Abstract:

Gamification in education is a current methodology that holds promising benefits for students, allowing for more active learning and improving academic results. Gamification can be defined as the application of game techniques in non-game contexts. The earliest reference to gamification dates to 2002, when Nick Pelling founded a consulting company to create interfaces similar to those in video games for electronic devices. However, it wasn’t until 2010 that studies on gamification began to gain relevance. From 2011 onward, gamification rapidly developed, primarily due to its adoption by multinational companies using gamified strategies to motivate employees and retain customers. Various studies have demonstrated the benefits of incorporating game elements across multiple disciplines.

The primary objective of gamification is to motivate students to engage more actively, leading to enhanced learning. It’s essential to distinguish gamification from serious games, where education is the primary goal beyond mere entertainment. Serious games, such as flight simulators designed to train future pilots, focus explicitly on educational objectives. In gamification, specific game mechanics and dynamics are leveraged to develop skills, train specific tasks, or reinforce knowledge. By carefully selecting and applying these elements, educators can create a more engaging and effective learning experience.

In this sense, gamification involves introducing these mechanics into non-game environments, meaning outside of games specifically created for that purpose. It is an active process where nothing is lost, as it is truly focused on practice and improvement of content or skills. It follows rules, akin to game mechanics, oriented toward progress. Ultimately, it creates experiences with game elements to advance toward an objective. By applying this gamification methodology to solving practical corrosion cases in the subject of study, the following benefits are aimed for: increasing student motivation and participation in the subject, enhancing self-learning processes for students, improving the acquisition of subject competencies, and raising pass rates and final grades in the course.

In this study, a proposed teaching innovation activity is based on applying a gamification methodology to solve practical corrosion cases as part of a practical activity in the subject “Corrosion Protection Technologies” for fourth-year Materials Engineering students. As a gamification methodology, we propose applying rules analogous to those used in the well-known board game “Cluedo”, adapted to solving various practical cases related to corrosion phenomena and mechanisms. The principal objective of this activity is that students in the subject under study acquire competencies and learn the basic procedures for solving practical corrosion cases that could occur in real industry situations.

Keywords:

Gamification, Engineering Courses, Motivation, Higher Education.