Effects of Wordwall-based gamification on economics students’ digital literacy and numeracy skills

The increasing demand for digital literacy and numeracy in higher education highlights the need for technology-enhanced learning approaches that actively engage students in developing these competencies. This study examined changes in economics students’ digital literacy and numeracy skills following the implementation of Wordwall-based gamification. A pre-experimental one-group pretest–posttest design was employed with 54 students at the ‘Aisyiyah Riau Institute of Education and Technology. The intervention incorporated Wordwall-based learning activities, while data were collected using a questionnaire and a numeracy test. The instruments were assessed for validity using Pearson’s product–moment correlation and demonstrated high internal consistency, with Cronbach’s alpha coefficients exceeding .98. Pretest and posttest scores were analyzed using paired-samples t-tests. The results showed significant improvements in both outcomes following the intervention. The mean digital literacy score increased from 45.69 at pretest to 63.65 at posttest, while the mean numeracy score increased from 61.20 to 72.59. The differences between pretest and posttest scores were statistically significant (p < .001). These findings indicate that Wordwall-based gamification was associated with improvements in students’ digital literacy and numeracy skills. The study highlights the potential of interactive gamified learning as a technology-enhanced instructional approach for supporting digital and quantitative competencies in higher education. However, given the absence of a control group, the findings should be interpreted as evidence of improvement following the intervention rather than definitive causal effects.