Evaluation of the Implementation of a Timer in Gamified Programming Exercises

Gamification is fast growing in popularity and is being employed to improve user experience in many different contexts. There are limited studies investigating the effects of individual game mechanics on learning. The experiment conducted during this research project involved the implementation and evaluation of a countdown timer within the Code Avengers web application. The countdown element resulted in some change to the average time required to complete tasks. The first 50 tasks in the Code Avengers website (www.codeavengers.com) were completed an average of 6.6 seconds faster. The results show that the addition of a countdown element can affect the time users spend on tasks and raises questions related to the relationship between time on tasks, engagement, focus and motivation. This study represents a case study of the complexities involved in implementing and quantitatively evaluating game mechanics in learning tools.