[Paper Review] Pros and cons gamification and gaming in classroom

Iulian Furdu, Cosmin Tomozei+1 more|arXiv (Cornell University)|Aug 8, 2017

Educational Games and Gamification5 references101 citations

TL;DR

The paper evaluates the challenges, benefits, and drawbacks of gamification in education through exploratory case studies and a semester-long survey, including a competitive ranking plugin. It reports that motivation declined compared with the previous semester.

ABSTRACT

The aim of the current work is to assess the challenges that gamification in education are facing nowadays. Benefits and disadvantages of using gamification in classroom are both discussed to offer a clearer view on the impact of using gamification within learning process. Exploratory study cases are provided to investigate the relation between motivation and engagement of the students and gamification in training. Following this idea, a survey was conducted to assess how students behavior and motivation is affected by introducing a single, specific gamification element during a semester learning process. To stimulate competition among students, a ranking type plugin was introduced within the university learning management system used for extramural education. The results prove that motivation decreases by comparison to the previous semester.

Motivation & Objective

• Assess the current challenges and trade-offs of gamification in education.
• Investigate how gamification elements affect student motivation and engagement.
• Explore the relationship between motivation and engagement in gamified learning contexts.
• Provide empirical insights from exploratory cases and a semester-long survey.

Proposed method

• Conduct exploratory case studies to examine motivation and engagement under gamification.
• Implement a ranking-type gamification element within the university LMS used for extramural education.
• Perform a semester-long survey to assess changes in student motivation.
• Analyze qualitative and exploratory observations to relate motivation and engagement.

Experimental results

Research questions

• RQ1 What are the potential benefits and drawbacks of using gamification in classroom learning?
• RQ2 How does a specific gamification element (ranking) affect student motivation and engagement over a semester?
• RQ3 Does motivation in gamified contexts differ from motivation in non-gamified periods or previous semesters?

Key findings

• Motivation decreased when comparing the current semester to the previous one.
• Exploratory case studies are used to investigate the relation between motivation and engagement in gamified learning.
• A ranking-type gamification element was introduced to stimulate competition among students in the LMS for extramural education.