A New Era of Productive Learning Focused on the Retention of Attention Span: VerbaSure

The COVID-19 pandemic has driven a major shift to online learning, creating significant challenges for educational institutions in Sri Lanka, particularly in addressing diverse learning needs and attention spans. This study highlights the need to keep students engaged in online settings through inclusive and interactive tools tailored to different learning styles. Through collaboration with students, HCI experts, psychology specialists, and lecturers, current online learning methodologies were analyzed, leading to the development of VerbaSure, a gamified web solution. VerbaSure follows Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles, offering multimodal content and game-like features such as story-based challenges, varied question formats, avatars, hints, motivational messages, points, and leaderboards. To evaluate the effectiveness of VerbaSure, a controlled study was conducted with first-year computer science students at a leading university in Sri Lanka. Participants used VerbaSure alongside traditional methods, and their attention and focus were monitored through eye tracking, mouse-clicking, and performance analysis. Positive results in attention span and performance improvement, supported by qualitative feedback, suggest that the model used in VerbaSure successfully enhances concentration and inclusivity in online learning environments. Thus, this research emphasizes the importance of integrating gamification and multimodal content to enhance attention spans and engagement levels for undergraduates in online learning environments.