Gamification of Classroom Activities: Undergraduates’ Perception
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.37134/ajelp.vol12.1.7.2024Keywords:
gamification, perspectives, undergraduates, vocabulary activitiesAbstract
Vocabulary exercises are given to help students learn words and to use them correctly. Unfortunately, many students do not realise the benefits of completing these exercises and therefore do not spend time on them. This results in them not having a wide repertoire of words to use in their essays. The main objective of this study was to discover what students thought of gamification and the main problems they faced with it. The study consists of two phases and this article is based on the second phase which was of the qualitative design. The researchers had gamified the activities and exercises given to 39 undergraduate students over a period of 10 weeks. Two game elements were used: leaderboard and rewards. At the end of the intervention, data was collected via a semi structured interview and analysed thematically. The findings showed that many of the students had positive feedback about gamification. Of the two game elements, many students preferred being rewarded. However, only certain rewards motivated them to spend more time on the tasks. The students also realised that the activities had helped them to learn the target vocabulary taught. There were a few reasons why some students found the process of gamification challenging like too many assignments from other modules. This study is significant for instructors who are looking for ways to engage and motivate students and instructors are also made aware of some pitfalls to avoid in the application of gamification in class.
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Copyright (c) 2024 Jacqueline Thomas Pereira, Professor Dr Raja Nor Safinas Raja Harun
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