Higher education student's attitude towards using gamification and its relation with achievement

• Autores: Celis, Magna Guerrero, Fajardo, Soraya Yrigoyen, Sambuceti, Giovanna Vassallo, Barros, Rossana
• Formato: artículo
• Fecha de Publicación: 2023
• Institución: Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas
• Repositorio: UPC-Institucional
• Lenguaje: inglés
• OAI Identifier: oai:repositorioacademico.upc.edu.pe:10757/673099
• Enlace del recurso: http://hdl.handle.net/10757/673099
• Nivel de acceso: acceso embargado
• Materia: academic performance; education; gamification

The aim of this study was to determine the possible relation between higher education students' attitude towards the use of gamification with their academic performance. 'Gamification is using game-based mechanics, aesthetics and game thinking to engage people, motivate action, promote learning, and solve problems' [1, p. 10]. 280 first year university students taking a basic mathematics course participated in the study. Gamification activities were part of the course. Students were asked to answer a survey that measured their attitude towards the gamification activities and a survey that assessed their motivation. Students were also assessed on mathematical achievement. Correlations between the measures were carried out to find out if there is a relationship between their attitude toward these activities, their motivation and their performance. Results show that there was a significant relation between attitude towards gamification activities and student's motivation (r=.92, p<.01), but two correlations between attitude and motivation with their mathematical achievement were found non-significant (r=.04,p=.65;r=.02, p=.76). These results highlight the importance of using new activities like gamification to keep students motivated, but this has no relation with their performance. A future experimental study is needed to assess the impact of these activities on students learning.