Measuring the effects on learning performance and engagement with a gamified social platform in an MSc program

New generations of students are highly involved with technology. Therefore, while coming to traditional classrooms, it is required to call for different forms of teaching that are more motivating and engaging for them. One approach to this problem is combining games and education. Gamification could...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Computer applications in engineering education 2020-01, Vol.28 (1), p.207-223
Main Authors: Garcia‐Cabot, Antonio, Garcia‐Lopez, Eva, Caro‐Alvaro, Sergio, Gutierrez‐Martinez, Jose‐Maria, de‐Marcos, Luis
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Communication skills
education
engagement
Gamification
Learning
learning performance
social
Social networks
Students
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Summary:New generations of students are highly involved with technology. Therefore, while coming to traditional classrooms, it is required to call for different forms of teaching that are more motivating and engaging for them. One approach to this problem is combining games and education. Gamification could be defined as the use of game design elements in non‐game contexts. The research gap in the literature could be found in requiring more experimental studies assessing if gamification can improve learning outcomes. To this end, this paper further contributes to determining if a gamified social e‐learning platform can improve the learning performance and engagement of MSc students. The developed platform combined submission of activities with points, achievements, leaderboards, and rewards (with a virtual store) and social elements such as friends, forums, Q&A, blogs, and microblogging. Results show that, indeed, social gamification is a suitable technique to improve the learning outcome of students, at least for those skills related to programming, providing more communication skills and producing more engagement and motivation while using the platform.
ISSN:1061-3773
1099-0542
DOI:10.1002/cae.22186