The Use of Gamification in Distance Education: A Web-Based Gamified Quiz Application

Abstract

One of the basic challenges in distance education is motivational issues that distance learners encounter because of the factors such as separation in time and space from teachers, other learners, and learning sources. In an effort to minimize this drawback and increase learners’ participation into learning processes by motivating distant learners, new approaches such as gamification have been integrated in distance education. Gamification is one of the motivational approaches to meet this need. Gamification is defined as the application of game elements and digital game design techniques to non-game situations to engage and motivate people to achieve their goals. Within this perspective, this study intends to explain the use of gamification by examining, SoruKüp, a gamified web-based quiz application designed for the use of distant learners. Within this context, the research used holistic multiple-case design which is one of the qualitative research model. The research data was collected through interviews with participants who used SoruKüp application and the data was analyzed using content analysis technique. Within the perspectives of the research, it has been argued that gamification in distance education enhances the learners’ motivation, contributes to the sustainability of the learning process, and makes the learning process more fun.