Learning Gains, Motivation and Learning Styles in a Gamified Class

摘要

This work presents the results of the implementation of a gamification system to two classes in a database course for engineering on computational technologies students. The results are obtained from a pretest-posttest methodology in a focus group with 20 students and a control group with 20 students. This study was made during a whole semester and the analysis comprises learning gains and the students' grades. The study shows that learning gains in both groups are similar but in analysis, it is stated that both groups have specific characteristics that point to advantages in the implemented gamification system and that propose new research questions in the subject. On the other hand, the analysis on learning styles is complemented with a study on motivation aspects that have supported the students' learning process. This work presents a new perspective on research over the learning technique because the majority of the studies published explore the relationship only between game characteristics and motivation, in contrast the present research offers the advantage of an experimental design over a whole semester in terms of learning gains and learning styles.