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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC & TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH VOLUME 9, ISSUE 04, APRIL 2020 ISSN 2277-8616
994
IJSTR©2020
www.ijstr.org
Online Game-Based Formative Assessment:
Distant Learners Post Graduate Students‟
Challenges Towards Quizizz
M Mohamad, Fatin Kamilia Mohd Arif, Bity Salwana Alias, Melor Md Yunus
Abstract: Gamification in education provides a new pathway for learners to be more engaged in their learning journey. „Quizizz‟ is an online game that is
used by educators for academic purposes. It allows educators to conduct self-paced online formative assessments in a fun and engaging manner. This
study is a quantitative study undertaken to explore the perception of 91 distant post graduate students towards „Quizizz‟. Most of these post graduate
students are English teachers serving at elementary schools, secondary schools and tertiary institutions. In this article, despite the students‟ perceptions
towards „Quizizz‟ which generally are positive, however, the challenges to the learning process are also prominent. The questionnaire consists of 20 items.
The data were analyzed descriptively (frequency and percentage) using SPSS version 25. Most of the respondents agreed that „Quizizz‟ is able to provide
a platform which promotes positive reinforcement, motivation and immediate feedback when their marks are being displayed on the leaderboard. It is
hoped that the findings could provide some insights to educators in employing „Quizizz‟ as their formative assessments.
Index Terms: distant learners, motivation, online games, post graduate students.
—————————— ——————————
1. INTRODUTION
THE, term „gamification‟ is generally used to denote the
application of game mechanisms in non-gaming environments
for instance in academic environment [1]. In educational context,
gamification can be applied at all levels namely elementary,
secondary and higher education. The growing popularity of
gamification is due to the widespread belief on its potential to
foster motivation, behavioral changes, healthy competition and
collaboration Dichev and Dicheva [2]. From traditional lecture
halls where most of the teaching and learning activities are
conducted in a teacher-centered approach, learners are now
experiencing a more dynamic, student-centered learning
environment with gamification being increasingly adopted as
one of the instructional strategies [3]. Gamification is one
method that has been linked to increased enjoyment and
engagement [4], [5], [6]. They further added that in most
classrooms, when students are highly motivated, their
engagement increases, leading to desirable learning behaviors
and knowledge enhancement. Gamification is a potential tool to
enhance participation of students in classroom, as it allows them
to use the fun elements of gamified learning to enrich their
imagination and thinking skills [7]. Proponents of gamification
claim that gamification leads to positive learning outcomes.
They asserted that gamification reinforces important skills in
education, such as problemsolving, collaboration, and
communication. Furthermore, the need for interaction among
the group members in gamification encourages students to play
an active role in their own learning process. In the context of
post graduate distant learners in higher institutions, most of the
students are working adults with a range of age from 20 years
old up to 60 years old. Hence, they have very limited time to go
through their notes and do extensive reading for their classes
[8]. They stated that the challenge that underlies within this
problem is that it resulted them in having low retention power to
concentrate as well as increasing their anxiety level as they are
not fully prepared for their classes. Since there are many
studies which indicate the positive aspects of online games, the
researchers employed an online game namely „Quizizz‟ in their
post graduate class. Thus, a study should be carried out to
evaluate its effectiveness. Therefore, the researchers
conducted this study in order to identify the students‟
perceptions towards „Quizziz‟ and its challenges.
2 LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Theoretical Background
2.1.1 Connectivism Theory
Ryan and Powelson [9] stated that students are most likely
interested and engaged in learning characterized by autonomy
and purpose. They further claimed that students are more likely
to be highly motivated if they have the autonomy in determining
their own learning and, when they feel connected to and
supported by other students. In this context, the social
interaction and online communities are the important
components of gamification are relevant to distant learners
especially they are geographical far from each other. Many
distant learners dropped out from the program because they did
not have social support and feel so detached from their
classmates since they seldom met via face to face [8]. The
proponents of connectivism theory provides more information
about learning that takes place in the digital age with regards to
learners‟ connection with the content and others in the
community. They also proposed that students prefer to learn
and work in a networked environment [10]. As a result, the
students continually and actively acquire new knowledge within
the learning community. This enable them to become
autonomous and independent in building their own knowledge
[3]. Gamification also incorporates connectivism approach in
gamification through the elements of competition and
collaboration with other members of the learning community
[11]. Leaderboards, guilds, groups, and other collaboration
strategies in games could bring together such communities to
promote a sense of interrelated purpose [12], [13].
