International Journal of Computing Sciences Research (ISSN print: 2546-0552; ISSN online: 2546-115X)
Vol. 4, No. 1, pp. 288-303
doi: 10.25147/ijcsr.2017.001.1.40
https://stepacademic.net
University Licensure Examination Reviewer for Teacher: A
Framework for Developing Gamified Examination
Mervin Jommel T. De Jesus
College of Computer Studies, Laguna State Polytechnic University
[email protected] Francis F. Balahadia
College of Computer Studies, Laguna State Polytechnic University
[email protected]
Date received: March 30, 2020
Date received in revised form: April 11, 2020; April 29, 2020
Date accepted: April 29, 2020
Recommended citation:
De Jesus, M. J. T. & Balahadia, F. F. (2020). University licensure examination
reviewer for teacher: A framework for developing gamified examination.
International Journal of Computing Sciences Research, 4(1), 288-303. doi:
10.25147/ijcsr.2017.001.1.40.
Abstract
Purpose – The study aims to develop a framework that can be used in gamifying the LET
reviewer and determine the necessary gamification elements to be used and identify the
area of improvement of the students based on their assessment in the system.
Method – The researchers will use the descriptive research in order to accomplish the
study and as for the development of the system, the researchers will apply the Iterative
and Incremental Model Methodology.
Results – Based on the literature, gamification is an effective technique in which necessary
game elements should be implemented, namely: points, levels, leaderboards, points, and
feedback with the game design. Through gamification, the framework was developed to
apply in the creation of a gamified examination for teachers.
Conclusion – As the results of different studies, gamification is a good approach to make a
positive change in students’ behavior and attitude towards learning that helps improves
students’ motivation and engagement.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the
original work is properly credited.
Recommendations – Develop a gamified application that can cater to the needs of the
students, must be used by the College of Teacher Education every Pre-LET examination in
all campuses of the university to assess the student performance to determine possible
intervention to assist the student’s need.
Research Implications – The integration of new educational technique helps to progress
the learners, so it is upright to introduce the developed framework and system that might
help to increase positive impact on the passing rate of the university.
Keywords – gamification, licensure examination, reviewer, descriptive analytics, predictive
analytics, prescriptive analytics.
INTRODUCTION
Education is important to humans. As mentioned by (cite1) a well-educated
community leads the country to a higher economy. This will open doors for more and
better opportunities. The way to get there is by learning and knowing about something,
and it is not only what they get from school or textbooks but also from what they are
continuously experiencing (different events and scenarios) can teach something (cite2). It
is challenging for educators to provide quality education. An educator is a person who
teaches students to be academically equipped. Future educators rely on their professors.
With this, future educators must be prepared to provide quality education.
In the Philippines, one must complete a four-year course to earn a degree in
Education. After that, the graduate shall pass the licensure examination for teachers in
order to practice the profession in public schools. Universities and colleges use different
strategies and techniques to prepare their students for the licensure examination. Some
of them are conducting an in-house review. Attending sessions in a review center is also
an option.
However, in-house reviews and sessions in a review center are using the traditional
method of teaching wherein the attendees need to listen to their reviewers. Afterward,
they will be answering the assessment to know if they are ready enough to take the
licensure examination for teachers. It is also their guide in order for them to know what
area they need to focus on. Licensure Examination for Teachers (LET) is a nationwide
qualifying examination for all aspiring teachers. It is being administered every September
and March of the year. In preparation for this, LET takers are making measures by having
a review on their own or they will go to a review center.
According to Tan (2016), the College of Teacher Education in Laguna State Polytechnic
University (LSPU) Los Baños Campus is having an intervention program that they are
conducting a review for those first takers that will get the examination. As a result, there
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was an increasing passing rate. It can be concluded that the review sessions are
important. The intervention program of the college is setting up sessions. However, they
are conducting it the traditional way of teaching. There is a table of specifications for the
topics to be discussed in a certain period. For example, there are two topics to be
discussed for a certain week. The college will invite respective resource speakers for each
of the topics. Different resource persons are expected to share their knowledge in the
duration of the intervention program. After the discussion, there will be an assessment
regarding the review.
However, in the past three years (March 2017 – September 2019), the passing rate of
LSPU in elementary is lower than 30% and in secondary is lower than 40%. This also
indicates that repeaters are the factors for the decline of almost 20%. It can be said that
there is a need to improve the intervention program. Educational gamification can be
considered in improving the performance of the students.
