Utilizing crossword puzzle solving as educational assignments in the special software for university e-learning (NAVID) for students of rehabilitation sciences

In this longitudinal (case-control) study, speech therapy and physiotherapy students of Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences (AJUMS) were selected and randomly divided into two groups. Only the NAVID virtual education system was used to teach the theoretical units of these two groups. The homework of the first group was presented as solving a crossword puzzle in the NAVID system (the questions of the crossword puzzles were extracted from the educational content of the same lesson). But in the second group, homework was conventionally and traditionally uploaded to the virtual system. At the end of the semester, the final exam score, percentage of students' participation in homework, and their satisfaction with the methods of providing homework in the NAVID system as outcome measures were compared between the two groups.
In the results, there was no significant difference between the final exam score of the two groups (P>0.05). Regarding students' response to educational assignments, the percentage of students' participation in homework of the crossword-solving group was significantly higher than the control group (P=0.003). Students' satisfaction with the crossword-solving method was also significantly higher than the traditional method (P=0.001). According to a survey of students, the factors of attractiveness and innovation, learning in the form of games and entertainment, competitiveness, activeness and interactivity of the crossword-solving method were the features that led students to consider this method as a preferred way to do homework.
 
Utilizing crossword puzzle solving as educational assignments in the special software for university e-learning (NAVID) for students of rehabilitation sciences
  The corona virus pandemic in Iran caused many changes in the educational system of universities, such that most of the curriculum and educational materials were transferred through online or offline software. In attendance training, the instructor and the learner are completely face-to-face, but in virtual training, the relationship between the instructor and the learner is indirect and through a mediator. Traditionally, in the educational system of rehabilitation sciences, the responsibility of the teaching content is on lecturers, and the learners mostly play the role of passive listeners. Such an environment will cause mental fatigue during the class session, frequent exits from the learning environment, and not doing homework on time will be. Crossword puzzles are a type of puzzle or a selection of words that are usually designed as checkered squares. The purpose of such puzzles is to fill the empty houses with alphabet letters based on riddles or questions that are designed about each row of houses vertically or horizontally. The usefulness of cross word puzzles on learning terminology, defining scientific concepts, memorizing and recalling scientific information has been proven in students of medical, dental, and pharmaceutical fields. So far, the effects of this method on facilitating the teaching and learning process of rehabilitation science students have not been investigated. The purpose of this study was whether the use of cross word puzzles in the assignment menu in the NAVID system can increase the participation of undergraduate rehabilitation science students in completing assigned assignments faster or not.
In the present case-control study, 73 speech therapy undergraduate students (in the second semester of 1399-1400) were selected from the Faculty of Rehabilitation Sciences of Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences. The students were randomly divided into two groups, the case and the control, so that 37 students were the case group (recipients of crossword puzzles as homework) and 36 students were the control group (the recipients of the traditional method for doing educational homework). None of the students had completed a study course based on the crossword teaching/learning method. The crossword puzzles used in this study were designed by the professors themselves. Each puzzle included a set of specialized questions from educational content and a set of general information questions. Students were given a maximum of three days to solve a word table (as an assignment given in the NAVID system). After solving the puzzle, every student had to upload it along with the keyword in NAVID software. In the final part of each session, the lecturer would ask and answer questions with the students based on the questions presented in the puzzle and fix the problems. Instead, the tasks of the control group were presented in a traditional way (project completion, multiple-choice test, etc.). The final grade of the end-of-semester exam, the quality of participation and the speed of students' responses to assignments, and the degree of students' satisfaction with the method of presenting assignments were measured as outcome variables and compared between the two groups.
More than 63% of students who received crossword puzzles as homework answered their homework in the early hours or on the first day. Instead, only about 27% of the students in the control group (traditional assignments) answered their assignments in the early hours or on the first day. The speed of responding and completing assignments was significantly different between the two groups (p<0.05). The number of students in the control group who postponed their assignments to the second and third days (nearly 73%) was significantly more than the students in the case group (nearly 36%) who postponed their homework to the second and third days. The mean score of students' satisfaction with the presentation of homework in the form of solving crosswords in the NAVID system was significantly higher than the control group (p=0.001).
The response speed of rehabilitation science students to assignments loaded in the form of crosswords in NAVID system was higher than the traditional method. Researchers in the field of education consider the enjoyable and challenging nature of a task to be motivational factors for learners to do that task. In fact, these factors increase the learner's internal motivation to do homework. Crossword puzzles are helpful in identifying knowledge areas and solving knowledge deficiencies and weaknesses of students. This means that the above method, by providing a platform and a competitive environment for doing academic/educational assignments in the space of the NAVID system, was able to increase the motivation and desire of students to do the academic/educational assignments faster. Also, this approach provided a pleasant and satisfying learning environment for students.