Strengthening an Educational Innovation Strategy: Processes to Improve Gamification in Calculus Course through Performance Assessment and Meta-evaluation

Abstract

The present study details the implementation of an improvement process for a gamification activity from a Calculus course for undergraduate students aimed to develop mathematical modeling competencies. The improvement process was studied taking into account three types of data: the results of the students' performance assessment, the meta-evaluation of the educational and proactive effects and gamification costs, and data on the level of satisfaction achieved on the educational activity. The results of 50 performance assessments were analyzed, as well as the results from the meta-evaluation process carried out by the course's teacher. The study concludes that while it is true that gamification is a strategy that introduces a high level of innovation and brings the type of motivation and emotion that encourages learning, its educational intent can be further strengthened by including performance assessment and metaevaluation processes to better understand its function and make adjustments to its design in a timely manner.

The Role of Gamification Techniques in Promoting Student Learning: A Review and Synthesis

“…In addition, students' motivation in the learning task can be stimulated with badges (Balci, Secaur, & Morris, 2018;Butler & Bodnar, 2017) by encouraging them to spend more time and devote more effort to earn more recognition . Previous studies Rincon-Flores, Gallardo, & de la Fuente, 2018) have also emphasized the role of badges in improving the performance of learners. For example, when students are encouraged to discuss cases and exchange ideas with others, they are likely to establish positive attitudes toward the task, thus enhancing their performance .…”

“…This includes increasing their efforts to achieve interpersonal and small-group skills. This method has also been used to facilitate students' performance Mekler et al, 2017;Rincon-Flores et al, 2018) through the process of goal setting. For example, when students are engaged in the gamified learning activity, they are likely to undergo motivational and behavioral changes subject to the limits of constraints such as one's ability.…”

“…This includes reminding students to contribute to the development of their own learning, as well as communicating the progress of their learning with other members. In addition, other scholars (e.g., Rincon-Flores et al, 2018; have reported that gamifying the learning activity by increasing the level of challenge can stimulate students' motivation and performance in a learning task. Avatarbased system has been used rarely in previous studies in which its use was limited to the development of students' learning performance.…”

Text Learning Model Description using Literature text

“…This is in accordance with the demands of the 2013 curriculum that a conducive learning climate will encourage the realization of an active, creative, effective and meaningful learning process (Mulyasa, 2006;Hyland & Lo, 2007;WARSITA, 2008). If this can be realized by the teacher, of course, good learning outcomes will be very easily achieved (Rincon-Flores et al, 2018: Bahremand, 2015.…”

The use of gamification in xMOOCs about energy: Effects and predictive models for participants’ learning

“…According to Werbach and Hunter's model (2012), challenges are part of the mechanics element since they smoothly integrate elements of learning (Gustetic, Crusan, Rader, & Ortega, 2015;Hamari et al, 2016) and gamification. In the same vein, activities in a game environment were designed to enable participants to apply their learning through solving a challenge-based problem (Kyewski & Krämer, 2018;Rincón-Flores, Gallardo, & Fuente, 2018) of the xMOOC energy course in which they were participating.…”