Image credit: Intel Free Press / CC BY 2.0Researchers from the Swinburne University of Technology, Australia, have developed an app to help improve student academic performance.

According to a study published in the International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, the customizable app allows teachers to upload quizzes related to class content to their students’ devices. Each time a new quiz is added to the app, the students receive a push notification.

To observe the app in action, researchers recruited 394 Swinburne students to test its performance. Researchers determined that the app users earned grades that were 7.03% higher than students not using the app. Researchers believe the improved performance was directly linked to the app quizzes because they kept the students motivated, engaged and competitive.

According to study author Dr. Ekaterina Pechenkina, "Most studies into the use of mobile apps as learning tools in higher education primarily focus on apps designed to address one main aspect of the learning process, such as collaboration or motivation. We developed our app to achieve multiple goals, including improving engagement and measuring academic performance. In order to do that, we designed the app to include multiple-choice quizzes, push notifications, digital leaderboards and badges."

Researchers will continue to test the app.