Performance in Kahoot! activities as predictive of exam performance.

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Educational Technology
• Formative Assessment

Background:

• Game-based learning (GBL) enhances student engagement and motivation but its role in knowledge acquisition requires further validation.
• The discriminative value of GBL for assessing medical knowledge has not been definitively established.
• This study investigates Kahoot! as a tool for formative assessment in medical education.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate Kahoot!'s effectiveness as a discriminative tool for formative assessment in medical education.
• To assess the impact of Kahoot! on knowledge acquisition in neuroanatomy and human histology.
• To determine if Kahoot! scores correlate with and predict final examination performance.

Main Methods:

• A prospective experimental study involving 173 medical students across neuroanatomy and human histology courses.
• Neuroanatomy students completed Kahoot! individually before their final exam.
• Human histology employed a comparative design: traditional teaching versus Kahoot!-integrated learning over two academic years.

Main Results:

• Significant positive correlations were observed between Kahoot! scores and final grades in neuroanatomy (r=0.334, p<0.001).
• Students using Kahoot! achieved significantly higher scores on theory tests, image exams, and overall final grades in both subjects.
• Kahoot! implementation in human histology resulted in significantly higher performance compared to traditional methods (p<0.001).

Conclusions:

• Kahoot! demonstrates significant value as a discriminative tool for formative assessment in medical education.
• The study provides the first evidence that Kahoot! can improve and predict final grades in medical subjects.
• Integrating Kahoot! into medical curricula can enhance student learning outcomes and assessment accuracy.