2.1.2 Gamification
Gamification refers to the use of game characteristics and
elements (such as points, leaderboards, levels, challenges and
badges) in non-game contexts [1], [14]. According to Hamari et
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC & TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH VOLUME 9, ISSUE 04, APRIL 2020 ISSN 2277-8616
995
IJSTR©2020
www.ijstr.org
al. [4], gamification is the act of creating gamified experiences
while Werbach [15] described gamification as the process of
making activities more game-like. Gamification is increasingly
gaining popularity as an effective way to deliver learning
contents to digital native students [3]. Gamification has been
adopted in classroom context to support learning in a variety of
contexts and subject areas to help educators address students‟
attitudes and behaviors, such as participation, collaboration,
self-guided study and creativity [16], [17]. Gamification has also
been used by educators as students‟ assignments and
assessments, while encouraging their exploratory approaches
to learning, and classroom retention. This is because the game
elements would engage learners and change their behavior in
a desirable way similar to what happens in games [18], [19].
There are four game elements that are deemed salient to tertiary
education namely: narrative, challenge, progression and
feedback [20]. Narrative involves the use of stories to engage
students in learning, such as a case study; the use of a task that
is both challenging and fun; progression refers to the flow of
learning activities (tasks) while feedback is the use of frequent
and prompt responses that encourage students to learn [21].
These elements are important to motivate students to be more
engaged in the learning activities [22].
2.1.3 Anxiety
According to Emanuel [23], anxiety refers to the response
against unrecognized factor, either in the environment or in the
self. Anxiety is characterized by tension, worried thoughts and
physical symptoms, such as sweating, trembling, dizziness or a
rapid heartbeat [24]. Kazdin [24] further elaborated that severe
anxiety impairs one‟s daily function and decreased work
productivity of individuals. In addition, he further added that in
regards to learning, anxiety could reduce students‟ motivation
and concentration on a range of tasks including reading, writing,
listening and speaking. It blocks students‟ normal thinking
process and interfere with their memory, attention, and
concentration. Such blocks could lead to poor understanding,
loss of self-confidence and resulted in poor results. Anxious
students are often lack of confidence and fail to engage actively
with the learning materials, thus, fail to internalize concepts
successfully. Anxiety is also associated with a general sense of
incompetence. In the long run, eventually, the insecurity builds
upon itself leading the students to feel demotivated to proceed
with their learning
[25], [26].
2.1.4 Motivation
Gamification turns a course content into a „game‟ with activities
that resemble learning environment. These activities
incorporate elements such as repeated self-learning, ongoing
interaction and feedback which are aimed to increase learning
interest and motivation of students [27]. The game format
provides students with interesting choices, desirable goals,
immediate feedback and opportunities to see and evaluate their
improvement [28]. These features are usually available in
gamification. Motivation is an important factor that resulted in
continued learning [3]. Students could be motivated to engage
in learning tasks to the extent that they feel they could be
successful at certain skills or knowledge and to the extent they
perceive that the task as being important to them. Apparently,
the students would be able to choose and engage themselves
in appropriate learning task(s) according to their capabilities.
Games are generally difficult to beat at the first time of playing,
thus, students need to try playing it repeatedly to discover the
rule set and mechanics [3]. It is common for student users to be
highly motivated in trying to accomplish a particular level of the
game in order to move to the next level. Similarly, students may
show the same sense of motivation in completing their task(s)
when the learning content is mapped with game design as they
strive to progress from one level of difficulty to another [20]. In
this context, gamification may not only help to enhance
students‟ motivation, but also their perseverance. It is important
to ensure that students are motivated to learn. This is because
motivated students are more enthusiastic about learning and
they truly enjoy the learning process with high determination to
succeed [29]. Besides that, the motivational strength of games
has led to the increasing use of gamification for learning [30].
