Abstract
Gamification is a term that has been used in education recently. According to Kapp (2014), gamification is the application of game design elements to a nongame context to increase student engagement and learning. Students in a university Intensive English Program often find the transition from school to university challenging. To encourage students to “demonstrate behavior and attitudes appropriate to a university environment”, which is one of the course goals, elements of gamification were introduced to motivate a group of 30 students to participate actively in class, submit assignments on time, work together collaboratively, and work independently to strengthen their skills. Students were awarded “experience points” (XP) for demonstrating these behaviors. Opportunities to gain additional XP for both individual and group challenges were made available and students could claim points for doing extra work using a Google Form. The points were added up using an Excel sheet and the leaderboard was updated every week as a motivator and to encourage competition. When students accumulated a certain number of points, they moved to a higher level and received a virtual badge. Achieving specific levels resulted in an individual or class-wide reward. A self-evaluation survey was administered to the students at the end of the course to assess the effect of the game structure on their motivation and performance, and the results were positive. The presenter will describe the gamification elements that were introduced, and will report on the results of the students’ self-evaluation. Questions from the audience will be welcome.
Author Information
Sophie Farag, The American University in Cairo, Egypt
Paper Information
Conference: ECLL2019
Stream: Psychology of the learner
This paper is part of the ECLL2019 Conference Proceedings (View)
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