Educational gamification improves learning experiences, engaging the students in a
social, emotional, and cognitive level (cite3) . According to (cite4) , gamification is an
effective approach to make a positive change in students’ behavior and attitude towards
learning, to improve their motivation and engagement. The use of gamification could
provide a partial solution to the decline in learners’ motivation and engagement the
schooling system is facing today (cite5). (cite6) stated that gamification-based teaching
practices have a positive impact on student achievement and students' attitudes toward
lessons.
The study aims to develop a framework that can be used in gamifying the LET
reviewer. In order for this to be successful, the researchers will identify the necessary
gamification elements to be used and identify the area of improvement of the students
based on their assessment in the system. The researchers will use the descriptive and
developmental research in order to accomplish the study.
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
With an ever rapidly changing world everyone must cope with it. Education is a
process where a person will be educated using informal education (change, experiences)
and formal education (cite7) . It is a long-term development of humans and used it to
earn more to cope with the change. (cite8) In the Philippines, influenced by different
regimes, an educational system composed of basic education (6 years), secondary
education (6 years), and tertiary education (4 years) where the people of the Philippines
have the free access to public school education (Valenzuela, 2010; Durban & Catalan, 2012;
Republic Act No. 10533; Republic Act No. 6655; Republic Act No. 10931; Manno, 2012).
The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) governs implementing rules in higher
education and responsible for releasing the policies, standards, and guidelines. It includes
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education courses such as Bachelor of Elementary Education, Bachelor of Technology
and Livelihood Education, and Bachelor of Secondary Education. In line with this, the
Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) managed the examination for future teachers
so that they can teach in public schools. The Licensure Examination for Teachers covers
three examinations: general education, professional education, and field of specialization.
(Republic Act No. 7722; Republic Act No. 7836; PRC Board, 2020).
Laguna State Polytechnic University is a state university that offers Bachelor of
Secondary Education (BSEd) and Bachelor of Elementary Education (BEEd) programs. In
the past three years (March 2017 to September 2019) the university performance in the
board exam in the BSEd program was 31.47% passing and the BEEd program was 29.10%
passing. The results were based on the official released by PRC. It is notably seen that
repeaters have a great effect on the decrease in the university's performance. Laguna
State Polytechnic University comprises of four campuses: Sta. Cruz (Main), Siniloan
(Host), San Pablo, and Los Baños. Among the four campuses, Siniloan Campus performed
the lowest for the first-timers for the BSEd program and third to the lowest for the BEEd
program. In terms of repeaters, Siniloan campus performed the lowest for the repeaters
for the BEEd program and second to the lowest for the BSEd program, which made
Siniloan campus ranked second in the BSEd Program and BEEd program ranked second to
the lowest.
The intervention program is needed to improve in the area that the students had a
struggle with (Lee, n.d.). The intervention program of the College of Teacher Education
has a lecturer for a specific topic. There is a lecture that has different review materials
that are in conjunction with the Table of Specifications as stipulated in the respective
areas of disciplines and clusters. And as a result, there was an increasing passing rate.
(Tan, 2016).
The review was conducted traditionally. Gamification is a process integrating game
elements and game thinking to other activities that are not classified as games.
Additionally, elements of game design, game mechanics and strategic theory if used, will
motivate the user of the gamified application. By gamification, it can increase the ability
of the user to learn new skills by 40% and enhances the user experience and engagement
(cite2; cite3; cite4; cite8; cite9;) .
Gamification in education is a rapidly growing phenomenon since it has a positive
impact on the achievement and attitudes of the students towards the subject (cite10) . In
the study of (cite11) it was notably seen that the students who use the gamified
application have higher scores than those who did not. And to accomplish a gamified
application few game elements are considered. Game elements in education include
points, levels, leaderboards, points, and feedback with the game design: game
mechanics, visually aesthetic design, narrative design, incentive system, musical score,
and content and skills (cite2; cite3; cite4; ).
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Most important is the content of the gamified application, in this case, is the LET
Reviewer. Applying the necessary techniques will be necessary.
Descriptive analytics provide trending information on past or current events using
business intelligence and data mining and summarizes it to give understandable reports
that can be used in decision support (Bayrak, 2015; Strickland, 2015; Ertemel, 2015; Daniel,
2015; Milliken, 2014). Predictive analytics transforms big data into usable and meaningful
information and predicts the future outcomes that can be used by the decision-makers.
