Elevate Your Learning: Unveiling Students' Emotions in an Gamified Matrix Modeling Class

Emotions play a crucial role in shaping learning and academic performance, particularly in the context of undergraduate mathematics courses. Anxiety is commonly experienced when studying mathematics. Existing research consistently supports the positive impact of incorporating gamification into higher education to foster active learning. We conducted a quantitative, exploratory, and quasy-experimental methodological approach to apply two instruments that lead us to determine the relationship between gamification based on reward mechanics and emotions, motivation, and engagement. To achieve this objective, the applied instruments were and adapted Emotions in Learning test and a modified version of the MAKE instrument (Motivates, Attitude, Knowledge, and Engages). The study sample consisted of 20 students. The findings revealed a noteworthy increase in positive emotions, particularly a significant decrease in mathematics-related anxiety, accompanied by an increase in enthusiasm, pride, and a sense of companionship post-test. Additionally, negative emotions decreased in the post-test, including feelings of shame, annoyance, and regret. These results suggest that gamification, with its reward-based approach, can effectively enhance the emotional well-being and motivation of students in mathematics courses and other subjects. This research is still ongoing to confirm the obtained results and to extend the tests to other subjects.