Exploring the Impact of Non-conventional Gamification Elements on Student Motivation and Engagement

D. Dicheva, Christo Dichev, L. Cassel, Breonte Guy, Keith Irwin
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Abstract

This Full Paper in the Research-to-Practice track builds on research in gamification of instruction. A primary objective of gamifying learning is to encourage and sustain students' engagement in activities by making them more gamelike. However, it is still unclear what structures borrowed from games could afford such a “game-like” experience and in what contexts. Embedding classmates' duels in learning settings seems a promising gamification strategy for exploration due to its potential of increasing motivation and engagement through a “game-like” experience. Similar effects are expected from using virtual currency, another design element popular in video games. Accordingly, the goal of this study is to empirically investigate whether the incorporation of dueling leads to increased interest in out-of-class practicing. In addition, we were interested in investigating to what an extent adding virtual currency can boost students' interest in dueling. An introductory class in Python programming served as the experimental environment. Unlike most studies in which the control group works in a non-gamified condition and the experimental group works in a gamified condition, this experiment uses a different approach. We investigated the impact on learners' engagement of adding duels to an ongoing gamified activity. Engagement indicators were measured and logged throughout the semester while student motivation was examined through surveys. The opportunity to challenge classmates appeared after the first exam (around one-third of the semester) and continued for the remaining two thirds of the class time. Thus, the same students in the new condition served as the experimental group. After the third exam, we added virtual currency. Students were able to earn virtual currency by issuing and responding to duel requests as well as by doing extra practice. This had a noticeable effect on the use of dueling. The empirical results of the study show that overall, for this group of students, adding duels alone had no positive effect on students' engagement with the gamified practicing system. However, evidence from the survey suggests that the studied combination of gamification elements (points, badges, leaderboard, avatars, duels, and virtual currency) did increase student intrinsic motivation.
探索非传统游戏化元素对学生动机和参与度的影响
本论文在“从研究到实践”的轨道上建立在教学游戏化研究的基础上。游戏化学习的一个主要目标是通过使活动更像游戏来鼓励和维持学生的参与。然而,我们仍然不清楚从游戏中借鉴的哪些结构能够提供这种“游戏般的”体验,以及在什么背景下。在学习环境中嵌入同学的决斗似乎是一种很有前途的探索游戏化策略,因为它有可能通过“游戏式”体验增加动机和参与度。使用电子游戏中另一种流行的设计元素——虚拟货币也会产生类似的效果。因此,本研究的目的是实证调查是否纳入决斗导致课外练习的兴趣增加。此外,我们还想调查添加虚拟货币能在多大程度上提高学生对决斗的兴趣。一个Python编程入门课程作为实验环境。在大多数研究中,控制组在非游戏化条件下工作,实验组在游戏化条件下工作,与此不同的是,该实验采用了不同的方法。我们调查了在正在进行的游戏化活动中添加决斗对学习者参与度的影响。整个学期都在测量和记录参与指标,同时通过调查来检查学生的动机。挑战同学的机会出现在第一次考试之后(大约学期的三分之一),并持续到剩下的三分之二的课堂时间。因此,新条件下的同一组学生作为实验组。第三次考试后,我们添加了虚拟货币。学生们可以通过发出和回应决斗请求以及进行额外练习来赚取虚拟货币。这对决斗的使用产生了明显的影响。研究的实证结果表明,总体而言,对于这组学生来说,单独增加决斗对学生参与游戏化练习系统没有积极的影响。然而,调查证据表明,游戏化元素(积分、徽章、排行榜、化身、决斗和虚拟货币)的组合确实提高了学生的内在动机。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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