Real-time Boredom Evaluation Technique in College Students

Introduction. Boredom in educational processes has been associated in various studies with a variety of negative effects. Many tools (scales) have been developed for its measurement; however, these scales are designed for the measurement of global boredom, that is, at the end of the process, not in its stages. The present study seeks to develop a methodology to evaluate the effect of boredom in the stages of a university class in order to have a tool for the quantitative evaluation of specific activities. Method. A boredom measurement scale is proposed together with a minimally disruptive intervention tool. The data thus obtained is subjected to mathematical processing to reduce the effect of subjectivity (perceived level of boredom) on the scale. The proposed methodology was applied to a group of students from the University of Costa Rica. Results. The most important result was the correlation between specific activities in a class and the gradient of boredom. Discussion. The reduction in the variability between students achieved with mathematical processing allows the proposed methodology to be used for the quantitative analysis of the stages of a class based on perceived boredom. This information can be used for the design of learning processes focused not only on the global process, but on each stage of it, which, to the best of our knowledge, is not achieved by any of the commonly used scales.