Other scholars, Malone and Lepper [31] had reported the
essential features that make learning intrinsically motivating for
students. These features are challenge, fantasy, curiosity and
control. Advantageously, these features are present in games,
leading to strong belief that gamification could increase
students‟ motivation. Apart from that, students often find
incentives such as stars, points, leader-boards, badges, and
trophies which are common in games as enjoyable and
interesting [32], [33]. Thus, when these incentives are found in
gamification, it is expected that students would be equally
interested in pursuing the gamified learning content
3 METHODOLOGY
3.1 Setting
The respondents for this study comprised of 91 post graduate
students who enrolled in a distant learning course,
„Psycholinguistics & Language Teaching‟. Most of them teach
English as their first degree is Teaching English as a Second
Language. Their age range is from 26 to 50 years old. These
Masters of Teaching English as a Second Language students
are English teachers who serve at primary schools, secondary
schools and tertiary institutions. Most of them possess a degree
in Teaching English as a Second Language. This course is
offered within 14 weeks or one semester by the Faculty of
Education in a public university in Malaysia. These students only
came to the main campus during the one-week school holiday
as they live all over throughout Malaysia. Normally, the lessons
are taught into two modes namely via face to face and online.
Therefore, the course lecturer only met the students via face to
face twice in a semester or only 32 hours. The online lessons
were carried out in at least 10 hours. Ten topics were taught via
face to face (during the school holidays) and other topics are
delivered via online (when the students are at home). One of the
evaluations is online quiz via Quizziz. Online quiz contributes to
30 percent of the total percentage of evaluations. The online
quiz covered only 6 topics. For all the quizzes, the students were
given 3 minutes to answer each question. There are 5 questions
per topic. They could refer to the notes and discuss with their
friends to answer each question. In this study, since the course
lecturer was aware about the students‟ anxiety level in
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC & TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH VOLUME 9, ISSUE 04, APRIL 2020 ISSN 2277-8616
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IJSTR©2020
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answering quiz questions, she used a few strategies to reduce
the students‟ affective level. The students were given two
modes of answering the „Quizizz‟ questions: (a) the students
were instructed to answer the questions immediately after the
face to face lessons (b) the students were instructed to answer
the „Quizizz‟ questions at home as homework. If the online
quizzes were given as homework, they were given two weeks to
complete each quiz. In the context of „Quizizz‟, the „homework‟
feature allows students to set a particular task as homework,
and keep it active for up to two weeks. They were asked to read
some notes which were uploaded in a learning management
system designed by the university. Besides reading, they were
expected to watch a few videos in which the links were given in
the same learning management system. After they have read
and watched the video on a certain topic within two weeks, they
were assigned to answer „Quizizz‟ questions to ensure that the
students do their reading at home and to serve as a yardstick of
the students‟ comprehension of the topic.
3.2 Research Instruments
The undertaken study was conducted using quantitative
approach. Quantitative instrument such as questionnaire allows
easier compilation of respondents‟ responses in the form of
numerical scores along a continuum that are assigned to their
different perceptions [34]. The research instrument is a
questionnaire that consists of 32 items. The items were
constructed based on the themes derived from the interview
responses of the previous cohort. The questionnaire used four
Likert scale ranging from (1) strongly agree (2) agree (3)
disagree (4) strongly disagree. The items were given to two
experts to be reviewed for validity purposes, namely two
academic members; each from the Centre of Innovation in
Teaching and Learning, UKM and Centre of Educational
Evaluation, UKM. The expert from the Centre of Educational
Evaluation, UKM was selected to validate the items due to
his/her expertise in item development while the expert from
Centre of Innovation in Teaching and Learning, UKM was
selected due to his/her familiarity with the constructs studied in
this research. The experts validated the items in terms of the
content and face value. A pilot study was carried out to
determine the reliability of the items. Based on the pilot study,
the Cronbach Alpha value for each item is above 0.7, thus, all
the items are accepted. The questionnaire was disseminated to
all the students (96 respondents) during the second meeting
when they had completed all the online game assessments.
However, only 91 of them returned the questionnaire to the
researchers. The data collected from these respondents were
analyzed descriptively (frequency, percentage, mean and
standard deviation) using SPSS version 25.
1 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
This study was conducted to find the answer to the following
research questions:
1. What are the perceptions of „Quizizz‟ among distant
post graduate students?
