ON INFORMATICS

— This study aims to help students improve their knowledge capability based on their active participation through gamification. Gamification is one of the newer methods of education that has the potential to improve student learning. This research looked into gamification's efficacy in student engagement and learning retention during teaching and learning sessions for computer science or information technology courses. The assessment involved in this study is through Pre-Test and Post-Test through instructional intervention by adapting interactive Quizizz gamification e-learning web-based application. The flow of research works begins with a survey of the problem, pre-intervention analysis, and action was taken during the intervention, ending with the implementation and observation phase. The pre and post-analysis of test results and questionnaires were accomplished and discussed. Fifty-six respondents participate in this study. Results show that 87% of the respondents have increased their percentage of marks. In the pre-test result, 56% of the respondents achieved below the 55 marks, while in the post-test, it reduced to 14%. Adoption of other gamification applications, a larger target demographic, and the addition of computer science or information technology courses will help improve the study in the future.


I. INTRODUCTION
This study aims to help information technology students improve their acquiring knowledge based on their participation that will influence their assessment by adapting gamification as part of the learning tools. Gamification is one of the newer methods of education that has the potential to improve student learning. This research looked into gamification's efficacy in student engagement and learning retention during teaching and learning sessions [1], [2]. Although there are various challenges in the handling of gamification, and the response from students is quite unsatisfactory, the study by Sánchez-Mena and Martí-Parreño [3] has shown an improvement in students' mastery of knowledge.
The assessment involved in this study is through Pre-Test and post-test of instructional intervention by applying interactive gamification e-learning. One lecturer and all fiftysix students in the specified two sections of classes were directly involved in this research. The gamification used in this study is Quizizz [4]. Quizizz is a free gamification webbased application selected in this study [5]. The study of analyzing pre-tests and Post-Test will determine the outcome of this study. The research implementation process begins with a survey of the problem, pre-intervention analysis, action taken during the intervention, and ends with the implementation and observation phase.
Gamification is the use of game elements in non-design games [6]. Gamification is also considered a new tool in active learning to increase student engagement and interest, primarily improving knowledge retention [7]. In addition, the gamification approach can affect students' learning achievement and psychological and behavioral changes [8]. In education, gamification is not meant to build one new game or create custom applications but only by applying the gamification process to selected learning [9], [10]. Gamification has been shown to increase learning outcomes in the classroom by adopting features in various elements in digital format [11]. Recently, the elements that are often used in the development of gamification are as follows:

A. Points System
A Point system is used to collect points when the player successfully passes the level of the game provided [12]. Among the point systems used are earn and burn; earn allows students to accumulate points when a given assignment is submitted before the set date, and Burn will reduce the accumulation of points when students do not submit or submit beyond the set date.

B. Achievement Badge
A badge is a form of feedback and proof of student achievement. Implementation of granting badges needs to be wise and in a meaningful way to make students appreciated. Badges will be given to students after students complete some challenges that are met the criteria of the badges [13]. In online classrooms where gamification was integrated, the badges were given to students who had a certain number of logins, completed assignments, submitted assignments with no mistakes, had a certain amount of daily engagement, completed challenges, and were at the top of their class and platform [14].

C. Level of Development
The level of development is a progression level of skills and knowledge based on the player's mastery scale, for example, from easy to more difficult levels. This level of development can be displayed in progress bars, icons, or metaphors such as bronze, silver, gold, and platinum [15].

D. Quests or Challenge
A quest or challenge allows players to overcome obstacles in the game within a given time limit [16]. It aims to see if the player can overcome the obstacles and difficulties that have been set.

E. LeaderBoards
Leader Boards aim to make comparisons between players participating in the game [17]. Usually, the list of participants will be displayed in the list of players along with the scores owned and arranged according to the position of the players. A learning approach that uses this method of play rather than rendering the learning process is more interesting and interactive, and it also makes the activity that it was originally not a game as a formal and serious play activity [18]. This is supported by a study conducted by Karakoç et al. [19] that explains that gamification-based teaching practices positively impact achievement and students' attitudes toward lessons. Integrating gamification in education can also help overcome diversity problems [20]. Thus, the gamification approach can be defined as the element integration of games into learning methods to make learning sessions more interactive.

