Engaging Computer Science Students through Gamification in an Online Social Network Based Collaborative Learning Environment

Gamification is the use of game mechanics such as rewarding points and achievement badges to engage target audience and encourage desired behaviors. Gamification has gained a great surge of interest in recent years as an effective approach to engage existing users and attract new users to web sites. In this paper, the use of gamification in engaging Computer Science students in an online social network based collaborative learning environment, called PeerSpace, is discussed. PeerSpace integrates a suite of Web 2.0 tools that promote student interactions on course-related topics as well as purely social matters. The design and implementation details of various gamification schemes are presented. An assessment of the effectiveness of the schemes is discussed.

1. How to better engage the students in PeerSpace social and learning activities?
   1. participate more in social and learning activities
   2. develop a stronger sense of community
   3. be more willing to help each other on academic and social matters. (@li2013, 72)

1. Several game design techniques have been implemented in PeerSpace to encourage participation in social and learning activities. They are PeerSpace participation points, a level system based on participation points, a progress bar, leader boards, collaborative programming for community building, and casual games. (@li2013, 73)
   • Framework? But not really.
2. To study the effects of games in PeerSpace in terms of attracting students to PeerSpace and encouraging students to be more active in PeerSpace, a controlled experiment was performed. Students from two sections of Computer Science II (CS2) participated in the experiment. Students in the two sections were taught by the same instructor and used the same textbook and assignments. Students from both sections used PeerSpace. Students in the control section did not use the game feature in PeerSpace while the students in the experiment section played the games. The observation period is 6 weeks. The number of posts created by each student in the control and experiment groups during this time period were collected and compared (@li2013, 76)
   • Quantitative.

1. The experiment group generated a total of 91 posts during the observation period, while the experiment group generated a total of 265 posts. This makes the experiment group generating nearly 3 times the posts than the control group students; PeerSpace games increase site activity in students. Fig. 10 plots the relation between the PeerSpace points earned and the number of games played by students in the experiment group. On average, 3 additional posts are made for each PeerSpace game played. (@li2013, 76)
2. Preliminary results show students have responded to the new game mechanics and became more active in social activities in PeerSpace. (@li2013, 76)

1. Carefully designed learning activities in PeerSpace, such as peer code review, group wiki-based exercise, and self-paced quizzes in preparation station encourage students to help each other and learn from each other. (@li2013, 72)
   • Alright this sounds promising...
   • ... nvm its old and doesn't seem to be hosted anywhere. Sigh.