1 .2 The challenges of ‘Quizziz’
2. What are the challenges of
„Quizizz‟ among distant post graduate students?
4.1 Perception on Quizizz among Distant Post Graduate
Students
The table (Table 1) below shows that the almost all students
perceived „Quizziz‟ as a positive learning tool and experience.
TABLE 1
Item
Statement
Strongly
Disagree
Disagree
Agree
Strongly
agree
1
I enjoy the
positive
reinforcement
given in
0
(0.0) 2
(2.2) 40
(44.0)
49
(53.8)
„Quizizz‟. I feel
a sense of
competition
when my marks 1| 4| 25 61
2
are being (1.1) (4.4) (27.5) (67.0)
displayed on the leaderboard.
I like the usage 0 7 47 37
3
of leaderboard (0.0) (7.7) (51.6) (40.7)
I like the usage 1 1 52 37
4
of Avatar (1.1) (1.1) (57.1) (40.7)
I enjoy the
4 9 51 27
5 music (4.4) (9.9) (56.0) (29.7) background
The interface is 0 1 54 36
6
user friendly (0.0) (1.1) (59.3) (39.6)
I prefer the
12 55 17 7
7 leaderboard be (13.2) (60.4) (18.7) (7.7)
discarded I prefer the teacher to
discuss the 3 16 43 29
8
questions many (3.3) (17.6) (47.3) (31.9)
of us are weak at.
In regards to benefits of gamification in terms of providing
positive reinforcement, motivation and immediate feedback, the
highest score (Item 2) was obtained by item „I feel a sense of
competition went my marks are being displayed on the
leaderboard‟. Almost all the students (97.8%) agreed (Item 1)
that they enjoy the positive reinforcement given in „Quizizz‟.
Many of them agreed that they had a sense of competition when
their marks were being displayed on the leaderboard (Item 2);
liked the usage of leaderboard (Item 3); liked the usage of Avatar
(Item 4); enjoyed the music background (Item 5); felt that the
interface is user friendly (Item 6) and preferred the teacher to
discuss the questions which many of them were weak at (Item
Although majority of the students demonstrated positive
perceptions towards the use of „Quizizz‟, they still faced some
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC & TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH VOLUME 9, ISSUE 04, APRIL 2020 ISSN 2277-8616
997
IJSTR©2020
www.ijstr.org
8). According to Göksün et al. [35], „Kahoot‟ and „Quizizz‟ lead
to competitive learning environment. The entertaining, and fun
competitions contribute to better concentration among students
in a classroom. The colorful interface, avatars and music
features which are commonly found in gamification provide
students a similar experience as a game does. After the
students answered each comprehension question, „Quizizz‟
would show pictures with memes to tell whether the answer is
right or wrong. Funny pictures pop up with phrases like “good
job” if the answer is correct [14]. These features serve as a
positive reinforcement to students, besides entertaining them
during the learning process [36]. The respondents in this study
only showed their moderate agreement on whether leaderboard
should be discarded from „Quizizz‟ (Item 7). This is in line to the
findings by Basuki and Hidayati [17] who reported that
respondents in their study were satisfied and liked and the
leaderboard feature of gamification. Leaderboard is one of the
special characteristics of „Quizizz‟ which shows the
performance level and students‟ achievement. Students could
see their live ranking among other users [14]. This helps to
motivate them besides creating a healthy competition among
their classmates. Leaderboard creates the social pressure for
students to increase their engagement and consequently have
a constructive effect on participation and learning [37].
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC & TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH VOLUME 9, ISSUE 04, APRIL 2020 ISSN 2277-8616
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IJSTR©2020
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challenges along the way, such as learning anxiety and
generation gap in using the gamification technology. As one size
does not fit all, application of „Quizizz‟ among students from
varying background may result in plethora of challenges that
needs to be addressed accordingly.
4.2.1 High Anxiety Levels
One of the most common problems faced by distance
postgraduate students is the high level of anxiety in learning.
