A utilização de um aplicativo gamificado como ferramenta colaborativa e motivacional para alunos da educação a distância

Abstract

The Higher Education Census showed that in 2021 3 million and 700 thousand enrollments were made in the distance education modality. The growing adoption of Distance Education (EAD) by part of the students who look for better oportunities and quality education access, has been forcing the Educational Institution to make great investiments to meet this demand, thus becoming a major challenge both technologically and human. Because there is no point in investing in computers, learning virtual environment or in internet conection if the main person, who is the student, does not keep motivated to learn until the completion of the course. To help mitigate this scenario is that many researchers have been applying gamification to motivate students during the learning process. In short, Gamification is the handling of game elements in non-gaming environments. However, it is not enough to implemente these elements randomly hoping it works in an effective way, it is necessary to use a process and tools already employed successfuly in other cases of use. Therefore, this research has the main goal to analyze how the use of a gamification application may contribute as a colaborative and motivational tool for the students in distance education. In this research the Framework Octalysis by Yu-kai Chou was applied to map the main elements of gamification that best suit the student’s profile. For this, an experiment was performed using an application for mobile devices gamified in three groups of graduation in EAD, Public Administration Bachelor, Pedagogy Degree from the Open University of Brazil (UAB) and Bachelor’s Degree in Information Systems from FACIMP/WYDEN. The research has an exploratory and descriptive feature and presents the results in a quantitative and qualitative way, from the analyzes of gamified application data, interviews with professor and a questionnaires applied to students. Finally, it was possible to identify that the gamification applied through the application and use of Framework Octalysis encouraged the collaboration and motivated students during the learning process