EthoshuntTM, A Gamification-based Mobile Application For Teaching And Learning Of Ethics Education | FACULTY OF EDUCATIONAL STUDIES
» NEWS » EthoshuntTM, a gamification-based mobile application for teaching and learning of ethics education

EthoshuntTM, a gamification-based mobile application for teaching and learning of ethics education

By: Azman Zakaria

Photo: Nor Azreen Awang

 

SERDANG: Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) researchers have succeeded in developing EthoshuntTM, a gamification-based mobile application for teaching and learning of ethics education.

EthoshuntTM is designed and developed through the understanding of game elements from the traditional treasure hunt concept to foster more meaningful ethics education teaching and learning environment.

EthoshuntTM incorporates a few game elements such as game dynamics, game mechanics, and points and hints to encourage fun learning of ethics education.

The research team leader, Dr. Noor Syamilah Zakaria, mentioned that the game mechanics integrated in EthoshuntTM triggers information exploration relevant to the course being taught, and it essentially involves the element of competition as in the game dynamics of EthoshuntTM.

She said that EthoshuntTM functions as a motivational driver in providing technology-mediated learning to enhance teaching and learning activities.

She mentioned that such innovation is highly needed in the teaching and learning of ethics education because there is a perception that the ethics education course, among other courses, is difficult, less attractive to students, and has a broad range of abstract topics needed to be mastered by students, and yet there is no specific teaching methods that can help to stimulate students’ interest to continue learning the subject.

She further added that EthoshuntTM is developed to complement conservative teaching and learning methods in disseminating knowledge, as well as to ensure the adaptability of knowledge among students in real-life situations.

 

 

Dr. Noor Syamilah, who is also Senior Lecturer at the Department of Counsellor Education and Counselling Psychology, Faculty of Educational Studies, said that EthoshuntTM can be applied in the teaching and learning of ethics education by having the course instructor sending hints that are relevant to the course contents through an Android application, where hints will be automatically received via messages, while notifications will also be displayed on the smartphone screens of each student.

She mentioned that the hints could be divided into two types of activities. The first is to search for hidden information in the virtual world which requires each student to look for sources from the internet such as stories, links, movies, notes, quotes, images or sounds. Another type of activity is to search for hidden information in real world which requires each student to look for physical clues that are related to the topics discussed.

She further added that each student would then submit the answers for each activity to the course instructor and points would be given for each correct answer.

She summarised that EthoshuntTM will be able to create opportunity for each student to take part in a more persuasive and effective ethics education teaching and learning process. 

“Through the teaching and learning process that uses such innovation, it is hoped that students will be able to develop their comprehension and competence, and reflect meaningfully the experience gained and the observations made during the meaningful information search process while participating in EthoshuntTM.

“For course instructors, it is hoped that EthoshuntTM will be able to build interest and passion to teach ethics education more creatively, and will be able to help diversify the delivery methods of course contents in a more innovative way,” she remarked.

Besides Dr. Noor Syamilah, other research team members are Professor Dr. M. Iqbal Saripan, Professor Dr. Alyani Ismail and Ms. Neerushah Subarimaniam.

The innovation won gold medal at the International Counselling Innovation Showcase & Competition 2019 (i-COUNNOVAS 2019) - UPM.

 

Date of Input: 23/09/2019 | Updated: 23/09/2019 | asyrafamin

MEDIA SHARING

FACULTY OF EDUCATIONAL STUDIES
Universiti Putra Malaysia
43400 UPM Serdang
Selangor Darul Ehsan
0397698210
-
SXDdJAk~