A methodology for gamifying of the educational process

Abstract—In this research study, the authors designed

Gamificacion in education and active methodologies at Higher education

In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in applying Gamification in Education, which can be defined as the application of game design elements to learning activities. Its purpose is to motivate students by creating an engaging learning experience that can keep students focused on the learning task and its application in the classroom, is still in its emergent stages. Gamification is a great challenge for education, particularly in Higher Education Institutions (HEI) in such a traditional context, as is the case with courses like Management and Administration Business, Finance and Accounting, Marketing and Market Research, Chemistry, Accounting and Administration and Business Communication. This paper presents a study, applied in the 2016/2017 and 2017/2018 academic years, in which the teaching method focuses on a blended learning approach, through the implementation of a flipped classroom model and also through the introduction of online gamification activities such Kahoot! application. Kahoot is a game-based learning platform, used as educational technology that can easily be used for initial, formative and summative assessment of students’ knowledge using individual or collaborative team work mode, adding vitality, student engagement, and also meta-cognitive supports to higher education classrooms with limited instructor or student training required. The participants, in the study, were about 3 000 students of 17 different subjects from the aforementioned courses, of the Malaga University and Polytechnic of Porto. The results of this study suggest that this model improves student learning and are of relevance to researchers, educators and game-based learning designers.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tec

Gamification in IT Service Management: A Systematic Mapping Study

Despite the benefits of adopting IT Service Management (ITSM) reference models, such initiatives do not always produce the expected results. The research literature in this area concludes that motivation, engagement, skills, experience, performance and willingness to change of the personnel involved are among the critical factors for an effective ITSM implementation. Gamification has the capability to improve people's motivation and engagement and to drive people's behavior to meet the objectives set. Besides, gamification is widely used in learning systems for increasing students' skills and competences. In the last years, many researchers have added gamification to their process improvement initiatives to increase the motivation and engagement of process participants and to address their behavior throughout the process. Thus, we consider that adopting gamification in ITSM processes can be an interesting area of study. In this paper, we conducted a systematic mapping study to analyze the actual state of research in the field of ITSM gamification and identify the key challenges that justify future research. The results of our study highlight the positive impact of adopting gamification in ITSM processes and that ITSM gamification is a novel an attractive research area with many action possibilities

Argotario: Computational Argumentation Meets Serious Games

An important skill in critical thinking and argumentation is the ability to spot and recognize fallacies. Fallacious arguments, omnipresent in argumentative discourse, can be deceptive, manipulative, or simply leading to `wrong moves' in a discussion. Despite their importance, argumentation scholars and NLP researchers with focus on argumentation quality have not yet investigated fallacies empirically. The nonexistence of resources dealing with fallacious argumentation calls for scalable approaches to data acquisition and annotation, for which the serious games methodology offers an appealing, yet unexplored, alternative. We present Argotario, a serious game that deals with fallacies in everyday argumentation. Argotario is a multilingual, open-source, platform-independent application with strong educational aspects, accessible at www.argotario.net.Comment: EMNLP 2017 demo paper. Source codes: https://github.com/UKPLab/argotari

Learning computing heritage through gaming – whilst teaching digital development through history

This paper analyses the potential of computer games and interactive projects within the learning programmes for cultural heritage institutions through our experiences working in partnership between higher education and a museum. Gamification is cited as a key disruptive technology for the business and enterprise community, and developments in games technology are also driving the expansion of digital media into all different screen spaces, and various platforms. Our research aims to take these as beneficial indicators for pedagogic development, using gaming to support knowledge transfer related to a museum setting, and using the museum as a key scenario for our students to support the practice of game development. Thus gamification is applied as both a topic and a methodology for educational purposes

The Business of Gamifying School Work. Perceptions of the Gamification Phenomenon and the Services and Companies Behind It

If we think about the earliest exposure that we, as individuals, have to schedules, routines, effort, and hard work, most probably it is schooling and elementary education in particular that first comes to mind. Historically, teachers have tried (based on learning theory or their own intuition) to motivate students by making learning fun; however, more recently, many schools have become fascinated by the digital gamification phenomenon. This work explores the diverse perceptions of the role of this digital gamification among teachers and principals in urban schools in a city in the north of Spain trying to answer why, besides the lack of theoretical foundations, gamification software, hand in hand with the companies behind it, is colonizing classrooms. Three in-depth, semi-structured interviews with principals (who also work as regular teachers) were carried out and the information obtained was coded and represented through hierarchical trees. Then, the data provided by each respondent was compared. Principal?s perceptions range from the enthusiasm of having easy access to these free tools, to more critical opinions on their use from both a political and pedagogical perspective

Level-Up your Learning – Introducing a Framework for Gamified Educational Conversational Agents

Driven by circumstances like the global pandemic many learners and educators realize the importance and value of self-regulated digital learning. To better support self-regulated learning, conversational agents have become more relevant. Conversational agents can act as tutor or as learning mate for learners. Although conversational agents have potential to better support self-regulated learning processes, challenges exist requiring implications about how to make these interactions more engaging and supportive. This study discusses the value of gamified conversational learning chatbots that use game elements to engage learners to guide researchers and practitioners to design conversational agents that effectively motivate learners and provide self-regulated learning at the same time. Therefore, we propose a systematically developed framework for gamifying educational conversational agents and contribute to theory by consolidating several theories about games, digital learning, and conversational agents and support practitioners by providing implications about what to care about when gamifying conversational agents

GAMIFYING ENERGY USER PROFILES

Smartege is an educational application which aims in educating users in the basics of electrical energy consumption and production and engage them in energy saving behavior, techniques and technologies. This is accomplished through the virtual, and eventually actual, management of residential and office buildings equipped with virtual devices and renewable energy sources, with energy specifications borrowed from actual commercial devices, towards the ultimate target of transforming the buildings into net Zero Energy Buildings. Ultimately, Smartege is a gamified application targeting the behavior modification of the users. Its content development follows the persuasive model and uses cognitive learning for the educational component and game mechanics for user motivation and triggering