## 5 Conclusions  
In this paper, we presented the rhythmic dictation application, implemented into the Troubadour e-learning platform. The platform is an open-source, web-based platform for music theory learning. The platform was developed in order to engage students in music theory learning by offering them a flexible and individualised medium for practice through carefully tailored exercises. The platform is open source and it is publicly available on Bitbucket. It offers a supportive and flexible environment for the teachers and students. The rhythmic dictation application features a mobile-friendly user interface supported by gamification elements for attaining the students' engagement, while offering a flexible environment for the teachers. We investigated several aspects of the application--the user interface, the automatic exercise generation algorithm, the students' engagement, and their exam performance. The user interface and its keyboard for rhythm input was well-accepted. The automatic rhythmic sequence generation algorithm was evaluated through students' feedback regarding the exercise difficulty and their engagement. To further engage students, we created a five week challenge during which the students were asked to use the application through a gamified experience of collecting points and badges, which were visible to other students. In order to confirm the hypothesis about the application's impact on the students' performance, we compared the conventional exam results of the test groups students, who used the rhythmic dictation application, to control groups of students, who did not use the application. The evaluation showed that students support the use of a gamified rhythmic dictation application. The students also reported a very positive experience with the application, which was further substantiated by the claim that most of them would recommend the application to their friends. Therefore, the students supported the idea of an application, which offers them a modern medium of learning music theory as an additional (non-conventional) tool for ear training and music theory learning. The developed user interface for rhythmic dictation was considered easy to use. Nevertheless, there are several aspects that will be further improved in our future work through a deeper user experience analysis and iterative development of the interface. The results of the A/B test, in which we assessed the effect of rhythmic dictation application's use on the students' performance in exams were also promising. The comparison of exam results between the control and test groups showed a positive impact of the application's use on exam results, which was statistically significant for the second year test student group. Even though all first- and second-year students at the Conservatory were included in this study (either in control or in test groups), the results suffer from a relatively small student groups. The study was carried out at the Conservatory of music and ballet, Ljubljana, Slovenia, which represents roughly 50% of the state-wide student population enrolled in a music programme at the conservatory level. Based on the evaluation presented in this paper, we can corroborate that the gamified rhythmic dictation application aids the students' performance, which we attribute to gamification and automatization of rhythmic dictation exercises. In addition, the results of the conventional exam are a consequence of the application's use and the five-week challenge we underwent with the student test groups. Although our previous work [31] shows the beneficial impact of the platform on students' performance, the experimental setup in this paper includes in-class time spent with the students through the challenge, which could also be a contributing factor to their increase in performance. Finally, the results of this experiment should not be too quickly generalised onto more general groups, such as elementary music-school students.