One thing I enjoy about using educational technology is discovering new ways to bring students into the learning experience. Sometimes, a small change in how an activity is played can make an online lesson feel a little different.
Last week, I tried the new CO-OP map in ZEP Quiz during my online English class. We were working on adverbs of frequency, and I wanted to see how this new map would work with my students.
Our class gathered on the CO-OP map, ready for an English quiz on adverbs of frequency.
Learning Together, Not Just Playing Together
What made this session interesting was the collaborative element. Instead of focusing only on individual performance, students could participate in a shared experience and collect points together.
The students had fun exploring the map and working towards the common goal. By the end of the session, we had reached 752 points!
Team effort paid off! The class reached the shared goal of 752 points.
For me, this was a nice reminder that online learning does not always have to feel like a series of slides, explanations and individual quiz attempts. A shared game environment can give students another way to participate and experience a lesson together.
The Game Is the Tool, Not the Goal
Of course, having fun is only part of the picture. As an English lecturer, I still need to make sure that the activity supports the language content I am teaching.
In this session, the quiz focused on adverbs of frequency. The CO-OP map provided a different environment for students to take part in the activity, while the language focus remained at the centre of the lesson.
I also see value in trying out new features in real classroom settings rather than judging them based on their appearance alone. What matters is how students respond, how the activity fits the lesson, and whether it serves a clear learning purpose.
Would I Use It Again?
I enjoyed seeing my students participate in the CO-OP map during our online class. Their enthusiasm made the session enjoyable, and the shared points added a collaborative element to the quiz experience.
Would I use it again? I would certainly consider it for lessons where a collaborative game experience fits the learning objective.
After all, technology does not automatically make a lesson effective. It is how we use it that matters.
For now, the CO-OP map has earned a place on my list of ZEP Quiz features worth exploring further. And yes, collecting points together was a fun bonus!
I did not plan to enter many competitions this year.
It started with a problem in my writing classes
Academic report writing can be challenging for students. Sometimes, it is not the big writing tasks that cause the most difficulty. It is the smaller skills that students need to put everything together.
Things like academic tone, cohesive devices, hedging, sentence construction, citations and organisation can easily become overwhelming when students are asked to apply them in a full report.
I also noticed another challenge. With generative AI becoming increasingly accessible, it can be tempting for students to rely on generated text instead of actually working through the writing process themselves.
So I started thinking about how I could give my students more opportunities to practise these smaller writing skills in a way that felt less intimidating.
So I started playing around with ZEP Quiz
I have been using ZEP Quiz in different ways in my teaching, but for this particular project, I wanted to see whether I could use it to reinforce academic writing micro-skills.
Instead of giving students another set of static exercises, I created a gamified activity where they could practise skills such as hedging, cohesion, academic tone, sentence construction and citations through different types of questions.
The idea was quite simple.
Let them practise. Let them make mistakes. Let them try again.
The activity was designed in three stages. First, students received guided input during class. Then, they moved into the ZEP Quiz activity for asynchronous practice. Finally, they completed a reflection using ZEP Whiteboard after finishing the quiz.
And that third part became particularly important to me.
The game was not the end
One thing I have learned from using gamification is that the game itself should not be the learning objective.
I did not want my students to simply finish the quiz, look at their scores and leave.
I wanted to know what they thought about the experience too.
So, after the quiz, they reflected on how the digital environment affected their confidence and experience when working on the writing activities.
Some of their responses were particularly interesting. Students described the activities as feeling less like a test and more approachable than traditional paper exercises. Others mentioned the instant feedback and scoreboard as motivating them to think more carefully about their answers.
That was probably one of my favourite parts of the project.
The quiz showed me what they were doing.
The reflection gave me a glimpse into how they were experiencing the learning.
From classroom experiment to innovation project
I think this is one of the things I enjoy most about teaching.
Sometimes, we start with a small idea without knowing where it will lead.
I was not sitting there thinking, “Today, I am going to create an award-winning innovation.”