A. Research Focus and Objectives
This study involved 56 respondents that registered for Web Application courses for Semester 1 in the 2020/2021 academic session. The Web Application course is offered by the Computer Science and Information Technology Faculty at Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia. This study will focus on teaching and learning strategies used to address the issue of students not being interested in Web Application courses. Various efforts were made to stimulate students' interest. This is the most important initiative that will encourage students to study with full diligence and, in turn, will trigger an improvement in students' performance in their quizzes, tests, and final examination. Preliminary findings show that students cannot focus consistently when the lecturer delivers the teaching and learning process. Thus, this study is to evaluate the extent to which the strategies used to have an impact on overcoming the problem of students not being interested, not having fun, not having a high desire to work, and being passive during teaching and learning.
The research aims to improve students' assessment results through intervention strategies by engaging interactive elearning web applications and mobile applications such as Quizizz. In order to achieve the research's aim, the following objectives need to be aligned and followed:  To analyze students' outcomes before adapting instructional intervention.  To apply user-friendly interactive e-learning web applications for students to compete positively through gamification concepts [25] and competition during class sessions.  To analyze students' ability to interact and respond appropriately in actual assessment.  To compare students' outcomes after adapting instructional intervention.

B. Reflection on the Previous Teaching and Learning Process
Throughout the learning and teaching process, the instructor often asks questions to ensure students understand the lesson's content during class hours. However, some students said that they are not feeling excited about learning Web Applications. They want more than what is described as the usual traditional one-way or two-way communication routine in a traditional classroom environment [21]. They are hungry for teaching and learning that is more fun, cheerful and competitive [22]. In addition, students cannot remember the important facts that have been presented [11], [23]. Students' feedback in random situations typically approximates such as "I am not interested," "I want more fun during class hour", "I cannot focus for a long time," and "I quickly get bored". Those replies from students are very worrying because the Web Application course also requires students to remember important facts to answer questions in tests and examinations. After delving into the students' problems, it is indicated that they also could not focus consistently while the instructor was lecturing. Diversity in the teaching and learning approach is very important to help them gain interest and fun while studying this course [24].

C. Research Materials and Methodology
This section will outline the research process, beginning with the target group, research methodologies, and data collecting.

1) Target
Group: This study involved 56 students/respondents who registered for Web Application courses for Semester 1 in the 2020/2021 academic session, as depicted in Fig. 1 and 2. They consisted of 30 female respondents and 26 male respondents. Web Application course is offered at Computer Science and Information Technology Faculty at Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia.  2) Survey of the problem: This conducted study is to identify respondents' level of interest through pre-tests and post-tests. Respondents need to answer fifteen questions on e-Learning in Web Applications and Learning Management systems. These questions are used as a Pre-Test and Post-Test. The test is given after the completion of the teaching process. The pre-test is given to the respondents in advance to determine their level of memorizing the newly delivered lesson content. Then, students will participate in a quiz competition using interactive e-learning web applications such as Quizizz. In the next class, they were tested with a Post-Test where the same question was used on the previous Pre-Test. The results can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of this gamification approach on the respondents. Apart from that, questionnaires were provided to find out the perceptions and effects of this approach on the level of memory and the way of learning of the respondents.

3) Pre-Intervention Analysis:
The results of the findings through the pre-test are depicted in Table 1. About 56% of the students get marks less than 55. This test shows that the respondents could not fully remember the facts, even though the lesson had just been learned. From a total number of 15 questions, respondents were only able to remember only half of them. This explains that students lack focus during class, and the class environment is not helping them. .  Evaluate the effectiveness of this quiz game to students through questionnaires distributed to students. The instruments used in the production of the findings of this study are pre-test and post-test questions as well as questionnaires.

5) Implementation of Actions and Observations:
The Quizizz gamification was presented to the respondents after testing them with a Pre-Test. The description of how to play the quiz to the respondents is explained clearly by the instructor. Respondents must answer the quiz questions provided on the selected topic of e-Learning in Web Application and Learning Management systems. Part of the 10 questions from the mentioned topic is depicted in Fig. 3

