Dissertação
Gamiefects: um framework de apoio na avaliação de gamificação para contextos educacionais
Fecha
2022-09-30Autor
Reinheimer, Wendel Souto
Institución
Resumen
In recent years, gamification has become an emerging phenomenon being applied in several
fields of human activity. In the educational environment, gamification has been used as a
promising strategy in order to promote learning, motivation and student engagement. However,
some studies have shown that its use does not always bring positive results, making it essential
to consider the evaluation process an important aspect, since this procedure allows verifying
the effectiveness of gamification and whether the objectives of gamification are being achieved.
In this context, there was a scarcity of specific evaluative methods or approaches for
gamification, resulting in the lack of instructions and guidelines for carrying out this procedure.
Given this scenario, based on a methodology for the elaboration of scientific research in
information systems, the DSRM (Design Science Research Methodology), this dissertation
presented THE GAMIEFECTS, a structure composed of five dimensions that aims to support
the evaluation of gamified environments for educational contexts. GAMIEFECTS was inspired
by the DECIDE Framework and presents five conceptual dimensions that address specific
contents of the gamification literature. The first Dimension of the framework deals with aspects
that involve defining the objectives of an evaluation. Dimension 2 brings recommendations
related to the analysis of the context and the moment of evaluation. Dimension 3 demonstrates
forms of evaluation and some validated instruments found in the literature. Dimension 4
addresses ethical aspects when the evaluation involves users and finally, Dimension 5 discusses
some recommendations on the presentation of results. GAMIEFECTS was validated through a
case study in the gamified Duoling environment in order to validate all the dimensions proposed
in the framework. To this end, a descriptive exploratory study was designed, covering all types
of evaluation techniques dealt with in the Framework. The first validation contemplated the
empirical evaluation techniques, for this, a simulation was developed in which the data used
were generated from an auxiliary tool for data generation. The second part of the study included
the development of a questionnaire to evaluate the gamification design from Duolingo game
elements and finally, the last stage of the case study involved the application of a heuristic
evaluation on the Duolingo platform. The results found suggest that GAMIEFECTS is capable
of assisting in processes that involve the planning, execution and presentation of results in a
gamification assessment for educational contexts. Despite this, through this study, one can see
the need to apply the framework in real usage scenarios as in a longitudinal study, as well as a
validation from a panel of gamification experts so that the framework can be measured in terms
of usability, flexibility, adaptability and other quality criteria relevant to its structure.