This could be possibly due to the limited time that they usually
spend for studying as a result of other life commitments. They
often lack of motivation, self-esteem and confidence in
performing their learning tasks because of the anxiety and other
negative emotions, and this becomes a major challenge in
distance learning. In this context, „Quizizz‟ is believed to be
capable of reducing such anxiety and undesirable attitudes
towards learning. The table (Table 2) below shows how
„Quizizz‟ may help to address anxiety among the distance
postgraduate students.
TABLE 2
Item
Statement
Strongly
Disagree
Disagree
Agree
Strongly
agree
1
I can organize
my thoughts
better by using
„Quizizz‟ to
learn in the
classroom.
0
(0.0) 3
(3.3) 64
(70.3)
24
(26.4)
2
I learn about the
topic though
short quizzes
given in the
„Quizizz‟.
0
(0.0) 2
(2.2) 51
(56.0)
38
(41.8)
3
I can
understand a
particular topic
easily with the
use of
„Quizizz‟.
0
(0.0) 5
(5.5) 53
(58.2)
33
(36.3)
4
I prefer
TrueFalse
questions than
multiple choice
questions.
3
(3.3) 39
(42.9) 38
(41.8)
11
(12.1)
5
I thinks the class
is too noisy
when playing
„Quizizz‟.
18
(19.8) 59
(64.8) 13
(14.3)
1
(1.1)
6
I feel high
anxiety when
the
leaderboardark
s is displayed.
0
(0.0) 1
(1.1) 42
(46.2)
48
(52.7)
7
I find that the
backgorund
music is too
noisy.
20
(22.0) 50
(54.9) 14
(15.4)
7
(7.7)
8
I prefer
„Quizizz‟ as a
homework than
in class activity.
7
(7.7) 32
(35.2) 34
(37.4)
18
(19.8)
9
I tend to think
fast when I
attempt to
answer
„Quizizz‟
questions.
1
(1.1) 7
(7.7) 40
(44.0)
43
(47.3)
10
I could not think
16
50
22
3
properly when (17.6) (54.9) (24.2) (3.3)
playing
„Quizizz‟.
I think I am too
nervous when 2 36 39 14
11 answering the (2.2) (39.6) (42.9) (15.4)
questions.
The findings show that 70.3% students agreed that they could
organize their thoughts better with „Quizizz‟ (Item 1); 56%
agreed that they learn about a topic through short quizzes in
„Quizizz‟ (Item 2); 58.2% agreed that they understood a topic
easily with „Quizizz‟ (Item 3); and 91.3% agreed that they could
think fast while using „Quizizz‟ (Item 9). In general, gamification
helps to lower students‟ tension and anxiety towards language
learning [38] as it increases positive emotions and enhance self-
confidence of students in language classrooms by making the
learning process more attractive to learners. Poor motivation
that result from high anxiety among students may adversely
affect their learning process. According to Lo and Hew [39],
traditional strategies alone cannot provide a solution to this
problem. Hence, gamification has been recommended as one
of the tools to improve students‟ motivation. Aşıksoy and
Sorakin [40] reported that „Quizizz‟ is effective for increasing
learning outcomes and decreasing anxiety among students,
while Zainuddin et al. [41] attributed enhanced learning
performance of students to the fun and entertaining. features of
„Quizizz‟. According to Zainuddin et al. [41], enjoyable learning
experience provided by „Quizizz‟ has a positive impact on
students‟ engagement and motivation in classroom; it increases
their enthusiasm and excitement in learning which subsequently
leads to better academic performance. These positive feelings
are considered as the emotional engagement of students
towards learning. Thus, based on the findings of this study, it is
believed that the issue of learning anxiety among the distance
postgraduate students could be effectively solved by improving
their emotional engagement with „Quizizz‟. On the other hand,
64.8% students disagreed that the class is too noisy when using
„Quizizz‟ (Item 5); 54.9% disagreed that background music is
too noisy (Item 7) and 54.9% disagreed that they could not think
properly when using „Quizizz‟ (Item 10). As such, it could be
concluded that the distance postgraduate students in this study
did not perceive the use of „Quizizz‟ as a source of distraction
to their learning. Noise and other forms of distractions may affect
the attention level, working memory and reasoning of students
during learning process. For students who are suffering from
learning anxiety, distractions could easily aggravate their
condition as it becomes more difficult for them to focus and
retain the learned content. Nevertheless, the findings of this
study have indicated otherwise, suggesting the potential of
using „Quizizz‟ as a convenient tool to support learning of
distance postgraduate students. On using „Quizizz‟ as
homework rather than as classroom activity (Item 8), it was
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC & TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH VOLUME 9, ISSUE 04, APRIL 2020 ISSN 2277-8616
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IJSTR©2020
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shown that 37.4% students agreed while 35.2% disagreed.
