This is the first in the series of blog posts showcasing work presented at ESD Exchange. Rinal’s talk takes place on day one of the ESD Exchange conference on April 16th 2026.
Enquiry-Based Learning (EBL) is widely used in healthcare education to encourage students to engage actively with complex problems. Within the Bachelor of Dental Surgery programme at the University of Manchester, EBL sessions are designed to help students analyse clinical scenarios, identify learning needs, and collaboratively construct understanding through discussion. In theory, this model supports active and reflective learning. However, during my teaching practice I began noticing a recurring issue that EBL Session 2 often ended much earlier than intended.
Although the session was scheduled between 60–90 minutes, many groups completed their discussions within 20–30 minutes. Once students felt that the Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs) had been “covered,” the conversation quickly lost momentum. Participation was often uneven, with a few confident students contributing frequently while others remained quiet observers. Students also relied heavily on laptops or mobile devices, sometimes reading directly from notes or online sources rather than explaining ideas in their own words.
This phenomenon raised an important pedagogical question, how can tutors know whether meaningful learning has actually taken place? More importantly, if EBL sessions do not effectively support reflection and feedback, how can they contribute to the broader aims of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD)?
ESD encourages universities to develop learners who are capable of critical thinking, responsible decision-making, and collaborative problem-solving. In healthcare education, these competencies are closely connected to professional judgement, accountability, and ethical practice. Creating learning environments that support these skills is therefore essential for preparing students to become responsible professionals.
Designing a Gamified Formative Intervention
To address this challenge, I experimented with introducing a gamified formative assessment activity called “Star of the Day.” The aim of the intervention was not simply to make sessions more entertaining, but to redesign EBL Session 2 as a meaningful formative learning space. Using an action research approach, I implemented a series of low-stakes gamified activities that took place after students had discussed the learning outcomes for each case.
These activities were designed to encourage active recall, participation, and immediate feedback. Across five EBL cases, the Star of the Day activity evolved through several formats:
1. Verbal quizzes, where students answered questions related to the session’s learning outcomes.
2. Multiple-choice question challenges, completed individually to test conceptual understanding.
3. Crossword puzzles, requiring students to recall key terminology and concepts.
4. Short presentations, where students explained specific clinical ideas to their peers.
Students earned points for correct answers, and the highest-scoring student or group was recognised as the “Star of the Day.” Importantly, the activity remained formative rather than summative. The goal was not to assign grades but to make learning visible and stimulate discussion.
Making Learning Visible
One of the most important insights from this project was that discussion alone does not necessarily reveal understanding. In my previous EBL sessions with different cohorts, I noticed students often appeared fluent in discussion because they were reading from notes or digital resources. However, when students were required to retrieve or explain knowledge independently, differences in understanding became much clearer.
The gamified activities created opportunities for students to test their understanding in a supportive environment. They also helped stimulate feedback dialogue within the group. Students frequently discussed answers together, clarified concepts, and reflected on why certain explanations were stronger than others. This process helped shift the focus of the session from simply “covering” the learning outcomes to engaging actively with them.
Inclusivity and Participation
Another important lesson from the project was that assessment design influences participation. The verbal quizzes relied heavily on rapid verbal responses, which sometimes favoured confident students. During one-to-one meeting, students indicated that they sometimes felt anxious about answering questions quickly in front of their peers. In response, I later introduced more inclusive formats, such as written MCQs and crossword puzzles. These activities allowed students to demonstrate understanding in different ways and reduced the influence of verbal confidence.
Interestingly, some students who rarely spoke during EBL discussions or verbal quiz activities performed very well in these formats. This suggested that the design of learning activities can strongly influence whose understanding becomes visible during teaching sessions.
Gamification and Sustainable Professional Learning
Although the intervention was developed within dentistry EBL sessions, I believe its implications can extend more broadly. Education for Sustainable Development emphasises the importance of creating inclusive, reflective, and participatory learning environments. Gamified formative assessment can support these goals by encouraging students to engage actively with knowledge, reflect on their understanding, and participate more equitably in discussions.
When Star of the Day activities are aligned with clear learning outcomes and feedback processes, gamification can function as a meaningful assessment-for-learning strategy. In this way, small changes in assessment design can contribute to the development of competencies associated with sustainable professional practice, including critical thinking, collaboration, and responsible decision-making.
Looking Ahead
The Star of the Day activity was initially developed within dentistry EBL sessions, but I am currently exploring how the approach might work in other teaching contexts. Recently, I began implementing similar activities within my Year 2 Biomedical Sciences tutorials. This change was partly motivated by student feedback I received in the previous semester, which suggested that some students found the tutorials insufficiently engaging. Reflecting on this feedback encouraged me to rethink how tutorial sessions were structured and how students were encouraged to participate.
So far, the introduction of short gamified formative activities has helped create a more interactive atmosphere during the tutorials. Students appear more willing to contribute to discussions and seem more attentive when they know they may soon be asked to apply their understanding. The small trophy awarded to the “Star of the Day” winner also adds a light-hearted element of motivation.
At present, however, these observations remain informal. I have not yet conducted a systematic survey to gather students’ perspectives on the revised tutorial format. Collecting more structured feedback will therefore be an important next step in understanding how these activities influence engagement and learning.
More broadly, this experience highlights the importance of treating teaching as an iterative process. By reflecting on student feedback and experimenting with small pedagogical changes, educators can gradually improve the learning environments they create.
Author contact
Dr Rinal Sahputra
Teaching Associate
Division of Cell Matrix Biology & Regenerative Medicine, School of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, The University of Manchester.
E: rinal.sahputra@manchester.ac.uk
Conference link
This blog post is based on my presentation at ESD Exchange 2026, delivered on 16–17 April 2026 at De Montfort University in Leicester, entitled “Making Understanding Visible Through Gamified Formative Assessment in EBL.” Slides from the presentation will be available after the conference.