I was simply trying to solve a classroom problem.
I experimented with the activity, looked at how students responded and thought about how I could make the learning experience more meaningful.
Eventually, that classroom experiment developed into a teaching innovation project titled “Gamifying Academic Writing Micro-Skills through ZEP Quiz.”
And then I decided to submit it to ALNIC & IID Convention 2026, organised by UiTM Academy of Language Studies.
And then came the Silver 🥈
As I mentioned earlier, this was actually the only competition I joined in 2026.
So when I found out that the project received a Silver Award, I was genuinely happy.
Of course, getting an award is nice.
But what made it even more meaningful was having the support of my team member, Puan Linda a/p V.Prapagara. A big thank you to her for being such a great support in making this project a success!
It was not an idea created just for a competition.
It started with my students.
It started with a teaching problem.
And it grew from there.
What I took away from the experience
This experience reminded me that innovation does not always have to begin with something huge.
Sometimes, it starts with a teacher asking:
“What if I tried this differently?”
For me, ZEP Quiz was not about putting a game into a lesson just to make it more exciting.
It was about finding a different way for students to practise, participate and reflect.
And I think that is where technology becomes interesting in education.
The tool itself is only one part of the equation. What we do with it matters more.
I also learned that classroom experiments are worth documenting.
That little activity you tried because you were curious?
The one you tweaked three times?
The one that made you think, “Hmm, this actually worked”?
Write it down.
Reflect on it.
Maybe share it.
You never really know where it might lead.
For me, this year, it led to my one and only competition entry.
When I first started using ZEP Quiz, I was honestly attracted to the fun part of it after attending a webinar organised by SKOLAR Malaysia.
The maps were interesting, the game environment was different from the usual classroom activities, and I could already imagine my students moving around a virtual world while answering questions. As a teacher, I am always interested in finding ways to make learning a little less predictable, so naturally, I wanted to explore it.
Fast forward to now, and I have been using ZEP Quiz in different teaching situations. I have used it with my physical classes, my online classes, and even outside my usual university teaching context. I have also experimented with different features and incorporated it into my teaching innovation work.
Looking back, I realise that my understanding of gamification has changed.
It is no longer just about making learning fun.
It is not just about the game
When we hear the word “gamification”, I think many of us immediately associate it with games, competition, points, rewards, and students having fun.
There is nothing wrong with that.
In fact, those elements can be useful because they can create a different kind of energy in a lesson. I have seen how a simple change from a conventional activity to a game-like environment can make students more willing to participate.
But over time, I started asking myself a different question.
What is the purpose of the game?
That question has become increasingly important to me.
I do not want to use a gamified activity simply because it looks interesting or because students might enjoy it. There should still be a reason behind it.
Am I using it to revise something we have learned?
Am I using it to give students more opportunities to practise?
Am I trying to encourage participation?
Am I creating a less intimidating environment for students to try something?
Or am I using it as a starting point for another learning activity?
For me, that is where gamification becomes meaningful.
The game itself is not the learning objective. It is a tool that can help me get my students there.
Sometimes, the real learning happens after the game
One of my favourite experiences with ZEP Quiz was when I combined the quiz activity with the Whiteboard feature.
Instead of simply letting students complete the quiz, see their scores and move on, I asked them to reflect on the experience.
The question I asked was:
“Compared to doing normal paper worksheets, did playing in this ZEP world make you feel more confident and excited to try these writing exercises? Why or why not?”
I really liked asking this question because I was not only interested in whether they got the questions right.
I wanted to know how they experienced the activity.
Did the game make them feel more confident?
Did it make them more excited to attempt the writing exercises?
Did they prefer it to a conventional worksheet?
And most importantly, why?
Their answers gave me another perspective that a score alone could not provide.
This reminded me that assessment and feedback do not always have to happen in the traditional sense. Sometimes, simply asking students to think about their own learning experience can give us valuable information as teachers.
