Abstract:

In the context of software engineering education for undergraduate-level students, this study presents the application of a gamified experience to an undergraduate course. The gamified experience takes place in a virtual environment, which simulates a school for gifted students. The students form teams to define the identity of their “house”. Additional challenges and activities have been introduced that offer virtual currency called “X-Gems” as a reward for successful completion. They can be used in two auctions held during the course, where each house can bid for various benefits.

A set of activities has been designed to promote engagement and to create a more immersive user experience. These activities incorporate gamification, extended realities technologies, and educational innovations:
- Activity 1: Usability and UX Workshop. This activity starts with a surprise element, as students mysteriously receive letters, inviting them to participate in a magical experience. This class takes place in a different classroom, equipped with Hologram technology (HoloMesh) where students are received by one of the professors presented as an avatar. In this innovative class, the avatar professor uses telepresence to introduce the topic of “Usability and UX”.
- Activity 2: Design Thinking Workshop. This class is about Design Thinking. To make the activity more engaging, there will be a magician tournament to select two supreme magicians who will act as clients for the main activity. The tournament will be single elimination until there are two winners. The supreme magicians will receive X-Gems for their house. After selecting the supreme magicians, we move on to the main Design Thinking activity.
- Activity 3: Video game using Virtual Reality (VR). The activity is divided into 3 parts: firstly, learning the basics of developing a VR game; secondly, designing the scene and environment of a VR game; and thirdly, programming its functionalities. The students were surprised by the introduction of new technology, and even more so when they could create their own game. Additionally, X-Gems were offered as a prize for the best game in the group, which helped to connect the activity with the gamification of the course.

To measure its impact a survey was applied on two of the workshops:
- UX workshop. Word cloud: Fun, Different, Innovative, Unique; Recommendation: 100%; Rating the experience (1-10): 9.1.
- VR workshop. An AI-powered sentiment analysis showed that the students highlighted the technology's impact, creative potential, and the emotional experience of exploring new possibilities.

In this course, students had the opportunity to earn 2 different types of contributions. We obtained the following results:
- Activities that only contributed to the grade: 95% of participation
- Activities that contributed to grades and virtual currency: 100% of participation
- Activities that only contributed to virtual currency: 81% of participation

The gamification approach is a helpful technique that encourages students' active participation and engagement by promoting collaboration, decision-making, and negotiation in a controlled environment. This approach boosts motivation, improves the perception of the class, and increases the commitment of the students toward completing assignments. Not only does this approach significantly enhance the educational experience, but it also assists in fulfilling the transversal competencies outlined in the course.

Keywords:

Gamification, Educational Innovation, Extended Realities (XR), Multidisciplinary, Undergraduate Education.