THE EXPERIENCE OF THE APPLICATION OF A GAMIFIED VIRTUAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENT IN HIGHER EDUCATION

The ubiquity of information and communication technologies pave the way for constant and permanent access to information. In this context, Virtual Learning Environments (VLE) provide a way for students to access and interact with learning experiences without time and space constraints. Students assume the responsibility for their own learning, overcoming passive attitudes of listening and memorizing content. However, VLEs should not be limited to educational content repositories, allowing the integration and involvement of students. According to the literature, VLEs can be further improved by including active pedagogical methodologies, such as gamification, which rely on game elements and mechanics to motivate and involve users, in this context, in online environments.

The purpose of a VLE is to provide a set of tools, in a concerted environment, that allows users to complete teaching and learning activities autonomously and non-presential, in addition to helping the teacher in the task of the formative and summative assessment. In other words, VLEs should be developed to provide teaching and learning environments that allows students to assume an active role in the development of their own knowledge and to increase their involvement.

This work starts from this statement and described an experience of the application of a gamified VLE for the development of non-presential teaching and learning activities. It results from the application in the course of Statistics in a Management degree. To assess its impact, a quanti-qualitative methodology was used. Data was collected by four instruments: an online questionnaire with closed questions for students, an online questionnaire with open questions for students, and interview with the teacher, and the users’ actions collected through instrumentation of the VLE.

Students had access for 60 days, performing the activities designed and provided by the teacher. In total, 175 teaching-learning experiences were created, structured in 11 areas and 3 different difficulty levels. Students were able to do the experiences without any time constraint. The feedback was constant, giving students immediate notion of their success and the teacher a report of the students’ progress.

According to the data, both teacher and students consider that it is beneficial to use the VLE because its ubiquity and flexible use. The teacher further considers that it has the potential to stimulate more involvement of the students in the course. However, the teacher also considers that the downside of the platform is that it requires an initial large effort to define all the required teaching-learning experiences. Students also consider that it is important to maintain a higher weight of the VLE assessment grade to motivate them to use the environment. This aspect demands more reflection, because it is intended to motivate students through intrinsic methods, regardless of the extrinsic pursue of higher grade. This should be achieved through gamification, in which the elements should appeal to the student to use more time and effort in the learning activities.

Both students and the teacher consider that using VLE is beneficial, although its use is still a challenge. The involvement of the teacher and the articulation between the VLE and the pedagogical approach is of the utmost importance to foster the students involvement in the teaching-learning process.