Abstract:

Gamification is an approach that focuses on the integration of elements and mechanics, e.g., points, quests and leaderboards, from the field of gaming and game design into a nongaming environment to engage and motivate people to achieve their goals. Learner’s motivation difficulties are known as a problem in educational settings. Hence, we followed the idea of gamification in the field of knowledge acquisition and business process modeling to raise the motivation of learners.

Our previous experiences and insights lead to our following research questions:
RQ1: How does gamification affect the (learning) motivation of learners in the field of business process modeling using BPMN?
RQ2: Can the gamified solution support the improvement of model quality?

To answer the research questions, we developed a non-digital game, based on 15 typical game mechanics. The BPMN (Business Process Model and Notation) wheel as the chosen form of implementation is based on wheels of fortune, which are known to most people from television or trade fairs. The core of the board game is the BPMN wheel and another wheel for the collection of notation elements needed for process modeling. In addition there are elements for knowledge transfer such as learning and question cards. The basic idea of the BPMN wheel is that players learn basics about BPMN and these can apply practically. The game is played in teams. The teams develop a graphical process model based on a textual process description. The winner is the team with the best model quality.

We carried out four field experiments at different universities with 140 students to test and evaluate the prototype. In order to be able to analyze the effects of the gamified solution on several aspects, we used knowledge tests (pre and post), exercises (pre and post) and further evaluations.

The results will be discussed in the paper.

Keywords:

Gamification, Game Based Learning, Serious Games, Business Process Management, Business Process Modeling, BPMN, knowledge transfer, motivation.