GAMIFIED 3D VIRTUAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENT FOR IMPROVED STUDENTS' MOTIVATION AND LEARNING EVALUATION. A CASE STUDY ON "3DUPB" CAMPUS

Abstract

The current paper presents a research and experimental implementation of a gamified virtual learning environment and a case study to evaluate the results. The 3D virtual worlds, designed either as a mirror of the real learning settings or as pure virtual 3D spaces, offer numerous advantages for learning and teaching, which were researched and demonstrated in several papers and implementations. To be used as learning environments, virtual worlds need special design principles to support teaching and learning but mainly to engage users, similar to those used in video games. They also share a common issue, i.e. the challenge to extract useful in-world information regarding the usage of the virtual world and the learning outcome as a result of this usage. While a serious game is more complex in design and implementation and helps students understand and learn a specific topic, the gamification (i.e. use of game elements in serious environments) can cover a specific activity or a more complex process and supports both students' engagement and learning assessment, with less complex implementation effort. In our research we used the gamification concepts in a 3D graphical and interactive environment to motivate the students (intrinsically or extrinsically) to use and revisit a virtual learning environment and to evaluate their learning outcome. "3DUPB" is a virtual clone of the Politehnica University of Bucharest implemented on an infrastructure of services based on the OpenSim platform, whose main goal is to allow students to participate at courses and laboratories in a mixed (real-virtual) and immersive environment. In our research we leveraged the main feature of the virtual campus, i.e. the extensibility with other virtual spaces (regions or simulators) or/and functionalities, to gamify activities and also the usage and behaviour of the virtual learning environment. The paper makes a short introduction on existing implementations of learning gamification, further describes the design of the experimental learning simulator (virtual classrooms as sub-spaces of the "3DUPB" campus) and explains the gamification: category of activities and characteristics of the virtual learning environment, gamification elements, rules and levels, the implementation on OpenSim platform. A schematic diagram of the workflow of the gamified simulator is also added. A case study during the courses "3D computer graphics" at the Department of Computers from the University Politehnica Bucharest and results of the experimentation are further summarized. The final paragraphs are dedicated to conclusions and further work.