Investigating the effect of gamifying a physics course to student motivation, engagement and performance

• Main Author: Amado, Coleen M.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2017
• Subjects: Physics > Study and teaching; Motivation in education; Academic achievement
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_masteral/5698
• Institution: De La Salle University

The purpose of the study is to investigate the effect of gamifying a physics course to the motivation, engagement and performance of the students. This study aims to determine whether the use of gamified instruction can motivate the students both extrinsically and intrinsically, can enhance their behavioral, emotional and cognitive engagement and can improve their academic performance in a physics course. The participants in the study were thirty-one third year engineering students in the Technological University of the Philippines who took summer classes in Electricity and Magnetism course. The course was designed to include elements of gamification namely experience points, quests and challenges, badges, achievements, coins and power-ups and leaderboard. To measure the effect of the gamified instruction on student motivation and engagement, the scores in the Intrinsic Motivation Inventory (IMI) and School Engagement Measure (SEM) before and after the gamified instruction were compared, respectively. As for the effect in the academic performance, the distribution of the scores in the various assessments was analyzed and the pre- and post test scores in the instructor-made test on Electricity and Magnetism were compared. Both the students and the instructor were also asked to write a journal to capture their gamified classroom experience. These were transcribed and coded to determine the themes on the effect of gamification on student motivation and engagement. The findings from the study revealed that the gamified instruction significantly increased the students intrinsic motivation and their behavioral, emotional and cognitive engagement. The results also showed a positive effect on the academic performance of the students as seen in higher scores for the post test on the instructor-made test and scores in the other assessments.