Comparing digital badges-and-points with classroom token systems: Effects on elementary school ESL students' classroom behavior and English learning

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La Gamificación como estrategia didáctica para la enseñanza/aprendizaje de la programación: un mapeo sistemático de literatura

The incorporation of gamification into Programming courses has been identified as a potential strategy that could maximize student participation and have a positive impact on learning. To our knowledge, there is no study aimed at collecting and analyzing research results on this subject using a systematic method. To fill this gap, a systematic mapping of literature was carried out with the aim of summarizing the studies on the use of gamification as a didactic strategy for teaching/learning of Programming. Initially, through the search in four (4) digital libraries, 186 studies were obtained. Then, after a careful analysis of each of them, we verify that only 78 match our needs. Finally, we have categorized the contributions of these studies to present an overview of the results produced by the research community.La incorporación de la gamificación en cursos de Programación ha sido identificada como una estrategia potencial que podría maximizar la participación de los estudiantes y tener un impacto positivo en el aprendizaje. Hasta donde sabemos, no existe un estudio dirigido a recopilar y analizar los resultados de investigación sobre este tema utilizando un método sistemático. Para llenar este vacío, se realizó un mapeo sistemático de literatura con el objetivo de resumir los estudios sobre el uso de la gamificación como estrategia didáctica para la enseñanza/aprendizaje de la Programación. Inicialmente, mediante la búsqueda en cuatro (4) bibliotecas digitales, se obtuvieron 186 estudios. Luego, después de un cuidadoso análisis de cada uno de ellos, verificamos que sólo 78 coinciden con nuestras necesidades. Por último, hemos categorizado las contribuciones de estos estudios para presentar una visión general de los resultados producidos por la comunidad investigadora

“Whither, badges?” or “wither, badges!”: a metastudy of badges in Computer Science education to clarify effects, significance and influence

Gamification is becoming a widely used technique in an at- tempt to improve engagement and effectiveness of learning, with virtual rewards (often in the form of badges) frequently forming a core part of this structure. But how do badges actually work? Recent studies in gamification have clearly identified that while we can say this approach works, any analysis of the success stories quickly confirms that context is essential in both the system we gamify and the users that take part. In the absence of context, a badge is obviously meaning and valueless, but studies in badge use generally refer to success without focusing on the underlying process and, in some cases, report significance without effect size, report the badge without the process or do not sufficiently isolate the variables to allow us to address what the influence of the badge is. In this paper, we classify the existing work to identify the existing research where badges have been evaluated in a way that appears significant, with properly established control groups, isolation of factors and longitudi- nal considerations, and with an exposure of the underlying process to determine if what we are seeing is a successful process in action that has a badge at the end, rather than a process that has been made successful through badge use. A badge system can be a proxy for scaffolding and an individ- ual badge can give focus much in the way we would expect in cognitive apprenticeship but both of these outcomes have strong implications that there is a definite limit to how many badges we award, the way in which they are contextualised and the training framework in which they are presented.Nickolas J. G. Falkner, Katrina E. Falkne

The effect of perceived relevance of digital badges on student engagement

Open digital badge systems have been promoted as potentially impactful interventions in education, but past studies have found learning and motivational effects that vary drastically by learner, and it is unclear what elements matter. This may be due to a failure to account for learners’ subjective evaluations of the badges themselves, which likely moderate the badges’ impact. I propose a theoretical model which unpacks the traditional “black box” view, shifting the focus from effects of digital badges to processes by which badges affect learners. In the initial model, learners’ subjective evaluation of badges determines their engagement with badges, which in turn influences their engagement with program activities. If there is such an effect, I am interested in whether it is a general mechanism across contexts; whether its effects are equitable with respect to age, sex, and race; and whether it may inform the design of better badging systems in the future. Chapter 1 situates this work in relation to previous digital badge research, and introduces a synthetic badge-facing factor called Perceived Badge Relevance (PBR) that represents the degree to which a learner finds a program’s badges “relevant” to them: whether the learner thinks the badges make sense, thinks they are valuable, and wants to earn them. Chapter 2 uses PBR to test for subjective evaluation of badges effects on learner engagement across 45 summer programs, finding an overall positive relationship between PBR and engagement that does not vary between programs. Shifting to a design-based research mode, Chapter 3 describes the design for a robust badge evidence system, used by the badge system in Chapter 4, which tests for a longitudinal effect of PBR in an online course. This study finds that PBR predicts rank-order shifts in engagement over time, is not “explained away” by long-term interest or demographics, and is neutral with respect to age, sex, and minoritized racial status. Engagement also predicts relative change in PBR, indicating the potential for a positive feedback loop. Chapter 5 synthesizes conclusions across studies, evaluates support for the subjective evaluation of badges hypothesis, and puts forth a continuing research agenda