Gamification to Help Inform Students About Programming Plagiarism and Collusion

Abstract

We recently developed an automated approach to reduce students' rationalization of programming plagiarism and collusion by informing them about the matter and reporting uncommon similarities to them for each of their submissions. Although the approach has benefits, it does not greatly engage students, which might limit those benefits. To discover its full potential, we employ gamification based on self-determination theory and nine heuristics suggested by Roy & Zaman. Students earn more game points by submitting unique programs early, reading the generated reports, and collecting badges. Those with the highest game points are rewarded at the end of the course. According to our evaluation, involving 240 computing undergraduates in three quasi-experiments over three academic semesters, students with gamification become slightly more aware of programming plagiarism and collusion, complete assessments earlier, and read generated reports more frequently. Students engage with the gamification and perceive its impact on usability.