Virtual teaching modalities urgently implemented during the Covid-19 pandemic require strategies to motivate students to participate actively in higher education. Our study found that gamification using a reward-based system is a strategy that can improve the educational experience under exceptional circumstances. This article reports the results of two gamified undergraduate courses (Calculus and Development of Transversal Competencies) designed with a reward system. The results derived from analyses of online surveys, the final grades, and their correlations revealed that gamification helped motivate students to participate actively and improved their academic performance, in a setting where the mode of instruction was remote, synchronous, and online. From the results we conclude that gamification favours the relationship between attention, participation, and performance, while promoting the humanisation of virtual environments created during academic confinement. Implications for practice or policy: Gamification using a reward-based system promoted active class participation and improved student performance after the transition from face-to-face to virtual instruction required as a result of the global pandemic. Systemic recognition in a reward-based system improved the participants' emotional states, reducing their anxiety and the feeling of isolation caused by the pandemic, and leading to student engagement with . Gamification works as an accompaniment for students to help the increasement of teacher-student and student-student interactions.

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La gamificación es una técnica que permite utilizar en distintos contextos las que se presentan en los juegos. En la actualidad, existen varias iniciativas para aplicarla en contextos educativos, las cuales buscan impactar en la experiencia de los estudiantes mediante la mejora en la motivación (Surendeleg et al., 2014; Hamari et al., 2015; Rincón-Flores et al., 2018) y la atención de ellos (Hamari & Keronen, 2017). Para una correcta aplicación de la gamificación, es necesario basarse en alguna metodología que ordene y facilite su adopción, así como una herramienta que dinamice su utilización por parte de los docentes y los estudiantes. Gamit! Es una plataforma tecnológica de gamificación cuyo valor radica en facilitar la adopción de esta técnica mediante una metodología basada en narrativas.

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The design of the third workshop of the Professional Experience Modality was based on gamification, and students, most of them undergraduate engineers, were supposed to be secret agents with specific competencies to solve missions (assignments they should solve working in collaborative teams) in accordance with the course syllabus. Secret agents worked during the academic period to earn extra performance points from the missions and to receive a recognition badge as secret agents prepared for their internships. The use of the Remind app enhances close communication between teacher and students in a simple way. Sixty-three percent of students who used the app were satisfied with it, feeling accompanied, and using the app to resolve questions about due dates, receive general instructions for assignments, and see their progressive development of competencies.

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Gamification has permeated education as a strategy to improve the teaching-learning process. Research shows that gamified reward systems based on badges, leaderboards, and avatars modifies the learning environment and student attitudes. This research aimed primarily to assess the change in attitude towards mathematics in high school students through a gamified methodology involving a reward system managed through a web platform called Gamit! This platform was developed by professors from two Latin American universities to manage gamification in a way that ensured that the anonymity of the class rankings was maintained. A mixed (QUAN-Qual) and quasi-experimental methodological approach was used for this study; two questionnaires were applied to 454 high school students and a focus group was performed with a group of seven professors. The quantitative analysis was processed with SPSS and consisted of ANOVAS and post hoc tests for more than two samples, while the focus group analysis was performed through inductive analysis. Results show benefits for professors and learners. Students improved their attitudes toward mathematics, reducing anxiety and improving willingness, while professors found a dynamic and optimal way to manage gamification on Gamit!