(Abbott, 2014; Gandomi & Haider, 2015; Siegel, 2013). It was agreed by Strickland (2015)
and added that a predictive model is a relationship between a unit in a sample and one or
more features or attributes of the unit. As per the idea of Daniel (2015), decision-makers
can have better decisions and actionable insights based on the prediction. Combining the
descriptive and predictive model, prescriptive analytics gives the best action to take of
the forecasted event using different techniques. (Basu, 2013; Ertemel, 2015; Strickland
2015; Daniel, 2015).
Table 1. Related Application in LET Review
Points
Design Visual Aesthetic
Levels
Feedback
Leaderboards
Skills Content and
Narrative Design
Game Mechanics
Musical Score
Criteria
Let Reviewer: Professional
Education
LET Reviewer | ProfEd GenEd
Reviewer
LET Reviewer 2020
LET Reviewer – Licensure
Exam for Teachers
LET Reviewer 2019
LET Reviewer: General &
Professional
Licensure Exam LET
LET Intensive Reviewer
LET Reviewer
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The proposed system will be a gamified application for the LET Reviewer. It will aim to
increase the passing rate of LSPU. The following game elements that will be applied are
based on the readings: points, leaderboards, levels, feedbacks with game mechanics,
visually aesthetic design, narrative design, and content and skills. Using necessary
techniques like descriptive analytics, predictive analytics, and prescriptive analytics, the
gamified application will provide the area or skills the user needs to improve.
Table 1 shows the comparison between the different applications in Google PlayStore
and the proposed application. The table shows the different game elements that a
gamified application has. The different game elements were based on the readings of the
researchers that can be found on the previous pages. It can be seen that there is a lack of
game elements on different applications. The common element in the application is the
content and skills, they have the content of possible questions that the takers might
encounter in the examination. The LET Intensive Reviewer application has the community
of educators where they can share questions that they had encountered in the time that
they have taken the examination. With this, the proposed system will cater to all the
game elements and some of the key features of the application that will make it different
from other applications.
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
With the help of different pieces of literature, the researchers come up with the
conceptual framework shown in Figure 1. Through the years the Philippines’ educational
system is evolving. Educators are challenged on how to cope with the trend. Laguna
State Polytechnic University is creating future educators. However, the passing rate of
the said university was less than forty percent (40%). In line with this, the university is
conducting a review as an intervention program. The researchers come up with gamifying
the review of the university. It can be said that through the literature, gamification is
helpful for the learning of the students. The right gamification elements should be
considered.
According to Mekler et al. (2013), the commonly employed game design elements are
points, leaderboards, and levels. As accepted by Al-Azawi et al. in 2016, the most used
elements in gamified applications are feedback, leaderboards, points, and levels. Plass et
al. (2015) added game mechanics, visually aesthetic design, narrative design, incentive
system, musical score, and content and skills. Considering the aforementioned elements,
the researchers come up to apply: points, leaderboards, levels, feedbacks with the
appropriate game mechanics, visually aesthetic design, narrative design, and content and
skills.
As mentioned by IBM (2013), descriptive analytics uncover the events and the cause of
failures. In which the researchers come up to use the descriptive analytics in knowing
what area the student fails. Additionally, those patterns can be used in decision support.
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(Milliken, 2014). Based on the study by Gandomi and Haider (2015), predictive analytics
can be used to predict future outcomes. In which it can be used in predicting what will be
the possible outcome of the student in taking the LET. And the prescriptive analytics will
help the system in generating the best action that students should do (Basu, 2013).
Figure 1. Conceptual Framework of Licensure Review Gamified Application.
Combing the above mentioned, the researchers come up with a system that will
generate the best action that a student could do through a gamified application. The
researchers will divide the system structure into four modules, namely administrator,
program coordinator, student, and passer. Each of the modules is related to one another.
The Administrator module will be responsible for the user account creation, including
what type of user it is.
The Program Coordinator module has four sub-modules: scheduling of review, area of
improvement, task, and students’ progress. This part of the system will be used by the
program coordinator of the college. They will be responsible for setting the schedule for
the review. The Area of Improvement sub-module will be based on the results of analytics
from the student module. Additionally, it will show what the reviewers need to focus on.
