Abstract
Motivating students to actively engage in their studying efforts is an ongoing challenge, because motivation is a key factor in study success. In the work presented here, we investigate whether the use of a mobile app with a teacher-like avatar (StudyGotchi), based on the successful digital pet Tamagotchi, can be deployed to motivate and engage computer science university students in their blended learning programming course. A randomized controlled study was performed which showed mixed results. Lessons learned include (i) better understanding of how to effectively implement the game-mechanics, and (ii) ways to circumvent technical limitations in usage.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
References
Besser, H.: Tamagotchi effect. N. Y. U. (1997). http://besser.tsoa.nyu.edu/impact/s97/Focus/Identity/FINAL/ov.htm. Accessed 5 Mar 2019
Birk, M.V., Atkins, C., Bowey, J.T., Mandryk, R.L.: Fostering intrinsic motivation through avatar identification in digital games, pp. 2982–2995 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1145/2858036.2858062
Chung, H.-H., Chen, S.-C., Kuo, M.-H.: A study of EFL college students’ acceptance of mobile learning. Proc. Soc. Behav. Sci. 176, 333–339 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.01.479
Deci, E.L., Ryan, R.M.: The “what” and “why” of goal pursuits: human needs and the self-determination of behavior. Psychol. Inq. 11(4), 227–268 (2000)
Garris, R., Ahlers, R., Driskell, J.E.: Games, motivation, and learning: a research and practice model. Simul. Gaming 33(4), 441–467 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1177/1046878102238607
Hamari, J., Koivisto, J., Sarsa, H.: Does gamification work? - A literature review of empirical studies on gamification. In: Proceedings of the Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, pp. 3025–3034 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1109/HICSS.2014.377
Hattie, J., Yates, G.C.R.: Visible Learning and the Science of How We Learn. Routledge, Abingdon (2013)
Hellings, J.: Learning analytics dashboard for improving the course passing rate in a randomized controlled experiment. In: 6th International Learning Analytics and Knowledge Conference (LAK16): Practitioner Track, pp. 24–27 (2016). HvA H.-I. http://oro.open.ac.uk/46142/
Kusahara, M.: The art of creating subjective reality: an analysis of japanese digital pets. Leonardo 34(4), 299–302 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1162/00240940152549203
Nour, M.M., Rouf, A.S., Allman-Farinelli, M.: Exploring young adult perspectives on the use of gamification and social media in a smartphone platform for improving vegetable intake. Appetite 120, 547–556 (2018)
Wouters, P., van Nimwegen, C., van Oostendorp, H., van Der Spek, E.D.: A meta-analysis of the cognitive and motivational effects of serious games. J. Educ. Psychol. 105(2), 249–265 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1037/a0031311
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Hellings, J., Leek, P., Bredeweg, B. (2019). StudyGotchi: Tamagotchi-Like Game-Mechanics to Motivate Students During a Programming Course. In: Scheffel, M., Broisin, J., Pammer-Schindler, V., Ioannou, A., Schneider, J. (eds) Transforming Learning with Meaningful Technologies. EC-TEL 2019. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 11722. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29736-7_53
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29736-7_53
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-29735-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-29736-7
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)