The growth of research in educational technology over the past decade is not surprising, and the use of SRSs have been gaining more interest in the educational domain. The researchers have attempted to pinpoint the numerous merits of using this platform in both online and f2f classrooms, and to investigate how Mentimeter can help teachers and students overcome the current barriers in the teaching and learning process.
A number of studies have evaluated the use of Mentimeter to assess the perception, development and future possibilities of online collaboration and awareness – raising the topic of sustainability in a digital learning environment, and hence resulting in a feeling of community, through interaction (Westerman et al., 2021; Blyznyuk et al., 2021; Lima et al., 2020; Santos et al., 2019; Lilleker & Thompson, 2019). One of the major benefits of this platform is obtaining student responses and increasing participation. Many students refrain from answering in class because they are shy or afraid of giving the wrong answer. Mentimeter allows for anonymous responses, hence increasing student participation. In several studies, (Musliha & Purnawarman, 2020; Little, 2016; Langley et al., 2021), results showed that the use of Mentimeter in eliciting the students’ responses in formative assessment helped to overcome the students’ fear of giving responses.
Mentimeter allows instructors to adopt an active, student-centered pedagogy and, in doing so, has the potential to increase attention, engagement, motivation, peer learning and attainment within the discipline (Mayhew, 2019; Skoyles & Bloxsidge, 2017; Chinaza, 2020; Annie Prud’homme-Généreux, 2016; Hill, 2020). This is while Mentimeter is also a useful tool for real-time formative assessment and exam preparation in clarifying difficult concepts (Dong, 2021; Kuritza et al., 2020; Puspa & Imamyartha, 2019). In a study by Ahmad (2020) more than 80% of students found the active learning sessions met their expectations or far exceeded their expectations.
Pichardo et al. (2021) conducted a very comprehensive study in which they evaluated the effectiveness of mentimeter from both the teachers and students perspectives. Twelve teachers were invited to a focus group with the objective of evaluating their experience and describing the potential of Mentimeter for teaching and learning, the strategies they developed, the difficulties they encountered and how they had overcome them, together with tentative suggestions to optimize its use during online and face-to-face classes. Educators completed a survey to explore the teachers’ high levels of engagement in the project and their satisfaction with Mentimeter after their experience. Then a survey was given to the students to extract their impressions of using Mentimeter in class. Students and educators both highlighted the inclusive potential of Mentimeter, as it allows participation from a diverse audience with different backgrounds and capacities, ensuring inclusive and equitable education for all.
In another study done in a South Korean school, the researchers evaluated the results from both students and teachers perspectives. From the students’ perspective, Mentimeter helped students become more focused, it was fun to be able to do activities with friends, even during virtual classes, students felt like they were taking classes together, and it was good to see the results of the learning activities. From the teachers’ perspective, it was possible to express each other’s thoughts and opinions in a video class where a large number of people participated, it was possible to check each others’ learning outcomes and to send and receive feedback. Since the real-time interaction was visually displayed, the student’s learning deviation was less, it was possible to develop the same class as offline even in a physically separated online learning environment (Shin & Eom, 2020).
The utilization of an ARS, specifically Mentimeter, was overall well-received by medical students. Mentimeter could be a beneficial tool for educators to use, especially when preparing for exams or assessing students’ understanding of challenging concepts. The students commented on the value of these tools appreciating the Mentimeter quizzes that provided instant real time feedback on their knowledge retention and potential areas to review before exams (Kuritza et al., 2020). Similar results were obtained regarding the positive impact on students’ attitude and performance, while providing real-time feedback to students in other disciplines (Mohin et al. 2020; Blyznyuk et al., 2021; Dong et al., 2018; Aryal, 2021; Patterson et al., 2020; Mara et al., 2021).
Mayhew et al. (2020) reported the student satisfaction of Mentimeter, as it increases student enjoyment, enhances the student voice, and can help to improve student learning. Benefits and challenges surrounding the staff experience include:
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The ‘inclusive potential’ of Mentimeter, ‘giving a voice’ to students who are less likely to participate due to the influence of culture, gender, disability and other factors.
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Improved attendance
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Disciplinary variance
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Optimized class management.
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Timely feedback
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Staff also identified the potential of adopting a more agile approach to teaching and, where time allows, session content.
Sari (2021) also evaluated Indonesian students’ perspective of using Mentimeter through an open-ended survey. Students’ positive perception towards Mentimeter included it being amusing and fun, its anonymity, attractiveness (with regard to presentation and various types of activities), practicality (paperless, simple method, class is not noisy), and freedom (not having to speak in public). Students’ negative perception of Mentimeter included Internet connection problems and that it is not accessible in all smartphones. The study showed that Mentimeter significantly impacts the students’ engagement in English learning.
Wood (2020) studied student and staff reactions and perceptions of Mentimeter use in large lectures. Students said that Mentimeter allowed them to gauge their understanding of the material, made class more interactive and exciting, allowed them to compare their understanding of the material with their classmates, and overall made them feel more involved in their own learning. Meanwhile, lecturers found Mentimeter useful for teaching although they warned against doing it without a clear plan. They also mentioned the need to learn how to use SRS as well as how to integrate it into existing lecture material.
