A Gamification Proposal to Support the Onboarding of Newcomers in the FLOSScoach Portal

Abstract

Several Open Source Software projects depend on volunteers' contributions and need a continuous influx of newcomers for their sustainability. However, newcomers face many barriers when making their first contribution. In a previous work, a web-based portal called FLOSScoach was proposed to support the first contribution of newcomers to Open Source Software Projects. The preliminary evaluation indicated that FLOSScoach has played an important role in guiding newcomers and in lowering barriers related to the orientation and the contribution process. Gamification has been widely used to engage and motivate people to accomplish tasks and improve their performance. Therefore, the goal of this study is to present the FLOSScoach gamification proposal, which is illustrated in the form of the high-fidelity prototypes as a step to support on the decision of the game elements. We also report on insights gathered in an evaluation of the proposed prototype.