Application of Gamification in a College STEM Introductory Course: A Case Study
Author: Machajewski, Szymon Tomasz
Date: 2017-07-14
Type: Dissertations/Theses - Doctoral Dissertations
Subjects: College Science,STEM Education,Introductory Courses,Case Studies,Educational Games,Teaching Methods,Computer Science Education,Student Experience,Qualitative Research,Content Analysis,Student Participation,Learner Engagement,Student Motivation,Course Evaluation,Transcripts (Written Records),Motivation Techniques,Academic Persistence,School Holding Power

Between 2000 and 2016, the STEM industry reportedly added jobs at the rate of 28% while all jobs were growing at only 6%. However, 48% of bachelor's degree students and 69% of associate's degree students in STEM majors left their program of study between 2003 and 2009. The high attrition rate is often attributed to low student engagement, boredom, alienation, lack of diversity in student population, and faculty attitudes. This exploratory case study demonstrates thick descriptions of student experiences in an Introduction to Computing course with a special focus on gameful design of short-term and long-term course activities. The findings of this case study described an application of gamification to increase engagement. The participants of the case study include 501 students enrolled in 4 semesters and 15 courses. Through the process of qualitative content analysis, 1002 course review comments and 182 comments from a third-party source were categorized and processed into emerging themes and patterns. The lecture themes identified in qualitative content analysis were intellectual engagement, emotional engagement, behavioral engagement, physical engagement, and social engagement. The course-long themes to promote participation were attendance, management of anxiety, assignment completion, timely feedback, mastery of the material, and course completion. The implications of the case study included a demonstration of a working gamification system for high enrollment and mandated curriculum courses. The first research question: &quot;How does gamification encourage engagement during lectures?&quot; addresses student willingness to use their personal devices in active learning with the Kahoot peer-response system, the reciprocal nature of engagement between instructors and students, and the importance of games as an instructional metaphor. The second research question: &quot;How does gamification encourage participation in the activities during the entire length of the course?&quot; focuses on the role of instructional design in a candidate course for gamification, a variety of tools necessary to promote course-long engagement, a bridge in the affective domain from disinterest to emotional investment, and the application of the Anna Karenina principle for adoption of gamification. The following are appended: (1) Instructions in the Journal assignment inside of the Blackboard Learn LMS; (2) University facilitated course reviews through IASystem; (3) Course Evaluations Coding Sheet, RateMyProfessors.com Coding Sheet, Journals Coding Sheet; (4) RateMyProfessors.com review form; (5) Gamification software with a ledger of XP and evidence of activity; (6) Kahoot results in the cloud system; (7) Code.org activity report; and (8) CodeCombat.com activity report.