Just opt in: How choosing to engage with technology impacts business students’ academic performance

Highlights

• Behavioral engagement helps to explain academic success.

• Regardless of prior learning, behavioural engagement helps to predict success.

• More than just cognitive intelligence is needed when learning business subjects at university.

Abstract

This study examines and compares the effect of gamification, in the form of a mobile application (app) ‘Quitch’, on the behavioral engagement and academic performance of business students in two first-year courses in accounting (n = 500) and management (n = 469). Both courses are compulsory; however, prior to the gamification intervention, student engagement was varied. The results indicate that 169 (33.58%) accounting and 135 (28.5%) management students actively used Quitch. The results show that behavioral engagement explains a large proportion of the variation around academic success, even when controlling for students’ prior learning at high school. This study not only adds to the growing literature on gamification and engagement in business education, but also provides robust evidence for researchers arguing for more emphasis on the non-cognitive aspects of learning.

Introduction

There is an increasing focus on retention and success in higher education that has prompted educators to consider the integration of technology into university teaching environments in a bid to enhance student engagement (Bharucha, 2017, Luthans et al., 2016, Olelewe et al., 2019). Aptly, much of this emphasis on retention translates to academic and non-academic interventions in first year classrooms and other introductory learning environments. Indeed, student engagement¹ has long been recognized as a challenge facing first-year students, as the transition to university life can be difficult (Berger and Milem, 1999, Pascarella et al., 1986, Tinto, 1987, Upcraft et al., 2004). Often, it is non-academic interventions that influence a student’s chances of success and retention beyond their first year of study (Chemers, Hu, & Garcia, 2001). Therefore, faced with this challenge, higher education professionals are using technology increasingly in a bid to increase student engagement (Chen et al., 2010, Kearsley and Shneiderman, 1998).

With the growing confluence of technology and higher education practice, gamification is becoming increasingly popular in higher education learning environments (Clark and Barbour, 2015, Kapp, 2012, Overland, 2017), but also within business studies more specifically (Jakubowski, 2014, Poole et al., 2014, Reiners and Wood, 2015). Indeed, there is growing evidence that the effective use of technology in blended learning initiatives, such as gamification, can influence student retention (Olelewe et al., 2019) and combat low levels of student engagement (Arbaugh, 2000, Bharucha, 2017, Luthans et al., 2016). Specifically, students respond well to gamification designs (that is, using game-based principles when designing non-game activities), enjoyed being able to earn badges, and reported a strong desire to use the technology (Denny, 2013).

However, the nature of the technology is changing, and while researchers have undertaken considerable exploration of the efficacy of computer-aided learning tools more generally, the corpus has suffered from a dearth of research that focuses on mobile apps specifically (used, for example, on smartphones). In addition, and anecdotally, our own observations of students in the introductory level compulsory courses in Accounting, as well as in Management, at a New Zealand university suggested that student engagement levels were low. Therefore, to empirically diagnose and solve this issue, we undertook this study with the aim to compare the efficacy of gamification, delivered via a mobile app, Quitch,² as a tool to enhance student engagement and academic performance (grades) in two first-year, compulsory,³ business higher education courses.⁴ We used a range of learning activities, and a mobile gamification app, to send out quizzes and short surveys to students in both courses – in Accounting, and in Management – throughout the semester. To interpret our results, we combine flow theory (Shernoff, Csikszentmihalyi, Schneider, & Shernoff, 2014) as conceptual underpinning with technology as an engagement tool, using a model of engagement (van der Meer, Scott, & Pratt, 2018). Thus, this paper answers the call for further research on the influence of mobile app and gamification technologies on student retention (Pechenkina, Laurence, Oates, Eldridge, & Hunter, 2017) and examines this important phenomenon within a business school setting.

This research is important to capture and understand what is happening in universities where educators are increasingly turning to technology to enhance engagement. The business school where this study takes place is part of a sizable and reputable New Zealand university. The university is regionally unique as there is a large proportion of domestic students with a high proportion of first-year students living on campus in residential colleges⁵ (Quick Stats, nd). In 2017, there were approximately 18,200 equivalent full-time students (EFTS) enrolled at the university, and 91.2% of those students were domestic. Of the students enrolled, 2900 (approximately) were business students. Only 14% of students across the university come from the local area; most of the student population are New Zealanders from outside of the local area (Quick Stats, nd). Given the large number of students who live away from home, the university is an interesting context in which to study student engagement and academic success away from strong influencing factors such as parents and other familial motivators.

We structure the remainder of this paper as follows. Section 2 presents an overview of the relevant literature. We outline our methods in Section 3, and present our results in Section 4. We discuss the results, implications for both theory and practice, limitations and ideas for future research within Section 5.