While the motivational effect of educational gamification is largely recognized, the impact of the gamification element virtual currency (VC) is underexplored, especially in an educational setting. To address this gap, the goal of the presented multi-case empirical study was to systematically explore the impact of virtual currency on learners’ engagement, motivation, and academic performance across different contexts and to uncover potentially generalizable results. Accordingly, this paper presents the outcomes of a multi-perspective analysis of students’ experiences in out-of-class practicing in a learning environment gamified with VC and the effect of this game element. The work builds on previous case studies with analogical goals, which the authors have conducted in different contexts, including the university type, student population, subject area, etc. The provided comprehensive cross-case analysis integrates and extends the previous results tracing the path to generalizable knowledge about the potential of VC. While the results of this multi-case study demonstrate a significant increase in student engagement in out-of-class practicing gamified with virtual currency, they fail to show a significant increase in students’ intrinsic motivation and students’ final course grades. This study is a step forward in enhancing our understanding of the multifaceted effect of virtual currency on learners’ experience.
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OneUp: Engaging Students in a Gamified Data Structures Course
Although many CS courses require extensive practice, a large number of students show low motivation for engaging in non-graded, self-directed learning activities. To address this problem, we developed OneUp – a highly configurable course gamification platform that enables instructors to tailor the gamification features to fit their preferences. This paper presents a case study of using OneUp to gamify a Data Structures course. The focus is on encouraging students’ self-study and better engagement with out-of-class online practicing. We describe the utilized game elements - badges, leaderboard, virtual currency, and learning dashboards, and provide a descriptive analysis of their use. The results of our evaluation show that this gamification intervention has been well received by the students, resulting in significantly increased student engagement and out-of-class practicing and in a reduced failing rate.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1821189
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10113967
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- 50th ACM Technical Symposium on Computing Science Education, Minneapolis, Minnesota
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 386 to 392
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Hilliger, I. ; Muñoz-Merino, P.J. ; De Laet, T. ; Ortega-Arranz, A. ; Farrell, T. (Ed.)As a gamification element, virtual currency (VC) stands for rewards that can be exchanged for virtual or real goods. While some forms of reward-based gamification have been studied extensively, the exploration of the impact of VC on learners is relatively scarce. In particular, there is a lack of studies investigating its effects in different learning contexts. Since VC can evoke perception of benefits with positive impact on course outcomes, it may be experienced as an extrinsic incentive. On the other hand, VC can promote internalized motivation when awarded for accomplishment of certain challenges. To bridge this gap we are conducting a longitudinal study on the impact of VC on student motivation and engagement in different contexts and with different types of learners. The goal of this paper is to empirically investigate whether and how VC can improve the engagement in out-of-class practicing of a certain population of learners in a gamified Discrete Structures course. The study demonstrated a strong positive impact of VC on learners’ engagement however VC exhibited no significant impact on students’ academic performance and intrinsic motivation.more » « less
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null (Ed.)There has been an increasing effort to make activities that are not inherently interesting for all learners more attractive through gamification. Although the research on the effectiveness of educational gamification has been growing, the effects of some gamification elements on learners’ motivation and engagement are not well understood. In response to this gap, in this paper we describe an experience of gamifying out-of-class practicing with Virtual Currency (VC) in a Computer Networking course. The results of our study show that the VC-based gamification (without interactions with any other gamification elements) had a positive impact on student engagement compared to non-gamified online practicing. The learners’ VC earning and spending behaviors indicate also that Virtual Currency brings additional objectives for students to strive for, besides grades.more » « less
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Gamification in education primarily aims at increasing learners’ motivation to engage in given learning activities and thereby promote desired learning behaviors. Despite its potential and the increasing number of gamified systems their success is still limited due to the fact that gamifying learning is a challenging process. Part of the challenge stems from an insufficient understanding of the motivational mechanisms of gamification on learners’ experience and from the insufficient attention to factors contributing to gameful experiences and promoting sustainable engagement. In addition, there is limited empirical evidence on motivational influences driving students to participate in gamified learning activities. Another factor slowing down the progress of successfully gamified applications is the scarcity of tools that would enable instructors to design and implement gamified activities as part of their instructional strategy. In an attempt to address these challenges, the present paper examines the difficulties inherent in the gamification of educational activities and how the OneUp gamification platform can support instructors in overcoming them with the mechanisms it provides for affording gameful experiences and sustainable engagement. To add to the understanding of the motivational influences towards gamified learning activities, the paper presents a preliminary study of student motivation to use OneUp for out-of-class practicing in a gamified Data Structures course. The outcomes of this study are based on data collected through a focus group, survey data, and system logs.more » « less
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null (Ed.)Effective gamification can only be based on understanding the relationship between learner motivation and the game elements which are used to gamify learning activities. Although frequently mentioned, Virtual Currency (VC) remains underused and scarcely studied in educational gamification. As a motivational affordance, VC can be thought of as supporting different types of motivation, but currently, there is a lack of empirical studies which investigate this. Recognizing this gap, the purpose of our study was to empirically investigate whether and how gamifying learning activities with virtual currency can engender motivation for out-of-class practicing and what type of motivation. In the limited research others have conducted, VC has been studied largely in combination with other game elements, which does not allow reaching reliable conclusions about the impact of the individual elements. For this reason, we studied the effects of VC in a gamified Discrete Math course isolated from other game elements. The study showed that using VC to gamify practicing increased students’ practicing activity, which resulted in improved academic performance. The study also revealed that while gamified practicing did not increase students’ intrinsic motivation, it supported internalization of motivation towards this learning activity.more » « less
- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Conference Paper:
- https://doi.org/10.1145/3287324.3287480
