An app to ‘become’ a Jedi Knight increases exercise and reduces the risk of obesity among students

The project has been developed at the University of GranadaParticipants reduced their body mass index, waist circumference, fat mass index and body fat percentageParticipants have a countdown to perform weekly physical activities. If they do not succeed, they succumb to the “dark side” (comfort, conformism, laziness)The project ‘Star Wars: the first Jedi’, developed by the professor of the Department of Physical and Sports Education of the University of Granada (UGR) Isaac José Pérez has managed to motivate the student body of the Degree in Physical Activity and Sports Sciences to adopt healthy habits, while at the same time improving their physical condition and reducing the risk of obesity. This is demonstrated by a study carried out by Pérez along with Carmen Navarro and José Mora, also UGR researchers, as reported by the Granada academic institution in a press release on Tuesday.Gamifiction, on which this project is based, consists of the application of narrative techniques typical of television or film fiction in foreign contexts, such as university education, in this case. Thus, the project has included a mobile application, designed by Álvaro Fernández-Alonso Araluce, which was e Computer Engineering student at the UGR, to manage the different activities of the Fundamentals of Physical Activity and Sports subject. The narrative objective of the students was to become Jedi Knights. To do this, they had to comply with the physical activity recommendations that, in the adventure, allowed them to save time for life, since the app has used “a countdown” that, in the case of reaching zero, represented that they had succumbed to the temptations of “the dark side” (comfort, conformism, laziness), with all that this entails. To avoid this, they covered a series of kilometers a week running (or cycling) at a certain race pace. This circumstance was justified, within the existing narrative, as if they were making trips to other planets to make their inhabitants aware of the need to join the “rebellious alliance” and, in this way, “join forces and be able to build together a future hopeful in the educational galaxy”. The results, published in the scientific magazine Games for Health Journal, have revealed that the participants of the gamification program significantly reduced their body mass index, waist circumference, fat mass index and percentage of body fat after the intervention, compared to the control group.”All this represents a great contribution, since, in addition to consolidating the potential of gamifiction/gamification when it comes to increasing the motivation and involvement of university students with respect to to learning, it also provides new evidence on its impact on highly relevant health parameters”, explained Pére z.