The Task sub-module will be responsible for adding the questionnaires (categorized). The
Students’ Progress sub-module will show the list of the students and how they are
progressing using the system.
The Student module is divided into five sub-modules namely newsfeed, schedule,
quest, task, and leaderboard. The Newsfeed sub-module is part of the system where the
student can share their thoughts and can view the question and sharing of thoughts of
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the LET passer. From the schedule that is set through the program coordinator module,
the student will be notified if there will be a schedule of review. The Quest sub-module will
show what they need to accomplish. It is also related to the leveling system of the game.
The maximum level that the user can get will be the Passer wherein they can access the
Passer module. Task sub-module will be the assessment part where the analytics will work
and provide results to the program coordinator. The Leaderboard sub-module will show
the top students based on the quest sub-module.
Lastly, the Passer module can only be accessed by the user who completed the quest.
The passer can share some thoughts and questions they have encountered using the
examination. The passer can also be invited to the intervention program to share some
insights or to be a reviewer.
Since there is an assessment after the review, that will be the input. The takers will
have their assessment using the gamified application and the gamification elements
stated above will be used in the gamification process of the proposed system. It will be
applied in showing and answering of questions, where, they will earn points, account-
level up, and will see who is running in the leaderboard.
The contributing factors are the classification of the question (e.g., area, skills) that
will be used in the system. It will be identified after the thorough interview and study with
the help of the faculty in the College of Teacher Education in LSPU. Using the result (in
the gamified application) that will be saved on the system’s database and the
contributing factors, descriptive analytics will determine the result of the assessment of
the taker. With the previous result, the predictive analysis will calculate the chances in
the area that the taker will most probably fail. Using prescriptive analysis will give the
prescribed action to the taker what he or she needs to focus on. Additionally, the
application will provide to the program coordinator the area of improvements that they
should consider for the next sessions.
PROPOSED METHODOLOGY
This chapter contains the methods and procedures that will be performed in the
gathering of data in the proposed framework. It presents the methods of research to be
used, the instruments in the gathering of data, sampling technique in evaluating of
system and software development model.
Research Design
The researchers will use two research design called descriptive research and
developmental research. Descriptive research describes a phenomenon and its
characteristics. It is also a tool for data collection method (Nassaji, 2015). It will be used in
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the study to analyze the current phenomenon of the students in the College of Teacher
Education. Developmental research used the analyzed data to design and develop a
system to solve a particular problem. According to Blumberg and Fisch (2013),
developmental research has the potential to contribute to effective educational game
design.
Population of the Study
The target respondents and users of the proposed system will be the graduating
students of the College of Teacher Education at Laguna State Polytechnic University –
Siniloan (Host) Campus as presented in Table 2. Currently, the total population of the
students is thirty-two (32) in BSEd programs for the School Year 2019-2020. The students
will test and evaluate the system. There are also two (2) undergraduate program
coordinators.
Table 2. Population of the graduating students in CTE
Criteria Frequency Percentage
BSEd – Math 10 29.41%
BSEd – Filipino 6 17.65%
BSEd – English 10 29.41%
BSEd – MAPEH 6 17.65%
Program Coordinators 2 5.88%
TOTAL 34 100%
Sampling Design
The researchers will be using Stratified Sampling. The population will be divided per
major. The researchers will get a sample from Math, Filipino, English, and MAPEH. This
will also be used in testing and evaluation procedures once the proposed system will be
developed.
Data Collection Instrument
The researchers will be using various techniques to gather important data for the
study. Here are the lists of the data collection methods that will be using:
Interview
The researchers will visit the College of Teacher Education at Laguna State
Polytechnic University – Siniloan (Host) Campus to gather necessary information
regarding the status of pre-board review and the graduating students of the college. The
researchers will also get sample questionnaires to the Dean, Program Coordinator and
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other faculty included in the pre-board examination of the BSEd so that it will serve as the
basis in the creation of the system.
Internet Research
Internet research is one of the sources of information that the developer will use. The
researchers will gather different useful facts that are available on the internet specifically
the gamification elements, assessment techniques and practices in developing the system
of examination reviewers for teachers. The researchers will use different sources such as
google books, google scholar and different e-books in the study.