The quiz tells me about their answers.
The reflection tells me about their experience.
Both matter.
I also learned that online and physical classes are different
Another interesting part of my ZEP Quiz journey has been using it in both physical and online classes.
The experience is not exactly the same.
In a physical classroom, you can feel the energy immediately. Students react to each other, they comment on what is happening, and sometimes the room suddenly becomes much noisier than it was five minutes earlier.
Online, the atmosphere is different.
You might have a screen full of muted microphones and cameras that are switched off. Yet when students enter a game, suddenly you can see movement, competition and participation happening on the screen.
That experience reminded me that engagement does not always have to look the same.
A quiet student in a physical classroom may not suddenly become the most talkative person online. But they may still participate actively through the game.
For me, that is worth noticing.
As teachers, we sometimes equate participation with speaking. But there are many other ways students can participate, especially when technology gives them different channels to do so.
I also discovered that gamification can extend beyond my usual classroom
One of the more unexpected things I did was create ZEP Quiz activities for my niece during the Malaysian school holidays.
I created a Maths activity and a Bahasa Melayu activity for her.
It was a small experiment, but I enjoyed seeing how a tool I usually associate with my university classes could be adapted for a younger learner.
It also reminded me that gamification does not necessarily have to be complicated.
Sometimes, it can be as simple as taking an activity that might normally feel like revision and giving it a different environment.
Of course, putting something into a game does not automatically make it a good learning activity.
The questions still need to be appropriate.
The activity still needs a purpose.
And the teacher still needs to think about what students are actually learning.
The technology does not do that thinking for us.
We still do.
So, what have I really learned?
After using ZEP Quiz in different contexts, I think my biggest takeaway is this:
Gamification is not about turning every lesson into a game.
And I think that is an important distinction.
There are lessons where a game makes sense.
There are activities where a worksheet, discussion, presentation, or good old-fashioned pen and paper is still the better choice.
For me, the goal is not to replace those things.
It is to have another option in my teaching toolbox.
Sometimes I want students to compete.
Sometimes I want them to practise.
Sometimes I want them to explore.
Sometimes I want them to reflect.
And sometimes, honestly, I just want to change the energy in the room.
The important thing is knowing why I am using the tool.
That has probably been the biggest shift in my thinking.
When I first started using ZEP Quiz, I was excited about the game.
Now, I am more interested in what the game allows me to do as a teacher.
Beyond the game
Being a ZEP Quiz Ambassador has given me the opportunity to experiment, but more importantly, it has given me a reason to reflect on my own teaching practices.
Every time I try something new, I find myself asking questions.
Did this actually help?
Did my students participate differently?
What did they think about it?
Could I have designed the activity better?
Would this work better online or face-to-face?
And sometimes, the answer is simply, “I need to try it again.”
I think that is part of being an educator.
We experiment. We observe. We reflect. We adjust.
Technology changes quickly, but the questions we ask about learning remain important.
For me, ZEP Quiz is one of the tools that has allowed me to explore those questions in a different way.
So, after all this time, I would say that I am no longer interested in gamification simply because it is fun.
I am interested in it because, when used intentionally, it can create opportunities for students to participate, practise, reflect, and experience learning differently.
And perhaps that is what I have learned most from going beyond the game.
The game may get students started, but what happens before, during and after the game is where the real teaching happens.
It was a last-minute decision to sign up for Skolar’s July Canva Code Bootcamp (CCB July), and let me tell you, I do not regret a single cent spent. The main reason I decided to join was because I had previously tried navigating Canva AI to build my own apps, but got stuck halfway. The more CCB reminders I saw, the more tempted I became. So I thought, why not scratch that creative itch?
The two-day bootcamp left me completely bamboozled, in the best possible way. I was already impressed by the results on Day 1. But Day 2? That took things to a whole new level. Both expert speakers, Dr. Tazli Azizan and Don Skolar from Skolar, opened what I can only describe as a digital Pandora’s box. They didn’t just teach, they revealed a whole new world of possibilities. And no, I’m not exaggerating.
