Exploring the Opinions of Mathematics Teacher Candidates Regarding the Usage of Gamified Digital Education Platform “Dersigo”

Abstract

In the present day, as technology merges with education, various tools, and applications are widely used in both classroom and outside learning experiences. In this context, in Turkey as well, a digital education application named "DERSİGO" aims to reach students by adopting a fully immersive learning model and a gamified approach. DERSİGO is an innovative educational platform offering visually supported topic explanations, content from question to topic, educational videos, and other supportive learning materials. The use of this educational application is increasingly gaining attention. The purpose and importance of this research are to examine how the digital education application named DERSIGO is evaluated by pre-service mathematics teachers and to understand the advantages that the use of this application for educational purposes can provide for students. The positive evaluation of the digital education application DERSIGO by pre-service Mathematics teachers shows that such technology-based education tools can potentially play a valuable role in the education process. This study examined the views of Mathematics teacher candidates regarding the educational use of the paid application DERSİGO. The research was conducted with the participation of 27 Mathematics teacher candidates, who were provided with access codes to experience Mathematics lessons and the gamification process within the DERSİGO application. The data collected from the participants were obtained through a semi-structured student opinion form and analyzed using the content analysis method. According to the findings of the study, teacher candidates express that the educational use of DERSİGO can make Mathematics lessons more engaging and fun, increase student participation, teach lesson content through gamification, boost student motivation, enable assessment of student performance, and assist in reinforcing learned subjects. A significant portion of the teacher candidates states that the DERSİGO application can be effectively used in mathematics education, while some teacher candidates emphasize its suitability for non-mathematics verbal subjects. The research reveals that DERSİGO can offer students advantages such as increasing class participation, improving student interaction, reinforcing learning processes, and increasing student motivation. Based on the obtained findings, various recommendations are provided for researchers and educators.