A life cycle model for gamified activities in undergraduate courses

© 2019 IISE Annual Conference and Expo 2019. All rights reserved.In recent years, universities have been adopting the educational trend of blended learning. One strategy used in blended learning is gamification. The use of gamification is clearly documented in the literature; however, there are also warnings about its use in blended courses. Engaging students in their own learning processes and inducing them to accept a more active role in their learning are not trivial tasks, even with a well-designed gaming activity. The present work introduces the concept of a life cycle of gamified activities. It is a model intended to maintain the gamified activity successfully throughout the life cycle in accordance with its original design goal. This research also describes the sequential stages within the life cycle and includes an example of an activity that has been modified during its five years of application in a "Discrete Events Simulation" course. Results show a general acceptance of the updated activity, but there are some warnings related to the time required to improve it and possible failure elements during its implementation. Finally, this paper has recommendations for new adopters of gamification. It also offers some guiding questions regarding future work and reflection about methods to assess the effectiveness of gamified activities.

A life cycle model for gamified activities in undergraduate courses Academic Article in Scopus