The design and the effects of gamification to study results and engagement: case study Financial Management

Abstract

Education systems need to be developed constantly to keep up with the everchanging world and to ensure that all new information and methods are reaching the students. Thus, implementations systems need to be updated with new techniques, such as gamification. Gamification has not only been proven to be valuable for marketing actions, but also for education sectors and institutions in terms of adding an additional tool to enhance the teaching experience and quality to accompany the traditional teaching methods.

The study researched the effects of gamification in Financial Management -course at Jyväskylä University of Applied Sciences. The objectives were to study the learning curve of the students during the different sections of the course as well as to gain knowledge on their experience and perception of gamification during the course. The tasks to achieve these goals included observing the classroom and the virtual environments of the students, conducting qualitative interviews from participants, and analyzing the gathered data with specific methods. The method used was qualitative research (QLR) where data is obtained through open ended questioning and conversational methods. The goal was to describe individual experiences as well as gather new information on the phenomenon and surrounding beliefs.

The results of the study show, that the students perceived the gamificated method of teaching as more beneficial when compared to theoretical lectures. They gained valuable knowledge through gamificated methods and all reported improvements in their learning during this experience. Students also felt more engaged to their studies when using gamification. Only small percentage of the students reported opposite experiences as well as stated to have benefitted from the theoretical lectures more.

Gamification as added method of teaching can be highly valuable to students and the teacher in terms of gaining motivation, holding engagement, and learning through social experiences. However, the students state and the results also show that there is still great need for both theoretical and more practical methods in teaching. These results can be used to further enhance the experience of the students when gamifying educational settings and classrooms.