Raising engagement and motivation through gamified e-portfolio: A student perspective

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Abstract

Is it possible to make people use the e-portfolio just for fun? This was the question post by the researcher which include an e-portfolio system with the functions of giving a point to any task or activity done, giving a point and a badge to a series of tasks done and the accumulated points will contribute to their position in the leaderboard in the e-portfolio system. This is what we call ‘Gamification’, which is the concept of applying game elements in a non-game context to inspire positive change in others. In education, the gamification of e-learning to make it fun and engaging by using game mechanics to encourage learners to explore and learn as they move toward the goal has been trending. This is to overcome the key issue in e-learning in generating enough motivation so that students will want to invest the time and effort required to learn but not enough empirical research has been done on the gamification of the e-portfolio, an electronic collection of evidence that shows learner’s learning journey over time.

This thesis investigates the gamification approach to the e-portfolio system at Kolej Profesional MARA (KPM) in Malaysia. An initial study revealed that no visible constraints for the students regarding their institution’s infrastructure to implement an e-portfolio system, the students’ Internet and computer skills were in an acceptable level, the students have appropriate devices to access the Internet, and their current Internet services were also in an acceptable condition. For e-portfolio content preferences, the profile page is the most preferred content while other items have the same level of importance to students. The preferred game-like features by the students to be included in the e-portfolios are points followed by feedback, status, and levels. This research then presents the theoretical underpinnings of the research and discusses related theories and models relevant to the research in developing the proposed theoretical framework for the gamified e-portfolios that include these four dimensions: e-portfolio dimension, gamification dimension, engagement dimension, and motivation dimension. From the gamified e-portfolio framework, the design, development and implementation activities of the gamified e-portfolios have been done followed by the evaluation of the gamified e-portfolio system. The major technological delivery suggested by this thesis was the prototype, implemented as a web application of the gamified e-portfolio system. The major research achievement was evaluating participants’ perception of the gamified e-portfolio system. The evaluation of the gamified e-portfolio shows a positive indication of the gamification approach. The chosen game elements were indeed considered to make activities in the e-portfolio more engaging and fun. The results presented in this thesis are based on the students’ perceptions of the MARA ePortfolio (MeP) system (the gamified e-portfolio system).

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