Motivation and Engagement of Final-Year Students When Using E-learning: A Qualitative Study of Gamification in Pandemic Situation

Flourensia Sapty Rahayu, Lukito Edi Nugroho, Ridi Ferdiana and Djoko Budiyanto Setyohadi
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Flourensia Sapty Rahayu: Departemen Teknik Elektro dan Teknologi Informasi, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta 55281, Indonesia
Lukito Edi Nugroho: Departemen Teknik Elektro dan Teknologi Informasi, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta 55281, Indonesia
Ridi Ferdiana: Departemen Teknik Elektro dan Teknologi Informasi, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta 55281, Indonesia
Djoko Budiyanto Setyohadi: Departemen Informatika, Universitas Atma Jaya Yogyakarta, Yogyakarta 55281, Indonesia

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 14, 1-22

Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic has changed how the education system operates. The shift from face-to-face learning to online learning generated many problems, including decreasing students’ motivation and engagement. Gamification has been used as one of the solutions to overcome the problem of low motivation and engagement in learning. The current study aims to examine students’ behavioral change when using e-learning with gamification, investigate gamification elements that are important to students and how it influences students’ motivation and engagement, and investigate whether population characteristics may influence students’ motivation and engagement. Qualitative methods were employed to gather and analyze the data. The thematic analysis resulted in six main themes. The findings revealed that there were behavioral changes in students during gamification implementation, i.e., from negative to positive and from positive to negative. Four gamification elements were found to be the most important gamification elements to students, i.e., points, leaderboard, badges, and gamified test. The mechanism of how these elements influenced motivation and engagement was discussed. The population characteristics of final-year students also had an impact on gamification effectiveness. Despite gamification’s capabilities to influence motivation and engagement, there are some concerns related to negative impacts that must be addressed in the future.

Keywords: gamification; e-learning; motivation and engagement; final-year students; the COVID-19 pandemic (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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