Stimulating students’ engagement in mathematics courses in non-STEM academic programmes: A game-based learning

Abstract

It is of utmost importance to innovate in current teaching practices at higher education in order to enhance learners’ involvement, comprehension, cooperation and motivation. In non-STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) programmes, students tend to display a negative attitude towards mathematic-related courses. Aiming at overcoming this, game-based learning is regarded as a potential means of improving students’ confidence and increasing their motivation. In this study we propose a teamwork activity inspired by gamebased learning, presented in the form of a competition. To test the suitability of the activity, we report its implementation in the subject of Mathematics 1, taught as part of the Business Administration Degree at Universitat Internacional de Catalunya (Spain). We hope that the underlying idea of the activity as well as the encouraging results obtained stimulate lecturers to implement game-based learning activities in their courses.