Similarly, on preference for True-False questions over multiple
choice questions (Item 4), 41.8% students agreed while 42.9%
disagreed. These may be due to individual differences in
learning among the distance postgraduate students.
Nevertheless, the possibilities of using „Quizizz‟ as either
classroom activity or homework provide greater flexibility to
students pursuing distance education. This is because students
may complete the quizzes at their own pace, at anytime and
from anywhere, rather than racing against time to do so in the
classroom. This would encourage them to be independent
learners. For the type of questions, both multiple-choice and
True-False options in „Quizizz‟ are good for helping students
recall facts and prepare for conventional tests, although may not
be adequate to stimulate deeper levels of thinking [42]. Besides,
the findings of this study also showed that 98.9% students
agreed that they feel high anxiety when leaderboard is displayed
(Item 6), despite only 42.9% of them agreed that they feel too
nervous answering questions in „Quizizz‟. These indicate that
students were still highly anxious about their ranking in the
leaderboard, although they did not feel nervous about answering
the quizzes. Leaderboard showed the score of all participants,
and this could make some students uncomfortable due to their
lower rankings. They may also feel pressured to achieve better
positions on the leaderboard. However, educators have the
option for not displaying the leaderboard of „Quizizz‟ to prevent
students from seeing each other‟s ranking. In regards to this
study, the educators may have to opt for not displaying the
leaderboard to reduce anxiety among the distance postgraduate
students.
4.2.2 Generation Gap
Distance postgraduate students are commonly comprised of
multiple age groups, which also means that they are from the
different generations. The current Generation Z and Millennials
are generally regarded as more competent users of technology
as compared to those from the preceding generations,
especially the Baby Boomers and Generation X. As such,
students from the older age groups often face difficulties in
embracing new technologies and tools in education. Apparently,
this had been identified as a challenge in using „Quizizz‟ for
distance postgraduate students. The table (Table 3) below
shows how distance postgraduate students perceive generation
gap in using „Quizizz‟.
TABLE 3
Item Statement
Strongly
Disagree
Disagree
Agree
Strongly
agree
I discover a lot of others
useful
1 information and
knowledge while
using „Quizizz‟.
0
(0.0) 7
(7.7) 48
(52.7)
36
(39.6)
I could pay more
attention while using 2
„Quizizz‟ as compared
to normal lessons.
0
(0.0) 9
(9.9) 33
(36.3)
49
(53.8)
3 I find that „Quizizz‟ is
user friendly.
0
(0.0)
1
(1.1)
38
(41.8)
52
(57.1)
I find that it is easy for
me to understand the
4 instructions in the
„Quizizz‟.
0
(0.0) 1
(1.1) 35
(38.5)
55
(60.4)
I find that the colors
5 are attractive.
0
(0.0)
2
(2.2)
26
(28.6)
63
(69.2)
I find that the prompt
responses help me to
6 dicover my error
instantly.
0
(0.0) 1
(1.1) 46
(50.5)
44
(48.4)
My retention power is
longer when I need to
7 answer „Quizizz‟
quenstions.
0
(0.0) 5
(5.5) 65
(71.4)
21
(23.1)
I feel bored using
8
„Quizizz‟.
