The effects of Gamification on engineering lab activities

Abstract

The aim of this study was to explore the effects of gamification on engineering lab activities by providing empirical evidence of the effect of gamification on students working in an engineering lab. Although gamification has been applied in several contexts including business, marketing, corporate management, and online communities and social networks, little research has been conducted on the application of gamification to engineering lab activities, nor is there empirical evidence to support the effectiveness of gamification at motivating and engaging students. For this study, two types of websites were created to collect data from students who enrolled an undergraduate introduction to human factors course taught at The Pennsylvania State University in the fall of 2015 semester. The two types of websites were Gamification (GM) and Non-Gamification (NG). While the GM website included game elements such as a Badge System, Score, Avatar, Leaderboard, Level, and Feedback (Notification), the NG website was a traditional website without game elements. In these websites, students could create their own multiple-choice questions (MCQs) and answer questions authored by classmates. The results suggest that the gamification of engineering lab activities had a positive effect in terms of motivation, engagement, and performance, indicated by the higher number of students who joined the GM website, the number of answers submitted by the GM group, the number of distinct days of participation, and the score of exam for the GM group. Thus, we can conclude that a positive effect of gamification on student learning in engineering lab activities was ultimately found.

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