Motivating Computer Science Students Beyond Classwork with Games and Gamification

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Watson, S. (2018). Motivating Computer Science Students Beyond Classwork with Games and Gamification. Unc Charlotte Electronic Theses And Dissertations.
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Abstract

Researchers have determined that games have the power to motivate users to engage for long periods of time with unparalleled intensity because they satisfy human psychological and emotional needs. In educational contexts, researchers have examined the effects of adding game and game elements and have found that they motivate students to put forth more effort in their coursework, something that is of particular interest to educators of the broad, complex and highly technical discipline of computer science.By the time they graduate, computer science students need to have developed both technical expertise and proficiency in the non-technical skills of collaboration, communication skills and time management. However, it is challenging for students to gain sufficient technical and non-technical skills practice within the confines of a course or even a series of courses, and motivating students to engage outside of course requirements can be challenging.In this dissertation, the data from three multiple-semesters studies, which ran in two large junior level computer science courses, reveal that games, gamification and game elements such as leaderboards and badges can, indeed, motivate students to go beyond course credit to practice both technical skills and essential non-technical skills to the computer science discipline.

Details
Author

Watson, Stacey

Title

Motivating Computer Science Students Beyond Classwork with Games and Gamification

Physical Description

1 online resource (250 pages) : PDF

Date

2018

Degree Granting Institution

University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Abstract

Researchers have determined that games have the power to motivate users to engage for long periods of time with unparalleled intensity because they satisfy human psychological and emotional needs. In educational contexts, researchers have examined the effects of adding game and game elements and have found that they motivate students to put forth more effort in their coursework, something that is of particular interest to educators of the broad, complex and highly technical discipline of computer science.By the time they graduate, computer science students need to have developed both technical expertise and proficiency in the non-technical skills of collaboration, communication skills and time management. However, it is challenging for students to gain sufficient technical and non-technical skills practice within the confines of a course or even a series of courses, and motivating students to engage outside of course requirements can be challenging.In this dissertation, the data from three multiple-semesters studies, which ran in two large junior level computer science courses, reveal that games, gamification and game elements such as leaderboards and badges can, indeed, motivate students to go beyond course credit to practice both technical skills and essential non-technical skills to the computer science discipline.

Genre

doctoral dissertations

Subjects--Topics

Computer science
Education

Degree

Ph.D.

Keywords

Co-Curricular
Games
Gamification

Subject Area

Computer Science

Advisor(s)

Lipford, Heather

Committee Members

Perez Quinones, Manuel
Latulipe, Celine
Martin, Florence

Degree Note

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 2018.

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Rights Holder Information

Copyright is held by the author unless otherwise indicated.

Identifier

Watson_uncc_0694D_11828

Permalink

http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.13093/etd:1266