The impact of the employment of gamification elements in online and face-to-face coding education on academic achievement, motivation, and attitude

The present study aimed to determine the effects of the employment of gamification elements in online and face-to-face coding education on academic achievement, motivation and attitude. In the study, 4x3 split plot design, a quantitative research model, was adopted. The first factor in the design included 4 experiment and control groups. The coding education was conducted in gamified online learning environment (GOLE), gamified face-to-face learning environment (GFFLE), and online learning environment without gamification elements (OLE) in experimental groups, while coding was instructed in face-to-face learning environment (FFLE) in the control group. The second study factor included the repeated measurements (pretest, posttest, follow-up test). The study group included 9th grade students attending the elective Computer Science Course in an Anatolian High School in Adıyaman province Gölbaşı district during the 2017-2018 academic year. Experimental and control groups were selected randomly from 5 9th grade classes. The study was conducted with 132 students; 33 were in the GOLE group, 33 were in the GFFLE group, 33 were in the OLE group, and 33 were in the FFLE group. Academic Achievement Test, Motivation Scale and Attitude Towards Programming Languages Scale were employed to collect the study data, and the data were analyzed with two-factor ANOVA for mixed measurements. The study findings demonstrated that the academic achievement increased in all groups at the end of the experimental process and remained high in the follow-up measurements. It was determined that GOLE, GFFLE and OLE employed in the experimental groups were more effective in increasing academic achievement when compared to the FFLE implemented in the control group. The highest increase in academic achievement was observed in the GFFLE group. Furthermore, there was no significant difference between the academic achievement scores of the GOLE and OLE groups. The follow-up test scores revealed that GOLE and GFFLE were more effective learning environments in ensuring permanence. The findings on student motivation demonstrated that the motivation scores increased in the GOLE and GFFLE groups. No significant change was observed in the motivation scores of the OLE and FFLE groups. It was determined that GOLE and GFFLE had a similar effect on the increase in motivation. The follow-up test results revealed that GOLE and GFFLE had similar effects and these applications were more effective when compared to OLE and FFLE. The findings on the student attitude scores towards coding demonstrated that the attitude scores increased in all groups and remained at the same level in the follow-up measurements. Furthermore, it was observed that the attitude scores of the experimental groups towards coding were higher when compared to those of the control group. The most effective learning environments in increasing the attitude towards coding were GOLE and GFFLE, which exhibited similar effects. Also, the follow-up test findings revealed that the experimental procedures implemented in the experimental groups were more effective in achieving permanence. It was determined that the most effective learning environments to ensure permanence were GOLE and OFFLE, which had similar effects.