The Effect of Gamification on Motivation Levels of Information and Records Management Students
Zehra Kılıçarslan, Ayşe Bayraktar ÇetinYoung people in the current information society have characteristics such as knowledge, skills, talents and interests that differ from previous generations. The changes and developments that have occurred in information and communication technologies have brought new approaches to the field of education, with gamification being one of these approaches. This research aims to reveal the effect gamification has on students’ motivation levels. The study takes advantage of the technical/collaborative action research design, a type of action research. The Octalysis Framework is used as the gamification model. The research codes the answers obtained from seven open-ended questions the students were asked and then analyzes the obtained data. Each student gave more than one answer to each question. The research was carried out with the voluntary participation of 33 students studying within the scope of the 3rd-year “Cataloging” course at the Kadirli Faculty of Social and Human Sciences, Department of Information and Records Management in the 2022 fall semester. The cataloging lesson was applied to the students online for 10 weeks within the framework of the gamified course plan. When generally evaluated, a recommended result of 82% reveals the online course application to have been successful and gamification to be a useful educational method. Originality is added to this study in that the gamification application was revealed to have had an effect on the motivation levels of the students who took the course within the scope of the 3rd-year undergraduate “Cataloging” course in the Department of Information and Records Management.
Oyunlaştırmanın Bilgi ve Belge Yönetimi Bölümü Öğrencilerinin Motivasyon Düzeyleri Üzerindeki Etkisi
Zehra Kılıçarslan, Ayşe Bayraktar Çetinİçinde bulunduğumuz bilgi toplumunda gençlerin bilgi, beceri, yetenek ve ilgi gibi özellikleri kendinden önceki nesillere göre farklılık göstermektedir. Bilgi ve iletişim teknolojilerindeki değişim ve gelişimler eğitim-öğretim alanında yeni yaklaşımları beraberinde getirmiştir. Oyunlaştırma bu yaklaşımlardan biridir. Bu araştırmada oyunlaştırmanın öğrencilerin motivasyon düzeyleri üzerindeki etkisini ortaya koymak amaçlanmıştır. Araştırmada eylem araştırması türlerinden teknik/bilimsel/işbirlikçi eylem araştırması deseni kullanılmıştır. Oyunlaştırma modeli olarak Octalysis modeli kullanılmıştır. Araştırmada öğrencilere sorulan 7 açık uçlu sorudan elde edilen cevaplar kodlanmış ve elde edilen veriler analiz edilmiştir. Her öğrenci her bir soruya birden fazla cevap vermiştir. Araştırma, 2022-2023 eğitim-öğretim yılı güz dönemi, Osmaniye Korkut Ata Üniversitesi (OKÜ), Kadirli Sosyal ve Beşeri Bilimler Fakültesi (KSBBF), Bilgi ve Belge Yönetimi Bölümü (BBY) 3. sınıf müfredatında yer alan “Kataloglama” dersini alan 33 öğrencinin gönüllü katılımları ile gerçekleştirilmiştir. Kataloglama dersi oyunlaştırılmış ders planı çerçevesinde 10 hafta boyunca çevrim içi olarak öğrencilere uygulanmıştır. Genel bir değerlendirme ile bakılacak olursa %82 oranla önerilen bir sonuç elde edilmesi, çevrim içi ders uygulamasının başarılı olduğunu ve oyunlaştırmanın eğitim-öğretimde faydalı bir yöntem olduğunu ortaya koymuştur. Lisans düzeyinde BBY Bölümü, 3. Sınıf “Kataloglama” dersi kapsamında ders gören öğrencilerin, oyunlaştırmanın motivasyon düzeyleri üzerindeki etkisini ortaya çıkarması bu çalışmaya özgünlük kazandırmaktadır.
Technology is developing very rapidly in this current age, and this speed of technology affects not only itself but also many other areas of life. Today’s young people who’ve been born into the age of technology are called digital natives and have been highly affected by this rapid change. This has caused digital natives to have very different attitudes and behaviors compared to previous generations. In addition, learning and teaching behaviors have also changed. Education and training systems are no longer able to adequately meet the needs of digital natives and appeal to their interests. According to Prensky (2001), the current education and training system is unsuitable for today’s digital native students. Digital natives have problems with attention and focus in classical education. In order to solve this problem, their motivation needs to be increased, and education and training need to become more interesting and enjoyable. This result necessitates revisiting education and training systems and developing new methods. Gamification is one of these new systems. Yılmaz (2015, p. 27) defined gamification as “a discipline in which designs patterned as games and game mechanics are included in a non-game process.”
The aim of the study is to reveal the effect of gamification on students’ motivation levels. The main research question this study asks is what effect does gamification have on students’ motivation levels? In this direction, the hypothesis of the research was determined as follows: Gamification has a positive effect on students’ motivation levels. The population of the research consists of the 123 students studying in the Kadirli Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Department of Information and Records Management in the 2022 fall semester. The sample was determined based on the 37 students taking the 3rd-year online cataloging course in the 2022 fall semester. Of these students, 33 volunteered to answer questions, and each student answered more than one question. The data were obtained through open-ended qualitative questions that were asked of the students to whom the gamified lesson plan had been applied within the scope of the cataloging course. The answers the students gave were coded, and a systematic analysis was then made. The questions had been prepared by an expert in the field of gamification, and the answers received from the students were evaluated by two different experts. The students were asked the following questions:
1. How did you feel when you first started the lesson?
2. When you think about the whole lesson process, what motivated you the most?
3. Which aspect gave you the most difficulty during the lesson?
4. What do you think about presenting the lesson with a gamified design? Do you think it is different from the methods used in other lessons?
5. What do you think are the advantages and disadvantages of this method?
6. Would you recommend this method be used in different lessons to your friends?
7. How do you think this method can be improved?
The study uses an action research design, which is a qualitative research method. The online course was given for 10 weeks within the scope of gamification. Each week, the students were given certain tasks and they attempted to achieve certain outputs by fulfilling these tasks. The students gained such things as points, status, and badges for each task they fulfilled related to the course content. Again, the attempt was made to keep their motivation and willingness to participate in the course high through the competitions held within the scope of the course. In line with the study’s findings, a large percentage of students “Cataloging” course are seen to have viewed the applied gamified lesson plan positively and to have found it motivating. As a general evaluation, the fact that 82% of the participants would recommend the gamification method reveals that the applied online course was successful and that gamification is a useful method in education and training. Similar results were encountered in the literature review. The study concludes gamification to have positively affected the 3rd-year Cataloging class university students’ motivation levels.