Fig. 3 Quiz questions
The attributes of the interactive e-Learning using a gamification approach with Quizizz in this study are as follows:  Lively interactive. Students are given the opportunity to manage their own answers on their laptops, handheld devices, smartphones, or tablets. Questions are displayed on the screen while students choose the answer on the screen of their digital devices. The highest score grid is within first to fifth place. Students, who answer the fastest and most accurate of the answer choices, will be in the top ranking. Obviously, they will race to answer correctly and try to be the fastest. The participant's view is depicted in Fig. 4.  Questions are easy to build. Quizizz also gives the freedom for instructors to set the number of questions, the number of answers, the period for answering, and the variety of forms of question presentation such as text, image, and video with various settings [26].  Questions can be emailed to respective students' email addresses. This is also a benefit for instructors since there is no need to store information externally or in the storage of a computer. Teachers can also organize according to the topics in a particular format to make it easier to use in the future.  Quizzes are available online. It can be accessed anywhere as long as there is internet access.  Suitable for use in any phase of the teaching and learning process. The interactive online quiz is suitable for use during any part of the teaching and learning session at the set induction stage, reinforcement, review, discussion examination questions, or many others, according to the instructors' creativity.
 The Gamification form of Quizizz is fun. Competition elements based on the efficiency and speed of answering questions make students feel very excited and have fun during the activity.  Rewards, appreciation, and praise for achievement to the students are displayed upon completion of a quiz. Fig. 5 shows the example of reward and recognition.

6) Reflection:
Throughout the implementation of this quiz game, students are more excited, fun, and motivated to answer quiz questions because there is healthy competition among them. In addition, students have also used their senses in answering the quiz questions. Students can focus in class, quickly respond, and answer questions accurately.

III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
The analysis of the results and the findings of the study is presented in this section. The comparison is made between pre-tests, and Post-Test were analyzed to identify the significance of the study.

A. Test Results
The effectiveness of this quiz game can be seen from the post-test findings. If a comparison is made between pre-test and Post-Test, there has been a significant increase in terms of respondents' scores. Table 2 shows the results for pre and post test. 49 respondents (87%) have increased in terms of their percentage of marks, 6 respondents have decreased in marks, and 1 respondent did not make any changes. In the Pre-Test result, 56% of the respondents get marks below 55% (refer to Table 1, surprisingly, in the post-test, it reduces to 14%. The percentage difference is 18% for respondents that decreased in their post-test. This is alarming, and further activities such as focus groups and refining instructional intervention procedures are essential. Table 3 displays the descriptive statistical analysis, such as mode, median and average, between pre and post Test. Finally, Fig. 6 represents the distribution of Pre and Post Test. From the analysis of the result, conclusively, assessment of tests is increased, and it is a strong indication that applying interactive gamification elearning gained a significant advantage in the teaching and learning process

B. Analysis of Questionnaire
Through the questionnaire completed by the respondents, as shown in Table 4, most of them alleged that online quizzes' use positively affects their teaching and learning strategies. It is especially the learning environment to be cheerful and fun. It is very gratifying that the respondents have benefited from the interactive online learning approach. The result of the questionnaire survey shows the excitement and determination of the respondents to answer the questions and see for themselves the results they obtained. The increase in their marks is correspondingly significant compared to this approach once they participate in the learning process using the online quiz. This has proved that fun while learning is very important to remembering the facts of lesson content. In addition, healthy competition among students to win first place in this quiz competition also requires speed of action. Respondents also responded positively to continue using this online quiz in the future. Among the responses were "Yes, because it is very effective and fun." and "Yes, need to continue to use this teaching and learning strategy in the future to improve the performance of my subject further." In general, this method gave respondents an interesting and effective way to improve their memory of the facts in this course. Although not all respondents can achieve a good level, this strategy gives them space and opportunity to study in a cheerful, fun way and create a feeling of excitement about the course content itself. Consequently, they can improve their performance in the subject and other subjects.

IV. CONCLUSION
This study aims to help students improve their knowledge capability based on active participation through a gamification approach. The assessment involved in this study is through pre-test and post-test, where instructional intervention by adapting interactive gamification e-learning. Fifty-six respondents participate in this study. The four objectives of this action research are achieved based on the reflection of the research output. 87% of the respondents have increased their percentage of marks. In the pre-test result, 56% of the respondents get marks below 55%. Remarkably in post-test, it reduces to 14%. It can be concluded that this strategy helped to provide respondents with an interesting and successful way to enhance their memory of the facts in this course. Although not all respondents can achieve a high standard, this approach gives them ample space and opportunity to learn in a fun, cheerful mode and build a sense of enthusiasm about the content of the course itself. Consequently, in the subject and other subjects as well, they may enhance their results. The future study enhancement can be done by adopting other gamification applications, a large target group size, and adding computer science or information technology courses.