Students' Perspectives on Badges in Educational Social Media Platforms: The Case of SAPO Campus Tutorial Badges

Abstract

This paper, reporting on research at an early stage, aims to analyse the impact of badges when used in conjunction with an introductory tutorial that aims to help users getting to know its most important areas and functionalities. With that in mind, a test session was designed, asking learners new to SAPO Campus platform (an institutionally supported social Web platform), to complete a tutorial, discovering the existence of badges and how they could be earned and associated with their profile page, visible to the community. Learners were also asked about the impact of badges on their desire to complete the tutorial, and their general attitude towards being rewarded for completing several actions inside and outside the platform. Preliminary data reveals that learners considered that badges had a significant positive contribute to make them feel more engaged and motivated to complete the tutorial.

Peer-supported badge attribution in a collaborative learning platform: The SAPO Campus case

“…More information about the ''User-generated badges'' in SAPO Campus can be found in previously published works (cf. Santos, Almeida, Pedro, Aresta, & Koch-Grunberg, 2013).…”

Gamification of Education: A Review of Literature

“…Santos et al [18] conducted a case study that explored students' experiences while earning badges in a learning process. More than 90% of the students agreed that the badge system in education made them more focused, motivated, and engaged.…”

“…Badges are effective in inspiring learners to work towards future goals [16]. The majority of the student respondents in Santos et al's [18] survey also felt that badges helped to keep them engaged, especially in the classroom context, and motivate them to carry out future learning tasks.…”

The SAPO Campus recommender system: a study about students’ and teachers’ opinions

“…Also, due to the interest that the badging system is currently raising (see Santos et al 2013) and taking into account the potential of recommendations in promoting the interaction and the involvement within the SAPO Campus community, recommendations of other types of content, specially badges the user can win, are likely to be introduced at SAPO Campus, in order to explore the interest that both features seem to promote.…”