Gamified Modules for an Introductory Statistics Course and Their Impact on Attitudes and Learning

摘要

Background. The theory of gamified learning (Landers, 2014) posits that gamifiedrnapproaches positively impact students’ attitudes, and in turn this change inrnattitudes impacts learning; however, research is needed to examine the rolernof attitude change in gamified approaches (Seaborn & Fels, 2014). A strongrnnegative relationship between students’ attitudes towards statistics and theirrnperformance in statistics has been well documented. The need to help studentsrnhave positive attitudes towards statistics, and therefore be more likely tornachieve in the course, makes using gamified learning, which targets attitudes,rnan ideal domain to test the effects of gamification on attitudes.rnMethods. The aim in this quasi-experimental study was to examine the ability ofrngamified modules in a statistics course to have positive impacts on learningrnand attitudes towards statistics. Students in the experimental group wererncompared to previous cohorts completing the same course, but without therngamified exercises as well as published results from a large cohort of comparablernstudents.rnResults. The attitudes of cognitive competence, affect, value and perceivedrndifficulty were all positively impacted after completing the gamified exercises.rnThe experimental group also had large effects of test performance one semesterrnafter completing the course.rnConclusion. In line with the theory of gamified learning, these findings suggestedrnthat the gamified modules were successful in shifting students’ attitudes in arnpositive direction and subsequently increasing performance. Future studies should introduce randomization between students and examine the specificrnpathways between attitudes and performance.