The Dark Side of Narrow Gamification: Negative Impact of Assessment Gamification on Student Perceptions and Content Knowledge

Hee Yoon Kwon () and Koray Özpolat ()
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Hee Yoon Kwon: Tommy and Victoria Baker School of Business, The Citadel, Charleston, South Carolina 29409;
Koray Özpolat: College of Business, The University of Rhode Island, Kingston, Rhode Island 02881

INFORMS Transactions on Education, 2021, vol. 22, issue 1, 67-81

Abstract: We explored the effects of assessment gamification on students’ content knowledge and perceptions of satisfaction, course experience, learning, and impact of teaching techniques. The course preparation, attendance, quizzes, classroom activities, and team projects of an undergraduate operations and supply chain management course had game elements that accumulate to team advantages in the collaborative midterm and final exam. Interestingly, we found that gamifying assessment activities resulted in significantly lower content knowledge, satisfaction, and course experience. Difference in perceived learning was not significant. Also, team exam scores were significantly lower in the gamified group, whereas individual exam scores were not significantly different. This study contributes to the literature by providing empirical evidence that gamification in classroom may produce unintended consequences and implementing gamification restrictively to assessment is ineffective at best. Directions for further research are discussed.

Keywords: pedagogical research; teaching supply chain management; assessment; gamification (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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