Effects of a Sustainable Gamified System for Economically Disadvantaged Students in Bangladesh

Abstract

Now-a-days, digital technologies are valuable resources for student's academic and social development (Anderson, 2010) such as a gamified system for students. Socio-economically disadvantaged students in Bangladesh at a primary level mostly lack the opportunity of using modern technology for their educational growth. Using technology-enhanced learning in school are most valuable i.e., improving math quiz and puzzle via a cost-effective platform. The implementation of a gamified system in tutoring students is expanding rapidly. A gamified system makes educational modules or topics simple, understandable, and interesting for students (Deved, 2006). It can be predicted that in future, various gamified systems will be accessible to the users based on their topic of interest. Hence, an assessment method and tool are vital to access the performance and quality of the digital learning systems and suggest the proper learning system, and the impact of gamification techniques in the context of socioeconomically disadvantaged students are not available widely. Hamari et al. (2014) coined out the following as a methodological limitation on a gamified learning system: small sample sizes, proper psychometric measurements were not applied while surveying user experience, some experiments only considered users evaluation, no consideration for individual motivational affordance, absence of multilevel measurements, for example, psychological and behavioural outcomes. There is, however, few information about utilizing content gamification learning pedagogy to examine the learning system quality. The study aims to focus on introducing content gamification learning pedagogy in a gamified system that can have a significant effect on different learners. Content gamification uses game-play mechanics for non-game applications (Deterding et al. 2011). Gamification, particularly content gamification can assist students in multiple areas within an institution to improve learning performance (Geelan et al. 2015). Thus, the expected outcome in using the gamified learning system can also change significantly. The focus question of the study is: What is the effect of the Content Gamified Learning Pedagogy in the digital learning system to motivate economically disadvantaged students? To answer the research question, Cognitive Social Learning Theory (CSLT) Bandura (1986) will be utilized in this study that supports design instruction and the gamification of learning. The contribution of this theory is the instructional design of a gamified system and the students' education and learning experience. Its design involves problem-solving and decision making of the students. Kahoot will be applied as an interactive gamified learning platform among the students. This social learning system will be set up to have the students, interact with artefacts within the game and other students online. Problem-solving strategies concerning quiz such as mathematics puzzle will be practised and refined within this learning context. Based on the tools of accessing performance and quality, this gamified learning system will be guided by design thinking approaches such as human- centered design i.e., students will be engaged to design the mathematics puzzle and quiz within the Kahoot-based gamified system. The result of the study can assist us to understand how a gamified system can be designed and developed to motivate economically disadvantaged students towards their education and learning.