Reticence prevalent among East Asian students has prompted educators to attempt different methods to engage them. Gamification of courses has gained popularity as an avenue to encourage students’ participation, and it is facilitated by the roll-out of diverse online gamification platforms. This study aims to reflect on an educator’s experience of incorporating elements of gamification in an environmental science course delivered in a micro-campus established through a Sino-American educational collaboration. Gibb’s Reflective Cycle was adopted to guide the reflection practice. Gamification was implemented with three online interactive platforms, namely Poll Everywhere, Kahoot, and Quizizz. Poll Everywhere was mainly used for short polls and activities during lessons, while Kahoot and Quizizz were used for quiz-like competitions whose scores did not contribute to students’ grades. Kahoot created a lively atmosphere in class but was constrained by limits on players’ numbers, internet control, and the lag between sending and receiving responses. Quizizz had more game elements, which thrilled individual players but was less able to create the lively classroom the educator desired. It was more stable, perhaps because it was less subjected to internet control. Poll Everywhere had a less attractive scoreboard and was more appropriate for short classroom activities. Students' interest in the platforms tended to wane with each repeated use of the platforms. To improve the gamification experience, a mix of platforms could be used, and locally developed platforms could be sourced for stability and diversification.

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Gamification to Improve Participation in an Environmental Science Course: An Educator’s Reflection

Pre-class learning is crucial to the overall instructional success of flipped classrooms. However, researchers have pointed out that students show low pre-class learning engagement in flipped learning. At the same time, gamification, a rising instructional approach, has been increasingly used in the educational domain. By using mixed methods, this study examines students’ over-time behavioral, cognitive, emotional, and agentic engagement in the gamified pre-class learning section of a 15-week flipped English classroom in a Chinese university. Quantitative results of this study reveal that students’ behavioral, cognitive, emotional, and agentic engagement did not show statistical differences over time. While, the qualitative findings explain that learning engagement could be balanced by the positive influences of gamification design and some negative factors, such as the novelty effect. This study is expected to provide academic references for teachers and researchers about applying gamification design to flipped classrooms.

Examining Students’ Over-time Behavioral, Cognitive, Emotional, and Agentic Engagement in Gamified Preclass Learning

In recent years, gamification has gained popularity in the educational context. A considerable body of research has explored effects of this innovative instructional method on students. However, limited studies investigated how gamification design exerts influence on students’ cognitive load in language learning. In order to have a better understanding of the influence of gamification design in a foreign language class, this pilot study incorporates different game elements into instructions and activities in an English course at a Chinese university and examines students’ perceived cognitive load through semi-structured interviews. The research findings indicate that the complicated game rules and learning tasks exerted extra cognitive load, while the paper-pen based game operation did not. The findings and implications are discussed from the perspective of instructional design and gamification implementation.

Investigating Chinese College Students’ Cognitive Load in a Gamified Foreign Language Class: A Pilot Study

Using gamification as an instructional intervention to manage students’ learning emotions has become a trending topic. Meanwhile, the cognitive load resulting from gamified learning environments may impact learning emotions negatively. In order to clarify students’ foreign language anxiety and cognitive load in a gamified English as a foreign language class, this study designed a gamified flipped learning context in a Chinese university and conducted five surveys, three semi-structured interviews, and consecutive in-class observation in 15 sessions. This study has the following findings: First, neither the foreign language anxiety nor the cognitive load of the students changed significantly through the entire course; second, the game elements produced contradictory effects on the students’ multiple-sourced foreign language anxiety (communication apprehension, fear of negative evaluation, and lack of self-confidence); third, the introduction of games had transient effects on extraneous cognitive load, and the immersion in games indirectly influenced the intrinsic and germane cognitive load; in addition, foreign language anxiety and cognitive load correlated in a complicated and dynamic manner as a result of diverse gamification factors. These findings are expected to provide useful insights for researchers into the significance of utilizing gamification in emotion management while taking cognitive dimensions into account from both the collective and the individual perspectives.

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A Longitudinal Study on Students’ Foreign Language Anxiety and Cognitive Load in Gamified Classes of Higher Education

Foreign language anxiety (FLA) is considered as a strong predictor of students’ performance in second or foreign language learning. Although studies of implementing gamification to facilitate language learning are drawing more and more attention, limited research has been conducted to explore the effects of gamification on FLA. By conducting semi-structured interviews, this paper investigated students’ perceptions of gamification and their FLA in the preliminary stage of a gamified College English Listening and Speaking (ELS) class. Two major findings of this study are reported: 1) Students believe that gamification is helpful in visualizing their learning goals and creating a relaxing learning environment, but they can be frustrated by some complex game designs; 2) Students’ FLA mainly comes from speaking English publicly, lacking preparation, fear of making mistakes, and introverted personality, and the alleviating effects of gamification can vary according to the sources and levels of students’ FLA. For students who feel anxious due to their introverted personality or lacking preparation, the effect of gamification on reducing anxiety is less obvious. For students with lower anxiety levels, gamification alleviates their feelings of embarrassment and nervousness and promotes their classroom participation in a relatively more remarkable way comparing to their counterparts. This study is expected to contribute to the literature of gamification and foreign language education by exploring the preliminary effects of gamification on language learners’ anxiety and providing references for further longitudinal research.

Luying Zhang

Papers

Examining the Effects of Gamification on Chinese College Students’ Foreign Language Anxiety: A Preliminary Exploration