Expected Versus Experienced Student Perceptions of Three Sequentially Delivered Game-Based Learning Activities in an Introductory Analytical Chemistry Course

Elementos de Química Analítica Cuantitativa is a mandatory first-year course for Agronomy students at Universidad de Concepción (Chile) in which, prior to this intervention, close to 40% of students scored below passing marks on instrumental-technique assessments. During the second semester of 2025, three game-based learning activities, namely Espectro-Bingo Agronómico (atomic spectrometry), La Misión Espectral (an escape room on IR/UV-Vis/Raman spectrometry), and El Gran Desafío Cromatográfico (a board game on gas and liquid chromatography), were delivered sequentially to one cohort. This exploratory study compared students’ expectations of each activity (PRE, collected at the start of the gameplay session) with their perceptions of the experienced activity (POST), using an activity-adapted version of the validated EVINED scale (Cronbach’s α and McDonald’s ω ≥ 0.87 for all dimensions). Matching by student code yielded 115 PRE–POST records from 52 unique students (34–43 per activity). Experienced perceptions exceeded expectations for the escape room (global score: mean difference = 0.15 points on a 1–5 scale, 95% CI 0.04–0.26; Holm-adjusted p = 0.034; rank-biserial r = 0.48) but not significantly for the bingo or board game; this exploratory result was not robust to the inclusion of unmatched respondents or to mixed-model estimation. A linear mixed model accounting for repeated observations of the same students showed a small overall expectation–experience difference (b = 0.11, 95% CI 0.02–0.21) that was sensitive to model specification, and no statistically detectable variation in this difference among the three activities (activity × occasion, p = 0.75), which does not imply that the formats are equivalent. High PRE-scores (about half of item responses at the scale maximum) limited the room for upward change. The findings concern students’ immediate perceptions rather than demonstrated learning; they document the implementation of three game-based activities in one course and students’ favorable immediate perceptions of them, not the educational effectiveness or superiority of any particular format.