Teaching Presence in Online Gamified Education for Sustainability Learning

Abstract

Gamification in education refers to the introduction of game elements in the design of learning processes. Our gamification approach was based on the self-determination theory. According to this theory, people need to have competence, social connectedness, and autonomy in order to feel determined to perform certain activities. We aimed to investigate the effects of teaching presence in online gamification on sustainability learning and self-determination as well as identify the driving factors and barriers to sustaining students’ participation in online gamified activity. A mobile application called JouleBug was used. It contains game elements and aims to encourage pro-environmental behaviours. Our quasi-experimental design included two university courses (as control and treatment groups) on sustainable education with 48 participants. Both groups worked with JouleBug, whereas the treatment group was also supported by their teacher’s teaching presence. To establish online teaching presence, the teacher shares the students’ leader board rankings, acknowledges the students’ achievements, and give comments and feedback on students’ activities in the chatting group twice a week. Sustainability knowledge and pro-environmental behaviour were measured through survey. Students’ performance in the gamified activities was measured through collected points in the JouleBug application. The drivers and barriers to sustaining the students’ participation in JouleBug activities were identified through focus group interviews and students’ reflection writing. We found there were significant differences in the sustainability knowledge, pro-environmental behaviour, and performance between the treatment and control groups. The Cohen’s d effect size value obtained for the treatment on sustainability knowledge, pro-environmental behaviour, and students’ performance indicates a large effect as well. Focus group interviews with the participants and the students’ reflection writings revealed that the driving factors in sustaining the participation in the gamified activities in the application are recognition by teachers and peers, competition, and sense of belonging to a group. Meanwhile, the barriers to sustaining participation in online gamification are time constraints, boredom caused by lack of social interaction, and boredom caused by activity repetition and activity’s inappropriate level of difficulty. The conclusion is the teacher plays a role as an agent in this online gamification learning context. The findings suggest that teaching presence is one of the important building blocks that encourage the students’ participation and learning in online gamification.