Investigating the effects of gamification on student learning engagement and performance

Abstract

Unlike full-fledged games, gamification uses game elements and mechanics in non-game contexts to engage people with fun experiences and change their behaviors. Despite the growing interest in gamification in education, there are still three main research gaps in the existing literature.

First, previous studies have reported mixed findings of gamification with some reporting positive effects, and others reporting no effects or adverse effects on students’ learning outcomes. Contradictory results reported in the literature make it difficult to decide whether to support gamification in education.

Second, gamification research still lacks theoretical foundations, which leads to a partial view of gamification, as well as shortcomings in research designs.

Third, most gamification interventions used a combination of various game elements to examine gamification effects. However, to gain a better understanding, the effects of individual game element should be studied to have an unconfounding understanding of one game element.

Thus, I propose three studies to address the three aforementioned gaps. First, I conducted a meta-analysis of 30 independent interventions to compare gamified learning with non-gamified learning in Study One. The results indicated an overall significant moderate effect size in favor of gamification over learning performance without gamification (Hedges' g = 0.504, 95% CI [0.284–0.723], p < 0.001).

Second, I used the design-based research approach to test and refine a theoretically grounded goal-access-feedback-challenge-collaboration (GAFCC) gamification model in two iterations in a fully online course. In Experiment 1 (semester one of the 2020–2021, N = 26, fully online teaching mode), the results of the GAFCC model showed that although most participants were engaged in this gamified learning experience during the first two sessions, their participation in online activities dropped over the next eight weeks. Thus, I introduced a new element, fantasy, into the original model. In Experiment 2 (semester two of 2020–2021, N = 23, fully online teaching mode), the results of the goal-access-feedback-challenge-collaboration-fantasy (GAFCC-F) model suggested a higher students’ learning performance and more peers’ interaction in online discussions than the original model.

I conducted Study Three to investigate the effects of three levels of positions (i.e., top-, middle- and bottom-third rankings) on an absolute leaderboard or a relative leaderboard on students’ learning outcomes in a fully online course. The results showed that three groups of positions had no statistically significant difference in learning performance or course engagement levels when an absolute leaderboard was used. However, the top-third ranked learners outperformed the middle- and bottom-ranked ones significantly in learning performance but there was no significant difference in course engagement when a relative leaderboard was used. 88% of the participants expressed a positive attitude towards the gamified course with the presence of a leaderboard for sustaining the competitiveness against peers.

The three studies deepened the understanding of using gamification in education. Study One addressed the overall effects of gamification; Study Two modified the theoretical foundation of gamification design to better enhance student course engagement, and Study Three examined the effects of one game element leaderboard on student learning outcomes.