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Investigating the Impact of a Meaningful Gamification-Based Intervention on Novice Programmers’ Achievement

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Artificial Intelligence in Education (AIED 2018)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 10947))

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Abstract

Gamification is becoming a popular classroom intervention used in computer science instruction, including CS1, the first course computer science students take. It is being used as a medium to encourage certain student behaviors in anticipation of positive effects on learning experience and achievement. However, existing studies have mostly implemented reward-based game elements which have resulted to contrasting behaviors among students. Meaningful gamification, defined as the use of game design elements to encourage users build internal motivation to behave in a certain way, is contended to be a more effective approach. This concept is founded on the ‘Self-Determination Theory’, which states that there are three components associated with intrinsic motivation: mastery, autonomy, and relatedness. This study describes the analysis of data collected from an experiment where students of an introductory programming class used a system embedded with elements that map to the components of the Self-Determination Theory: feedback cycles, freedom to fail, and progress to support mastery; control to enable autonomy; and collaboration for relatedness. It looks into whether the experimental group performed significantly better than the control group. It also tries to explore how different user types respond to the different game design elements.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the student participants who signified their voluntary participation in the study. We also like to thank the College of Information Technology, CBSUA-Sipocot, its Dean – Mr. Dennis Gabon, and the CS1 instructors for permitting us to collect data in their school. Much gratitude to the Department of Science and Technology–Engineering Research and Development for Technology (DOST-ERDT) for the scholarship awarded to the student researcher. Lastly, we thank the Ateneo Laboratory for the Learning Sciences (ALLS), Ateneo de Manila University for supporting this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ateneo de Manila University, Quezon City, Philippines

    Jenilyn L. Agapito & Ma. Mercedes T. Rodrigo

Authors
  1. Jenilyn L. Agapito
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  2. Ma. Mercedes T. Rodrigo
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jenilyn L. Agapito .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Carolyn Penstein Rosé

  2. University of Technology, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    Roberto Martínez-Maldonado

  3. University of Duisburg-Essen, Duisburg, Germany

    H. Ulrich Hoppe

  4. UCL Institute of Education, London, UK

    Rose Luckin

  5. UCL Institute of Education, London, UK

    Manolis Mavrikis

  6. UCL Institute of Education, London, UK

    Kaska Porayska-Pomsta

  7. Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Bruce McLaren

  8. University of Sussex, Brighton, UK

    Benedict du Boulay

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Agapito, J.L., Rodrigo, M.M.T. (2018). Investigating the Impact of a Meaningful Gamification-Based Intervention on Novice Programmers’ Achievement. In: Penstein Rosé, C., et al. Artificial Intelligence in Education. AIED 2018. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 10947. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93843-1_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93843-1_1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-93842-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-93843-1

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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