MUSCAT: A research team from Sultan Qaboos University has managed to design a phone application to aid students to understand scientific concepts.

The phone app Dr.Electron seeks to provide students with scientific concepts and to resolve misconceptions in various scientific fields including physics, chemistry, biology, environmental sciences, earth sciences, astronomy and space sciences. The idea behind developing this app is to make learning fun and attractive.

The application was funded by the Ministry of Higher Education, Scientific Research and Innovation, and it obtained intellectual property from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Investment Promotion.

The research team consisted of Prof. Dr. Sulaiman bin Muhammad Al Balushi, Professor of Curriculum and Teaching Science at the College of Education, and Huda bint Ali Al Hosani, a PhD student in the last year at Sultan Qaboos University.

The application was designed according to the modern global approach in integrating technology into education. This is the trend of gamification according to one of the most famous educational theories on which gamification is based.

It is the theory of self-identification, which enhances the motivation of learners to learn, and the design of the application is compatible with hybrid education, especially during crises such as the pandemic.

The application comes in response to the recommendations of many international studies that recommended the design of phone applications based on gamification to acquire scientific concepts for students. 

The idea of the application is based on a modern and rare idea of employment in the field of science education, and is considered the first of its kind in terms of design in the Arab world, as the question bank in the application was built and prepared by a team of specialists in assessing science learning so that the questions are similar to the questions of international tests (TIMSS).

A team of designers was hired to design the graphics for the questions contained in the application, so that they would be attractive to the Arab child, and the application’s programming was assigned to a specialised programming company.

In designing the application, the researchers focused on designing playing scenarios within the application using the foundations and rules of gamification that were mentioned in international studies, but with a unique and distinctive character. Through the field of cars and planes, and up to the field of spacecraft.

With regard to medals and badges, a special section is devoted to decorations, so that the student gets a medal with a special gift inside the medal, which is information for the most famous Muslim scholars. As for the points store, the player has the freedom to choose to exchange points for certain symbols that appear on the playing screen, such as the golden lion, the diamond eagle, and others.

When the student enters the application, there will be a wide range of room options, and the player has the freedom to choose the room he will enter and continue to play with the team in the room, and the player has the freedom to choose the character close to him through a list of characters.

The researchers hope that the application will contribute to raising the level of educational attainment of learners and increase their motivation to learn.