8 July – Wizarding Our Way to App Creation Using Canva Code
If there’s one major takeaway from Day 1, it’s this: I can be vulnerable and conversational with ChatGPT to help brainstorm app ideas. GPT becomes our creative partner in crime, helping us refine prompts until we are ready to bring them to life. The process goes something like this:
Brainstorm with ChatGPT → Copy and paste the prompt into Canva AI (Code for Me) → Let Canva do its magic → Refine as needed → Publish.
It sounds fancy because it is. With better prompt crafting, the sky’s the limit. Sure, there’s room for improvement, but honestly, this is already a great head start. With continued practice and maybe new tools on the horizon, I believe I can create even more engaging apps for my teaching and learning needs.
9 July – Connecting App with a Database
Now this is where things got spicy, and a little tricky. We learned how to set up a database using Google Sheets and link it to our Canva Code apps using Google Apps Script. I started off following along just fine, but eventually, I got lost in the steps. Rather than panic, I decided to just observe and absorb what was being demonstrated.
I won’t go into the technical details here, mostly because I need more practice. But one thing is for sure, teaching and learning are about to get a lot more interesting.
The three pillars of hope After 1000 tries, I succeeded! But, data captured was still faulty.
Final Thoughts
I joined CCB July with curiosity, but I left with renewed sense of hope. Enough to keep me going for 20 years+ or so.
If this is only the beginning, I can’t wait to see what’s next.
After being introduced to Zep in one of the sessions by Dr. Tazli from Skolar, I started experimenting with it in my own classroom. But I was still curious about what more it could offer. How could I use it more effectively for gamification? So, when I saw the poster entitled “Gamify dan Naik Taraf Kelas Anda dengan ZEP QUIZ” by Dr. Tazli, I signed up without hesitation.
What’s gamification all about? Let’s throw back to the days of Game Ular on the Nokia phone, TheSims, WoW or whatever game we once played. Why did we keep coming back to them? Maybe to level up, face challenges, enjoy the reward system, or simply because they were easy and fun to use.
Why do 21st century learners need this?
They’re glued to their gadgets. If we can’t beat them, let’s join them!
When students are actively involved (playing the game), they might get it wrong. That’s when we can step in with instant feedback. Interaction happens. Win-win situation!
So, as instructors, how do we gamify? Where do we begin?
As shared by Dr. Tazli, and also echoed in other sessions I’ve attended, we should start small. After the first few weeks with our students, we can gauge their pace and participation. We can try using a simple exit ticket to recap the lesson of the day. Test it out and get feedback to see if they enjoy it. From there, we’ll know what to do next. One thing is certain: it takes a few test runs before we find the ONE.
And the ONE for me right now is Zep Quiz.
It feels like a mix of Kahoot, Quizziz, and a bit of Second Life, and I’m hooked. The demonstration on how to use Zep and how AI can help streamline the preparation process was really helpful. Whether used asynchronously or synchronously, students can learn while feeling a sense of control. They get to decorate their avatars, explore the virtual room, and even check why they got a question wrong.
From the teacher’s end, it’s also easy to get the hang of it, especially when trying out pre-made quizzes by other Zep users. We can make use of the free maps and create up to 20 questions in formats like multiple choice, short answer, or true/false. We can start from scratch, use the AI feature to generate questions (hint: prompt wisely), or upload a pre-made set of questions. Once everything is ready, we simply share the quiz with our students.
So I guess the only thing left to say is… Let’s Zep!
The months of semester break are coming to an end, and whether we’re ready or not, the new semester is fast approaching. It’s time to gear up, get organized, and prepare ourselves for the challenges ahead. Let’s focus on our goals and make the most of the fresh start.
As we dive into a new academic journey, let’s pray for the strength and wisdom to navigate it smoothly. Here’s hoping for a productive and fulfilling semester for everyone. Welcoming Sem 1 20242025.
