Tingle – Topic-Independent Gamification
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TINGLE – TOPIC-INDEPENDENT GAMIFICATION LEARNING ENVIRONMENT By CHRIS LOREN CAIN A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science JULY 2018 © Copyright by CHRIS LOREN CAIN, 2018 All Rights Reserved © Copyright by CHRIS LOREN CAIN, 2018 All Rights Reserved To the Faculty of Washington State University: The members of the Committee appointed to examine the dissertation of CHRIS LOREN CAIN find it satisfactory and recommend that it be accepted. __________________________________ Matthew E. Taylor, Ph.D., Chair __________________________________ Shira Broschat, Ph.D. __________________________________ Anne Anderson, Ph.D. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I would like to acknowledge my advisor, Dr. Matthew E. Taylor, for his support throughout my graduate education. His insight and guidance have helped me reach this point. Additionally, I would like to acknowledge Dr. Shira Broschat and Dr. Anne Anderson for their support on my committee. Their support has ensured I’ve always had a classroom to deploy my research, and their willingness to work with me has helped this research reach this point. Finally, I would like to acknowledge Dr. Olusola Adesope for his support through my job search and his dedication organizing the programming camps we’ve run the last couple years. iii TINGLE – TOPIC-INDEPENDENT GAMIFICATION LEARNING ENVIRONMENT Abstract by Chris Loren Cain, Ph.D. Washington State University July 2018 Chair: Matthew E. Taylor Motivating student commitment and engagement in learning, using gamification, or games embedded in non-game settings, has been sought after by game researchers, game designers, academic content developers, and instructors alike. With the rise of free-to-play mobile and casual games, games have become more accessible than ever, leading to greater opportunity to understand player engagement motivations. Developing an accurate understanding of diverse player motivations will allow games not as intrinsic motivators, but rather as extrinsic effort/reward motivators with the resolution to target individual preferences. Given the rise in casual gaming popularity, developing methodology for enhancing student motivation and engagement in class by employing casual games played outside of class, but with effort-based rewards tied to academic engagement, will become a more effective tool as player preference research evolves. In this dissertation, I propose and validate methodology using existing player type research. This methodology leverages aspects of psychology research in motivation and personality theory, and is capable of leveraging advances in smart health technology, to create effort-based student evaluation techniques to map effort to game progress across numerous iv disciplines, subject material, and ages. This allows students to play one game outside of class, with mechanics based on their own game preferences, where the main progression is achieved through academic effort applied during and outside of class. This technique offers several benefits over existing gamification approaches. By building a model with instructor involvement flexibility as well as student preferences, the result is adaptable to diverse curricula, teaching styles and classroom atmospheres across all ages. My research will proceed as follows: I use a simple game and approach to determine the baseline motivation for a game played outside of class with no effort-based ties to class. I then use a single tie to class and a game designed around specific game preferences to determine the extent students with specific game mechanic preferences find this system motivating. Next, I explore the validity of using player typology to predict game preferences and explore generalizability. Finally, I design a game with wider-reaching appeal and multiple effort-based ties back to class to validate TINGLE’s design. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ............................................................................................................. iii ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................... iv LIST OF TABLES ......................................................................................................................... ix LIST OF FIGURES .........................................................................................................................x CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ...........................................................................................................1 1.1: Motivation .........................................................................................................4 1.2: Summary of Dissertation ..................................................................................5 1.3: Overview of Games Developed ........................................................................7 1.3.1: Pilot Study Game ...........................................................................................7 1.3.2: Rune Crafters .................................................................................................8 1.3.3: Tiered Game ..................................................................................................8 1.4: Conclusion ......................................................................................................12 2: BACKGROUND AND RELATED WORK .................................................................13 2.1: Introduction .....................................................................................................13 2.2: Gamification in the Classroom .......................................................................14 2.2.1: Commercial Classroom Gamification .........................................................14 2.2.2: Classroom Gamification Studies .................................................................15 2.3: Player Typology ..............................................................................................22 2.4: Limitations of Existing Literature...................................................................28 vi 2.5: Conclusion ......................................................................................................30 3: TINGLE METHODOLOGY .........................................................................................32 3.1: Introduction .....................................................................................................32 3.2: TINGLE Development ...................................................................................32 3.3: TINGLE Vision ..............................................................................................35 3.4: TINGLE Validation ........................................................................................37 3.5: Conclusion ......................................................................................................40 4: PILOT STUDY ..............................................................................................................41 4.1: Introduction .....................................................................................................41 4.2: Technologies Used ..........................................................................................41 4.3: Gameplay ........................................................................................................42 4.4: Methods ..........................................................................................................43 4.5: Results and Discussion ...................................................................................44 4.6: Conclusion ......................................................................................................50 5: RUNE CRAFTERS .......................................................................................................51 5.1: Introduction .....................................................................................................51 5.2: Technologies Used ..........................................................................................51 5.3: Gameplay ........................................................................................................53 5.4: Methods ..........................................................................................................53 5.5: Results and Discussion ...................................................................................57 5.6: Conclusion ......................................................................................................58 6: TIERED GAMES ..........................................................................................................59 6.1: Introduction .....................................................................................................59 vii 6.2: Gameplay ........................................................................................................60 6.3: Conclusion ......................................................................................................64 7: PLAYER TYPOLOGY .................................................................................................65 7.1: Introduction .....................................................................................................65 7.2: Methods ..........................................................................................................66