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1. OneUp: Engaging Students in a Gamified Data Structures Course

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3287324.3287480  

   Dicheva, Darina; Irwin, Keith; Dichev, Christo (March 2019, 50th ACM Technical Symposium on Computing Science Education, Minneapolis, Minnesota)

   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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2. A Study of Using Virtual Currency in a Discrete Mathematics Course

   https://doi.org/10.1109/EDUCON46332.2021.9453893  

   Dicheva, Darina; Guy, Breonte; Yorgov, Vassil; Dichev, Christo; Irwin, Keith; Mickle, Charles (April 2021, 2021 IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON))

   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. 

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3. Gamification of Chemical Engineering Pathways: Evidence from Introductory Courses

   https://doi.org/10.18260/1-2--37217  

   Brown, Michael; Lamm, Monica; Nadolny, Larysa (July 2021, ASEE Conferences)

   The retention of students pursuing chemical engineering degrees is essential to the future science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) workforce, but failure in introductory chemistry coursework is a barrier to degree persistence and completion. Despite the positive research on impact of gamification on engagement and academic achievement, only a small number of gamification studies focus on large enrollment STEM courses like those taken by chemical engineers early in their major program, and few incorporate robust measures to rigorously and systematically assess students’ behavioral, cognitive, and affective changes. The goal of this study is to establish effective strategies for the application of gamification in courses that appear early in the chemical engineering curriculum, supporting the retention of students in the major and the graduation of chemical engineers. This was achieved through the development of a chemistry and chemical engineering focused dashboard that is integrated within an online learning management system that includes gamification tools (i.e., leaderboard, badges, and rewards). We report the results of a design-based research study of the dashboard in the introductory chemistry sequence for chemical engineers at a large research university. Students were provided access to the dashboard as part of the learning management system. The dashboard was designed to align to course content. As part of ABET accreditation, chemical engineering majors complete a progress assessment in their second year before progressing in the major. The badges provided to students in the system were based on concepts from the course that would appear on a progress assessment, and provide students an indication of their proficiency on the topic based on their performance in the course. Students were also provided a visualization of tasks to complete within each week, a ‘health’ monitor that provides them their average score on recent assignments by type (homework, exam, lab quizzes), and interactive rewards that surprised students based on their performance and engagement. Our analysis involves complementary methods of quantitative evaluation and qualitative description of how dashboard use impacted chemical engineering students’ motivation and performance in introductory chemistry coursework. We conduct a multi-variate linear regression model to predict students’ academic performance given their use of the student facing dashboard (n=548/578). We control for initial motivational beliefs as measured by Perez’s adaptation of Eccles’ expectancy value scale for STEM courses, students’ emerging engineering identity as measured by XXX instrument, and demographic differences. Our findings suggest that students benefit from using the dashboard as part of their engagement with course resources, such that as students’ engagement with the dashboard (as measured in accumulated page views) increases, their end of term grade increases (B=5.8 points on final grade out of 100, p=0.000). We did not observe significant differences by initial motivational beliefs, engineering identity scales, demographics, or students’ estimates on the amount of time spent preparing for class. Additionally, we conducted thematic analyses of students’ qualitative feedback on the dashboard features. Students identified the utility of the visualization for helping them plan their time for the week, and appreciated the feedback from the health monitor. 

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4. Exploring the Effect of Virtual Currency on Learners Engagement

   https://doi.org/10.1109/ICALT52272.2021.00033  

   Dicheva, Darina; Hsin, Wen-Jung; Dichev, Christo; Guy, Breonte; Cassel, Lillian; Irwin, Keith (July 2021, IEEE International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies (ICALT 2021))

   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. 

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5. An Empirical Study of the Effects of Virtual Currency on Learners in Out of Class Practicing

   https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-16290-9_6  

   Dicheva, D.; Cassel, L.; Styer, R.; Dichev, C.; Guy, B.; Irwin, K. (September 2022, European Conference on Technology Enhanced Learning (EC-TEL 2022))

   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. 

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