Gamification in higher education and stem : a systematic review of literature

In recent years, gamification, the use of game elements in non-game contexts, has drawn the attention of educators due to the possibility of making learning more motivating and engaging; this led to an increase of research in the field. Despite the availability of literature reviews about gamification and its effects, no work to this date has focused exclusively on Higher Education (HE). Next, worldwide there is an increasing demand for skilled Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) professionals that meet the challenges related to scientific and technological innovations of the 21st Century. This lead to the need of strengthening STEM Higher Education. This brings us to the purpose of this work: presenting a systematic literature review of empirical studies about gamification STEM related Higher Education. This review study started from a systematic mapping design of 'Web of Science' articles, with following inclusion criteria: empirical gamification studies set up in HE, published between 2000 and 2016; focusing on undergraduate or graduate students; in the STEM knowledge field, and set up in authentic settings. An initial search resulted in 562 potentially relevant articles. After applying all selection criteria, only 18 studies could be retained. 12 additional articles were included by analyzing references from earlier literature reviews, resulting in 30 studies to be included. Analysis results show how a combination of game elements (e.g. leaderboards, badges, points and other combinations) positively affects students' performance, attendance, goal orientation and attitude towards mostly computer science related subjects. The analysis results also point at a lack of studies in certain STEM areas, a lack of studies that identify the particular game element associated with the positive differential impact on student performance; a lack of validated psychometric measurements, and lack of focus on student variables that could/should be taken into account as mediating/moderating variables clarifying the impact of gamification in the HE focus on STEM learning and teaching

Creating smarter teaching and training environments: innovative set-up for collaborative hybrid learning

This paper brings together previous work from a number of research projects and teaching initiatives in an effort to introduce good practice in setting up supportive environments for collaborative learning. The paper discusses prior use of social media in learning support, the role of dashboards for learning analytics in Global Software Development training, the use of optical head-mounted displays for feedback and the use of NodeXl visualization in managing distributed teams. The scope of the paper is to provide a structured approach in organizing the creation of smarter teaching and training environments and explore ways to coordinate learning scenarios with the use of various techniques. The paper also discusses challenges from integrating multiple innovative features in educational contexts. Finally the paper attempts to investigate the use of smart laboratories in establishing additional learning support and gather primary data from blended and hybrid learning pilot studies

Creating smarter teaching and training environments: innovative set-up for collaborative hybrid learning

This paper brings together previous work from a number of research projects and teaching initiatives in an effort to introduce good practice in setting up supportive environments for collaborative learning. The paper discusses prior use of social media in learning support, the role of dashboards for learning analytics in Global Software Development training, the use of optical head-mounted displays for feedback and the use of NodeXl visualization in managing distributed teams. The scope of the paper is to provide a structured approach in organizing the creation of smarter teaching and training environments and explore ways to coordinate learning scenarios with the use of various techniques. The paper also discusses challenges from integrating multiple innovative features in educational contexts. Finally the paper attempts to investigate the use of smart laboratories in establishing additional learning support and gather primary data from blended and hybrid learning pilot studies

Prepare Students for Software Industry: A case study on an agile full stack project

Reducing the gap between Software Engineering education and the needs in the software industry is a goal for Academia. Advancement in terms of cutting-edge technical skills and good soft skills preparation is the desired goal to shorten the onboarding in the labour market. Generally, in computer science or computer engineering courses, separate subjects exist to teach requirements engineering, analysis and design, coding, or validation. However, integrating all these phases normally requires experience in developing a complete project. The approach presented in this paper has involved the staff of a software company in collaboration with the staff of an academic Institution and resulted in a student's involvement in a full-stack software development project. The student was involved in an agile team composed of teachers and Information Technology (IT) professionals. Scrum framework was followed, and the product was developed using a low-code development platform. Results show that this agile and full stack approach allows students to develop cutting-edge technical and non- technical skills. The paper presents the approach, the achieved results, some lessons learned and some guidelines for the future.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Establishing the Impact that Gamified Homework Portals Can Have on Students\u27 Academic Motivation

