Edutainment as a New Educational Technology: A Comparative Analysis

This paper is devoted to the study of edutainment as a new educational technology. The purpose of this study was to identify the most effective ratio of gamified forms of work at a foreign language lesson in a technical university. During the theoretical study, significant criteria were distinguished, namely personal involvement in the lesson, level of satisfaction, information and emotional overload, content value and academic performance. The interrelation of the criteria was exposed by using Likert scale, the Spearman coefficient and consecutive comparative analysis of traditional and gamified lessons. Conclusions were drawn about the benefits and drawbacks of the edutainment at a foreign language lesson. One the one hand, it improves the level of motivation, self-confidence, academic performance, facilitates and diversifies the learning process. On the other hand, the integration of edutainment unavoidably compromises the content value of education. The form of edutainment with 75% of gamified tasks suggests the most positive student response but decreases objective educational efficiency. Based on the average ratio and objective assessment of academic performance, it can be concluded that the 25% and 50% forms of edutainment provide the most efficient learning. The revealed patterns might be considered when planning classes in a foreign language, and in accordance with the objectives of the lesson, the most appropriate form of edutainment might be chosen. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.