Exploring Education Students’ Engagement with Mentimeter in Higher Education: A Mixed-Methods Study

In recent years, digital and interactive teaching tools have become increasingly common in higher education classrooms. Student Response Systems (SRS), such as Mentimeter, are often used to support real-time responses, anonymous contributions, and immediate feedback. However, student engagement is not only about whether students answer questions in class. It also includes how students understand lesson content, how confident or motivated they feel, and how they evaluate their own learning. Therefore, this study used a four-dimensional engagement framework to examine students’ experiences of Mentimeter more broadly, including participation, skills, performance and emotional engagement. This study analysed 29 valid questionnaire responses and one focus group with five participants. The findings suggest that Mentimeter’s strongest influence was on classroom participation. Its anonymous format reduced the pressure of speaking publicly and provided a safer way for less confident students to contribute. It also supported some students in checking their understanding through immediate feedback.

However, its impact was not automatic or entirely positive. Participation through Mentimeter could sometimes remain brief, especially when lecturers displayed students’ answers quickly without further explanation or discussion. As a result, its influence on students’ learning interest, motivation and deeper interaction was more limited. Overall, this study shows that Mentimeter can help students participate in class in a safer and more accessible way, but it does not automatically create high-quality engagement. Its educational value depends on how lecturers design questions, respond to students’ answers, and use students’ responses to support further discussion.