This research paper describes the investigation of the impact a gamified learning environment has on students’ motivation to complete course homework within a second semester freshman year design course. There are many benefits to including a gamified learning environment within a classroom including that it allows for students to learn through failure, and provides many different paths for student success.(1) Previous studies on gamified learning environments have shown improvement in student’s engagement in classrooms, as well as learning gains (2,3) although there has been little work done on the effect gamified learning environments can have on student motivation. In this study, two classes of freshman engineering students completed their homework through the use of a gamified homework platform. The gamified homework portal was designed around quests (or individual activities) allowing for students to select the quests that interested them the most in the pursuit of achieving a final point score. Quests were scaffolded to ensure that students were meeting the minimum learning objectives for the course and progressively being exposed to content of higher difficulty. Students were also not penalized for failure and given unlimited opportunities to resubmit quests to achieve the benchmarks set for the course. As additional incentive, students could earn badges, awards and achievements based off of the quality of their work, and the quests they selected to complete. To determine the impact that the gamified homework platform had on students’ motivation, students were asked to complete the Jones MUSIC Inventory (4,5) and participate in an end of semester focus group. The Jones MUSIC Inventory measures academic motivation and provides a perspective on students’ motivation towards completing course objectives. 4,5 Focus group results were analyzed using a grounded emergent qualitative analysis approach by two analysts. The categories were then cross-referenced with the Jones MUSIC model (4,5) to determine alignment of the categories observed with students’ academic motivation. Overall, the results have shown that the gamified learning environment had relatively neutral impact on students’ academic motivation towards homework

A Structured Approach to Analyze XP Model and Eliminate Drawbacks for Qualitative Development of Software

In this modern age each software company choose a software model for software development. But this companies face many problems to use software model because each software model has some drawbacks. These drawbacks effected the software development. In previous research many software methodologies were adopted for development. But it a question yet how to select a correct software model which has no drawbacks. In this research XP (Extreme Programming) will be analyzed. This model has some strengthens and weaknesses. The conclusion of this research will to eliminate drawbacks of XP (Extreme Programming). This can be done through analyze different parameters and converse with software developers for parameters to eliminate drawbacks. Keywords: Software Development, Extreme Programming (XP), Eliminate Drawbacks

Preparing students for the software industry new demands

A solid preparation in terms of soft skills and state- of-the-art technical skills in Software Engineering (SE) is a goal for the academy. It also contributes to reducing the gap between Software Engineering education and the software industry's new demands. Generally, in computer science or computer engineering courses, there are separate subjects to teach requirements engineering, analysis, design, coding, or validation. However, integrating all these subjects usually requires experience in developing a complete project. This article describes aspects of an active and collaborative learning approach involving academia and industry actors. The approach presented in this article involved staff from a software company in collaboration with staff from an academic institution. It resulted in a student being involved in an entire software development project. The student was involved in an agile team of faculty and Information Technology (IT) professionals. The Scrum agile framework was followed, and the product was developed using a Low-code development platform. This article presents the approach, details of the project design and implementation, results achieved, lessons learned, and guidelines for the future. The results show that this agile, full-stack approach allows students to develop cutting- edge technical and non-technical skills.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Gamification and Implications for Second Language Education: A Meta Analysis

Gamification is a fairly new concept that involves using game elements in non-game contexts. It has been shown that gamification can increase motivation and learning, but there have been conflicting results, with some studies reporting opposite findings. Because of these motivational results and benefits that have been reported, many researchers have attempted to use gamification in educational settings. Again, these studies have shown mixed results. However, as a large number of studies have shown benefits from using gamification in educational settings, it is important to know exactly what aspects of gamification are beneficial so that it can be properly used in second language education. The present study is a meta analysis of gamification of education research that set forth to determine what aspects of gamification are important in educational settings, and how this information can be used to successfully use gamification in second language education. Overall, it was found that gamification typically had a positive effect. Additionally, several moderator variables were of importance, including the length of instruction, inclusion of competitive aspects, and usage of time on task elements