Get the prime AR – a gamified exercise

The fundamental of an effective teaching and learning process is a successful communication between the teacher and the students. As communication is evolving rapidly in-line with the development of technology, it would only be logical for teaching to adapt those advancement so that it can remained relevant in today’s society. One of the major changes in communication is the reliant on portable electronic devices especially mobile phone. It would not be a surprise if students treat those devices as if their appendages. Unfortunately, evidence showed that most of the screen time was for the purpose for leisure such as gaming. Realizing this, an attempt been made to gamify mathematics learning by utilizing communication technology through an augmented reality (AR) game known as “Get the Prime”. This study is aimed to enhance students’ performance in identifying one to two digits prime numbers through the AR game. The population of the study was Form 4 students and the sample was 68 students drawn from 2 classes. This study is a mix study. The quantitative data was obtained through quasi-experimental with pre and post-test design. Meanwhile, the qualitative data was obtained through a simple structured interview. The increment in the mean value was 31.62%. The paired sample T-test resulted in a mean difference of 1.591 (p < 0.05) and effect size of 0.516 (> 0.5) showed that there was a significant difference between the pre and post-test in students’ performance. Based on students’ feedback, they were motivated as they were competing which each another. “Get the Prime” is specially made to carter the needs of local students. As a self-developed product, it warrants the relevancy to the current syllabus and could be adapted for other subjects. Additionally, it can also be commercialized as free to play or as a premium product.