49
(53.8)
40
(44.0)
2
(2.2)
0
(0.0)
9 I think it is a childish
54
36
1
0
activity. (59.3) (39.6) (1.1) (0.0) I prefer pen paper 20 53 14 4
10
quiz. (22.0) (58.2) (15.4) (4.4)
Findings showed that 52.7% students agreed that they
discovered a lot of others useful information and knowledge
while using „Quizizz‟ (Item 1); 53.8% strongly agreed that they
could pay more attention while using „Quizizz‟ as compared to
normal lesson (Item 2); 57.1% strongly agreed that „Quizizz‟ is
user-friendly (Item 3); 60.4% strongly agreed that it is easy for
them to understand the instructions in „Quizizz‟ (Item 4); 69.2%
strongly agreed that the colors used in Quizizz are attractive
(Item 5); 98.9% agreed that the prompt responses helped them
to dicover their error instantly (Item 6); and 71.4% agreed that
their retention power is longer with „Quizizz‟ (Item 7). On the
other hand, 53.8% students strongly disagreed that they feel
bored using „Quizizz‟ (Item 8); 59.3% disagreed that „Quizizz‟
is a childish activity (Item 9); and 58.2% disagreed that they
preferred pen paper quiz over „Quizizz‟ (Item 10). These data
suggest that „Quizizz‟ is an age-appropriate and interesting
online quiz application that can enhance learning among the
distance postgraduate students from the different age groups.
The structure and settings of „Quizizz‟, including the fun
elements allow educators to conduct student-paced formative
assessments in a fun and engaging way. „Quizizz‟ uses bright
colors, music, avatars, live leaderboard and funny memes to
create an energetic, fun-filled learning atmosphere for students
of many age groups, regardless of their digital competency.
„Quizizz‟ is also user-friendly and capable of providing enjoyable
learning experience to students at different stages of lessons.
As such, generation gap may not be a challenge in using
„Quizizz‟ as a learning tool among distance postgraduate
students in this study.
4.2.3 Allows to Copy Each Other
Another challenge in using „Quizizz‟ as a formative assessment
is that, it may allow students to copy each other. Thus, the
scores obtained might not represent the actual achievement of
the students. The table (Table 4) below shows how distance
postgraduate students perceive this particular challenge in using
„Quizizz‟.
TABLE 4
Item
Statement
Strongly
Disagree
Disagree
Agree
Strongly
agree
1
I tend to discuss with
the person/close to
me when answering
the questions.
5
(5.5) 19
(20.9) 46
(50.5)
21
(23.1)
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC & TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH VOLUME 9, ISSUE 04, APRIL 2020 ISSN 2277-8616
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2
l prefer to be given
the opportunity to
refer to my notes
when answering the
questions.
1
(1.1) 8
(8.8) 35
(38.5)
47
(51.6)
3
I think it allows my
classmates to copy
each other.
8
(8.8)
44
(48.4)
35
(38.5)
4
(4.4)
Findings of the study showed that 50.5% students agreed that
they tend to discuss with the otherd when answering questions
in „Quizizz‟ (Item 1) and 51.6% strongly agreed that they prefer
to be given the opportunity to refer to notes when answering the
questions (Item 2). These indicate that the distance
postgraduate students prefer to involve in collaborative learning
rather than learning independently. On the other hand, 48.4%
disagreed while 38.5% agreed that „Quizizz‟ allow classmates
to copy each other (Item 3). Nevertheless, Quizizz offers
different question and game settings. According to Anamalai
and Mohamad Yatim [43], it is possible for educators to jumble
the questions and answers in „Quizizz‟. By doing this, students
sitting next to each other may not have the same question at the
same time, thus, preventing them from copying each other.
Therefore, „Quizizz‟ could be implemented with minimum
chances for students to discuss with or copy each other.
5 CONCLUSION
The undertaken study successfully explored distance
postgraduate students‟ perception on „Quizizz‟ and the
challenges in using „Quizizz‟ as a formative assessment.
Findings revealed that the students perceived „Quizizz‟
positively especially in enhancing their motivation to learn. The
study also presented three main challenges in using „Quizizz‟
including high anxiety level, generation gap and possibility of
copying each other. The data show that „Quizizz‟ reduced
learning anxiety among the distance postgraduate students; and
it is suitable as online quiz application which can be used by the
distance postgraduate students from different age groups. The
educator should jumble up the questions and answers in order
to prevent the distance postgraduate students from copying
each other. As such, „Quizizz‟ could be effectively used as a
learning tool among distance postgraduate students.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
We would like to extend our gratitude to Universiti Kebangsaan
Malaysia for allowing us to carry out this research work and to
all the students involved. The publication for this article was
also made possible by the financial assistance given by the
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia GG
2019-08 FPEN-2019
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