Today, I want to share some dilemmas I’ve been grappling with over the past few years, especially since the pandemic turned our world upside down. While I can’t claim decades of teaching experience, 12 years in the classroom have opened my eyes to some noticeable shifts in students. Of course, these insights are based on my own observations and experiences, so they might not resonate with fellow educators. But here goes:
Digital Fluency
Firstly, I can say that students these days are better equipped with technology and its usage in the classroom. This is different from the past, when I needed to provide step-by-step instructions on how to use particular software or apps. For example, back when I was using Padlet, I’d receive questions like, “How do I post my reflection on Padlet?” In contrast, today, students often suggest effective alternatives to Padlet themselves. However, being digitally fluent comes with its own disadvantages, as they may overuse or abuse the privilege. For instance, the current implementation of AI in various tools like Quillbot, ChatGPT, and Gemini gives us access to powerful resources, but the thinking process is sometimes stunted. I, for one, would never prohibit my students from using these tools, but I tell them to be smart about using them. The end product must reflect their own thinking process, with the tools serving to enhance their work. However, some of them are, as they say, “asleep at the wheel,” so my words may go unheeded. But, would this demotivate me? Of course! But would it stop me? NEVER!
Communication Gap
Secondly, I’ve noticed that I’m losing my connection with students more and more—not literally, but communicatively. I guess the generation gap is becoming more prominent, especially when I hear terms like “delulu,” “demure,” “rizz,” “cap,” “bussin,” and “sus.” For now, I’d say the gap is manageable since I’m on TikTok and familiar with the jargon, but I’m not so sure about the future, especially when Gen Alpha enters university (Lord, help me!). Beyond the vocabulary, I’m also concerned about how some students seem to be losing a sense of respect and common sense regarding their duties and responsibilities as students. I don’t expect songs of praise or anyone kissing my feet, but they should at least show respect for themselves as students. If not, what’s the point, right? Still, one bad apple doesn’t spoil the whole bunch, and I have hope for the future generation. As a teacher, I’m committed to finding ways to bridge the generational gap and foster a mutually respectful and productive learning environment.
Attention span and learning style
Thirdly, and to wrap up this post, let’s talk about a major challenge: shorter attention spans. The pandemic forced everyone into online learning back in 2020, and we all had to adapt to whatever tech we had, from shaky internet to limited devices. I noticed that students’ attention spans shrank significantly with online learning—and sadly, the trend seems to continue in physical classrooms. Students might be all in for the first 30 minutes, but then their focus starts to wander. It’s not entirely their fault; our gadget-dependent world plays a big part. Plus, students don’t just want to sit and listen for hours. They crave movement, challenges, and opportunities to lead. Thankfully, current UHLB courses are catching up with these needs. I’m all in on active learning and adding some gamification to my lessons. My hope is that, while not all students might get into it, some will find these approaches engaging and useful.
New semester begins on 18/10/2020 and this semester, I am responsible for 7 undergraduate general English courses namely:
1) UHLB 1112
2) UHLB 2122
3) ULAB 3162
Considering the mode of teaching and learning is still ODL, I decided to sort and organize my classes beforehand so no one (read: me) would be lost in the wilderness.
So, what did I do?
The moment I received the timetable with sections, I created Telegram groups, copied and shared (Control C, Control V) the links on E-Learning. I chose Telegram this time around because I love the extra functions such as folders and better usage capacity to share large materials. To ensure I am not confused which section is which, I coded them with images of different fruits just for the fun of it (Marvel characters? animals? colours? the option is unlimited). And then the waiting game began. Even until today I see new members entering the assigned fruits. Hopefully everyone will be accounted for by the end of Week 1.
Another reason why I prefer Telegram is because I can share information without waiting for everyone to enter and I do not have to re-share each time a new member joins. Such perks!
I hope it will help keep me and the students connected and engaged, inshaAllah.
