Research into oodlü in Indonesian schools found a dramatic improvement in student scores.

This month, a research team at Universitas Muhammadiyah Makassar published findings that made our day.

Ardiansyah, Maman A. Majid Binfas, and Firdaus R conducted a rigorous study with 84 students across three classes at MTs Muhammadiyah Lempangang in Gowa Regency, Indonesia. They tested whether using oodlü actually changes how interested children become in learning science.

The answer was clear: it does.

The Research

Published in July 2025 in JagoMIPA: Jurnal Pendidikan Matematika dan IPA, the study used a pre-experiment design (one group pretest-posttest model) to measure science learning interest before and after oodlü implementation.

The results speak for themselves.

Students' average science learning interest scores increased from 71.20 before using oodlü to 81.52 after implementation. That's meaningful movement. The statistical analysis confirmed this wasn't chance: significance value of 0.000, well below the 0.05 threshold.

But the numbers tell only part of the story.

What Actually Changed

During classroom observations, the researchers tracked how students behaved. On the first meeting, 52.55% of students were actively engaged. By the third meeting, that had grown to 76.19%.

More students were paying attention. More were taking notes. More were asking questions. More were answering questions. More were working actively on problems. The engagement wasn't hypothetical. It was measurable and visible.

Teachers reported that before oodlü, science classes relied on lecture-based instruction with conventional media. Students were passive. Uninterested. Classes felt like obligation rather than exploration.

After introducing oodlü, the dynamic shifted. Students became actors in their own learning rather than passive recipients of information. The game-based approach created what the researchers called "motivational sport talk" - when outcomes depend on chance as well as learning, students experience both the intellectual challenge and the emotional engagement that makes learning stick.

Why This Matters

This isn't a vendor-sponsored study claiming their product changes the world (we only just found it ourselves!). Rather, this is rigorous academic research conducted by Indonesian educators who wanted to know whether game-based learning actually works in their classrooms with their students.

They found it does.

The research team approached this with proper methodology. They measured before and after. They observed what was actually happening, not just what students reported. They used statistical analysis to confirm the findings weren't coincidence. They published in a peer-reviewed journal.

This is what responsible research looks like.

We're genuinely grateful to Ardiansyah, Maman A. Majid Binfas, and Firdaus R for doing this work. They didn't have to. They chose to measure what actually happens when children engage with oodlü in real classrooms with real pressures and real constraints.

They found that learning interest increases. That engagement grows. That what felt like a passive classroom becomes one where students want to participate.

Read the Full Study

The complete research paper is available here:

Title: Pengaruh Aplikasi Mobile Learning Oodlu Berbasis Game Edukasi terhadap Minat Belajar IPA Siswa Kelas VII MTs Muhammadiyah Lempangang Kabupaten Gowa (The Effect of the Game-Based Educational Oodlu Mobile Learning Application on Grade VII Students' Interest in Learning Science at MTs Muhammadiyah Lempangang, Gowa Regency)

Authors: Ardiansyah, Maman A. Majid Binfas, Firdaus R

Institution: Universitas Muhammadiyah Makassar, Makassar, Indonesia

Journal: JagoMIPA: Jurnal Pendidikan Matematika dan IPA, Volume 5, Issue 3, 2025 DOI:https://doi.org/10.53299/jagomipa.v5i3.1947

Download PDF (Indonesian)

Download PDF (English - Translated with Claude AI, so translation and illustrations are not perfect)

If you're an educator considering whether game-based learning actually works, this research suggests the answer is worth exploring.

We'd love to hear your thoughts on this. Find us on the social channels linked at the top of the page.