Gamified learning Research: Master Thesis

• Time Period: 10.2017 - 01.2019

• Role: Researcher

• Responsibility: Design experiment for research aims / Recruit participants and conduct the research experiment / Collect, process and analyze data / Writing academic paper
  

Background

I am fascinated by gamified learning. From my study, I noticed that though it was a trend to implement gamified social features (competition and cooperation) into learning, it lacked of a thorough examination of how gamified cooperation and competition affect learners differently. Therefore I decided to explore the differences and provide more insights for educational practitioners. Besides, considering my resources for data collection and participant recruitment, I specified my research context as mobile language learning.

Challenge

When I conducted this research, the biggest challenge was:

How to investigate how gamified cooperation and competition affect learners differently in the mobile language learning context?

Solution

The challenge was solved by conducting a quantitative research to compare the variables related to learning process and learning outcomes between gamified cooperation and competition.

The aim of this research was to explore how gamified cooperation and competition affect learners differently in the given context. With my supervisor Muhterem's guidance, I worked out how to investigate the differences.

1. Set four specific questions to achieve my research aim:

Q1: Is there any difference between gamified cooperation and competition in the mobile language learning context in terms of task completion?

Q2: Is there any difference between gamified cooperation and competition in the mobile language learning context in terms of learning achievement?

Q3: Is there any difference between gamified cooperation and competition in the mobile language learning context in terms of social relatedness?

Q4: Is there any difference between gamified cooperation and competition in the mobile language learning context in terms of intrinsic motivation?

Q1, Q3 and Q4 were used to investigate the differences in learning process, while Q2 was used to investigate the differences in learning outcomes.

2. Set 9 variables to answer the questions above.

Variables for Q1 (Task completion):

1. Total number of days of task completed (in 14 days)

2. Task completion time

Variables for Q2 (Learning achievement):

3. Vocabulary pre-test score

4. Vocabulary post-test score

Variables for Q3 (Social relatedness):

5. Social relatedness pre-test score

6. Social relatedness post-test score

7. Average number of daily text sent

8. Average number of daily emoji sent

Variables for Q4 (Intrinsic motivation):

9. Task interest and enjoyment (TIE) score

3. Devised the data collection plan (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Overview of procedure, platform and data types

4. Conducted the experiment with 75 participants.

This study was conducted among university students in China (N=75), and those students were randomly assigned to either gamified cooperation or competition sub-groups. All students were asked to complete a daily task for 14 days: learning 20 English with an app named Baicizhan.

5. Processed the collected data and analyzed them with SPSS 25.

There were six sub-groups in this research (Figure 2) . The three sub-groups in gamified cooperation setting are: COO1, COO2, and COO3. The three sub-groups in gamified competition setting are: COMP1, COMP2 and COMP3. The data of those subgroups were analyzed with SPSS 25 to reveal the differences. In short, the study demonstrated that constructive gamified competition could be as effective as gamified cooperation in terms of motivating learners to put efforts and invoking intrinsic motivation; moreover, constructive gamified competition was even more effective than gamified cooperation in promoting learning achievement.

Figure 2. Descriptive statistics of variables in each subgroups

Results

Lei has displayed great project management skills during her master’s thesis project. From the beginning to the end, she established a very efficient communication with me, the collaborating company and the participants of the study. With her exceptionally good communication skills and hard work, Lei smoothly tackled multiple challenges that showed up in research design and data collection process. During the project, she has developed a deep understanding on application of gamification in language learning, and significantly improved her skills in conducting scientific research.

- Muhterem Dindar, Postdoctoral researcher in Oulu University

1. The study used a quantitative methodology and the data, related to 9 variables, were collected to compare to reveal the differences (Figure 3).

Figure 3. Highlights of this project

2. The research was presented in EARLI2019 conference (EARLI is the biggest educational research conference in Europe).

3. The research was published in one of the top educational journals (Link).

Wall of Gratitude

I would like to express my gratitude for the people involved in this project.

• Muhterem Dindar, who coached and encouraged me all the time. Working under his supervision was a great chance for me to grow professionally and personally. It's not easy to find a supervisor to look up to, so it’s been a wonderful experience to work with a great supervisor like him.

• Min Qu, who helped me process data and shared his time management tips.

• Megumi Iwata, who gave me advice on organizing literature review and always cheered me up.

• My previous colleagues in Baicizhan, who helped me with data collection and participant recruitment.

I am lucky to have you as supervisor, friends and colleagues, thanks very much for your kind support!