Abstract:

It is generally accepted that the use of teaching/learning techniques based on the active participation of students can improve their involvement in the learning process. Gamification can be defined as the application of game-like elements in non-gaming environments. New generations have grown up playing games everywhere, especially with the appearance of video games and the digital world. Gamification can be used as a technique to make traditionally boring or tedious activities fun, thus increasing motivation and engagement. Especially in education, gamification pursues to convert the learning process into an enjoyable activity, leading to learning improvements.

Although gamification has intensified its presence in several sectors lately (enterprise, schools, etc.), it is not extended to education at the university level and research is still required to evaluate its impact and consequences on the learning process. Several works have been published studying the gamification experience in engineering courses. However, each university and every subject have its idiosyncrasies, therefore, it is difficult to extract general conclusions. The inclusion of such an innovative technique in basic disciplines such as those that are usually in the first courses is probably less evident than in other specialties closer to the application level. The introductory courses are more critical in terms of student retention, therefore, introduction of gamification techniques in these courses will have more positive outcomes in terms of student retention than in more advanced subjects.

Electromagnetism is an important core course in the electrical engineering curriculum and comprises several of the most basic and challenging concepts (or ideas) of this field. Due to the theoretical nature of electromagnetism in a practical degree, many students show a lack of both motivation and engagement during the lectures of this subject, leading to low success rates that also discourages professors. This paper presents the evaluation of a pilot study of the feasibility of gamification in these courses carried out in the Telecomunication Engineering School, at the University of Malaga (Spain). Applying gamification in such fundamental theoretical subjects requires a careful design of the games to be compatible with the rigorous assessment of these subjects.

In this contribution, the games designed for two courses in two different semesters are presented. A course on Circuit Analysis in the first year and a course on the Fundamentals of Electromagnetic Wave Propagation in the second one will be assessed. For these courses, seven games have been designed. Some of these games are common to the two courses and another has been specifically designed for one of these courses. The results of the gamification techniques in these courses, measured by students’ surveys and lecturers’ reports will be also presented. The direct measures of the students’ performances are not found relevant and would not be significant in statistical terms due to the small populations in the individual classes; consequently, these results are not provided. In any case, the survey feedback shows gamification as a very promising tool and demonstrates that it can be properly adopted in these courses. Indeed, these gamification tools can be a suitable starting point to develop more effective teaching strategies in advanced courses also focused on increasing the active participation of the students.

Keywords:

Gamification, motivation, Electrical Engineering.