Razzaqul Ahshan (2021) used Mentimeter frequently to assess the students’ understanding of the previously discussed materials or any new materials being delivered in the lesson. They proposed a framework that provides student–student, student–instructor interactions and ensures social presence during the remote/online sessions due to the active learning activities implemented by this tool. Synchronous teaching pedagogy adopted in the proposed framework was practical in active student engagement, aligning with the lesson outcomes.
Vallely and Gibson (2018) propose training more students to use this technology in their group presentations; in fact, some of the teacher-training students have been inspired enough by Mentimeter that they have gone on to use it in school. This study discusses, with reference to recent literature, the advantages and disadvantages of Mentimeter as a form of student engagement; it shares three key multi-disciplinary strategies that can be supported by Mentimeter to engage students: ‘gauging opinion’, ‘engaging discussion’ and ‘voicing concerns’. The authors offer their ideas for future plans for the tool, with the hope of inspiring other colleagues in higher education to trial Mentimeter or integrate it further into lectures and seminars to promote student engagement and enhance the teaching and learning experience.
Gokbulut (2020) did an experimental study with teachers to assess whether Mentimeter-based instruction had an effect on the attitudes of prospective classroom teachers for e-learning and found that there was a large effect size on e-learning as a result of Mentimeter-supported education. In a study by Sari et al. (2020) the most remarkable usage of online applications such as Mentimeter was for real-time exercise in the classroom. They also took benefits from those applications that were for establishing communication, encouraging students’ self-study, improving the assessment, motivating the students and improving the teaching instructions.
Rudolph (2018) review the use of Mentimeter as a Student Response System and highlight seven main features: 1) Mentimeter offers six different types of questions, 2) data can be collected anonymously, 3) Data can be stored for analysis, comparative purposes and educational research, 4) improved attentiveness of students, 5) increased knowledge retention, 6) anonymity, 7) it is freemium (i.e. free and premium versions are available).
Pratama (2021) came to the conclusion that students prefer Mentimeter to Google Form in teaching listening for specific purposes, because it makes the lecture more interactive and inclusive, while Prasad (2020) found that integrating Mentimeter increases student outcome and satisfaction and helps to ‘bridge the gap’ between generations.
Law and Masterton (2021) pinpoint some of the benefits of Mentimeter use in a school of veterinary medicine. It is useful as it allows students to receive focused peer feedback and relevant response statistics, achieve high levels of student interaction and generate stimulating clinical discussions amongst staff and students. In addition, students have gone on to use their Mentimeter data as evidence in their professional portfolios, and found that using Mentimeter also cuts down on administrative demands for staff on the rotation.
Crump and Sparks (2018) found that mentimeter positively improves the level of attention and participation in the classroom environment, supports quality learning through encouraging interaction and discussion from even the most introverted students, and gives useful feedback to both the instructor and students. Students do not have to reveal their votes publicly, so the feedback is assumed to be more honest than a paper vote or show of hands. Students also value real-time feedback given immediately after presentations are delivered.
Canlas et al. (2020) evaluated the effectiveness of the Mentimeter App integration model to computer science lecture classes. They highlight the many positive outcomes of Mentimeter as follows: 1) ease of use of the application; 2) level of participation in the class; 3) ability to express oneself without being afraid of embarrassment; 4) motivation; 5) recalling past topics; 6) preparation for the next sessions; 7) retention of salient points of the discussion; 8) class engagement and coping with boredom; 9) obtaining immediate feedback on learning; and 10) recommendation to integrate Mentimeter with other teaching content.
Coyle’s (2021) study showed the innovative blending of technology - Mentimeter, Powerpoint, and videos - with panel-style, tutor-led discussions, to be effective in integrating well being into the teaching and learning of law. In another instance, Göthberg and Nilsson (2021) conducted a study to deliver guidelines for the design of inspirational user experience for Mentimeter and drew on the benefits as increasing user satisfaction and level of inspiration.
A number of experimental studies have shown students improvement in communication abilities and overall achievement when comparing pre-test and post-test scores after integrating Mentimeter in the teaching process (Sirajudin & Hasan, 2021; Ranjbaran et al., (in press); Wong & Yunus, 2020; Kemberley et al., 2020).
Mohammadi et al. (2021) evaluated the application of the Mentimeter educational tool based on cooperation element, compared to Kahoot educational tool based on competition element, and found that Mentimeter has a more significant effect on student's learning and approach on motivation in the gamified environment, indicating that gamified environments based on cooperation are better than the competition-based milieu.
Moorhouse and Kohnke (2020) also found that there are several pedagogical benefits of using Mentimeter in the EAP/ESP classroom, including increasing interaction and engagement, soliciting opinions, and formatively evaluating student understanding. Andriani et al. (2019) observed that it is necessary to develop learning media based on blended learning to improve students' creative thinking ability by using Mentimeter.
Overall, the results of the studies indicated benefits for both the learners’ learning outcomes and the teachers’ teaching process. The two main factors that are repeatedly observed in all studies is that Mentimeter enhances student interaction, engagement and motivation in the classroom, while creating a better learning experience. From the teachers’ perspective, Mentimeter provides a more dynamic approach to teaching, by providing real-time feedback and increasing emphasis on teacher-student and peer-peer dialogue inline with dialogic teaching approaches.