Library Research
Library research will be a big help for the researchers to gather facts and information that
could help with the creation of the system as well as the study. The researchers will
collect any written materials such as books and theses to gain bases, proofs for the study,
as well as available modifications that the researchers could apply to the system.
Statistical Treatment
Table 3 shows the Likert scale that will be used in interpreting the result of the
evaluation of the system.
Table 3. Likert Scale for Acceptability of the System
Scale Range Descriptive Rating
5 4.21-5.00 Acceptable
4 3.41-4.20 Slightly Acceptable
3 2.61-3.40 Undecided
2 1.81-2.60 Slightly Unacceptable
1 1.00-1.80 Unacceptable
Project Design
In developing the system, the software development model called the iterative and
incremental model will be applied as illustrated in Figure 2. The system will be divided into
different modules. The different modules will be combined all together to form a
complete system.
Once the system is done, it will be tested and evaluated. Different testing and
evaluation procedures will be used. The following are the discussion of the procedures
that will be done which includes the development, testing, and evaluation procedure:
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Software Development Model
Figure 2. Iterative and Incremental Model of Development.
Initial Planning
The developer will research the topic. The researchers will also conduct a consultation
with instructors that have a relative background in information technology and also in
education. Also, the researchers will ask some experts that have a specialization in the
field. With this, the researchers will have an initial idea of what to do on the proposed
system.
Planning
In this phase, the researchers will plan for the whole duration of the study. The
researchers will also outline the topic. The timeline or Gantt chart will be made by the
researchers in this phase.
Requirements
In this phase of the methodology, the researchers will now organize the idea of the
proposed system. With the use of the data that will be gathered by the researchers, the
developer will come up with the right techniques that will be used and how to use it. In
this phase, the researchers have the concrete idea of the proposed system.
Analysis and Design
In this part, the researchers will analyze the organized data and how it will solve the
problem presented in the earlier part. The researchers will start to conceptualize the
design of the proposed system. Appropriate algorithm and techniques to be used in the
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system will be studied. In this phase, the researchers will have the design of the system
that will be used in the next phase.
Implementation
In this phase, the developers will now start in creating the system. The concept made
in the previous section will be applied. It includes gamification and analytics to be
integrated as part of the system elements to assess the student’s performance.
Testing and Evaluation
The researchers will test the system. Students, program coordinators and IT experts
will evaluate the system. The testing and evaluation phase of the system will be further
discussed in the next section.
Deployment
The system will be deployed and will be used in the review of the College of Teacher
Education.
Testing and Evaluation Procedure
Testing Procedure
A series of testing will be conducted. The testing includes functionality, accuracy, and
portability of the system. Using test cases, it will check the functional requirements of the
system if working. The accuracy testing will be checking if the results of the application
are accurate. And, the portability testing will be testing the application in different
smartphones if it is working.
Evaluation Procedure
Students, program coordinators, and IT experts will evaluate the system. Students
and program coordinators will evaluate the usability and acceptability of the system. IT
experts will evaluate the system using the Functional Suitability and Usability of the ISO
25010.
CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORKS
Educational gamification improves learning experiences, engaging the students in a
social, emotional, and cognitive level. The use of gamification could provide a partial
solution to the decline in learners’ motivation and engagement the schooling system is
facing today. The integration of new educational technique like gamification it can help to
299
progress the learners, so it is upright to introduce the developed framework that consists
of the system which has gamified application for the LET Reviewer. It will aim to increase
the passing rate of LSPU. The following game elements that will be applied are based on
the readings: points, leaderboards, levels, feedbacks with game mechanics, visually
aesthetic design, narrative design, and content and skills. The gamified application will
provide the area or skills the user needs to improve.
As results of different studies, gamification is an effective approach to make a positive
change in students’ behavior and attitude towards learning, to improve their motivation
and engagement. Developing a gamified application can cater to the needs of the
students who will take licensure examination and must be used by the College of Teacher
Education every Pre-LET examination in all campuses of the university to assess the
student performance to determine possible intervention to assist the student’s need.
For future studies, a gamified application for LET will be developed by the
researchers. The developed framework and proposed methodology in this study will be
used in future studies. Once the system is developed, it must be evaluated by IT experts
using the Functional Suitability and Usability of the ISO 25010. The acceptability testing of
the users shall be conducted. With this, it can assess that the system can be a good tool
to improve learning experiences and students' attitudes toward lessons using
gamification approach.
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