual, which can make teaching and learning more tedious and less motivating. For this reason, the use of gamification can be easily implemented in order to avoid all these inconveniences and positively affect the students’ marks.