Studying the Impact of Gamification on Learning and Engagement of Introverted and Extroverted Students

Abstract

The gamification of education can help generate levels of involvement and dedication similar to games, enhancing specific skills, engaging students, and maximizing learning. However, some studies have shown detrimental results depending on the user's characteristics. It is still necessary to study the relationship between the user's profile, activity performed and the gamification elements applied. With this goal, this work incorporated gamification with points, ranking and badges into a programming learning environment to study the effects of these gamification elements on students' learning, behavior and en-gagement according to their personality trait of extroversion. An experimental evaluation was carried out during four months with 40 undergraduates students of first-year introductory courses on programming, in which half of the students used the gamified version of the learning environment and the other half the same learning environment with no gamification. We have found evidence that gamification affected the engagement of introverted and extroverted participants differently. Introverted students who used the gamified version of the educational learning system submitted a greater number of correct solutions, had shown to be more engaged to gain points and badges, and had highest ranking visualization when compared to extroverts of the gamified group. These results contribute to the understanding that the effect of gamification depends on users' specific characteristics, such as the personality trait.