Effectiveness of gamification elements in mobile learning environments

Education has been a value that should be emphasized by societies in every period of human life. For this purpose, various innovations are made in order to deliver education to all segments of society. Within the scope of the principle of equal opportunity in the field of education, developing web technologies are used to deliver information to large masses. Thanks to the advantages of mobile devices, it has brought a great dynamism to the distance education processes carried out on a web basis. Thanks to the dynamism they bring, mobile devices have great advantages in accessing training. In addition, the width of the coverage area of mobile networks also bring mobile devices to the fore in distance education. Purpose: In this study, it is aimed to determine the effectiveness of the use of gamification components in the mobile learning environment on students' motivation towards technology learning, student participation in the course, completion of the course and learning performance. Method: Explanatory mixed design, one of the mixed methods, was used in the study process. The study group selected using the criterion sampling method consists of 87 students studying at the 1st grade of Bahçeşehir University Vocational School of Health Services. Within the scope of the curriculum developed by the researcher for the students, a training was carried out on mobile devices for 11 weeks by using gamification components in the mobile learning environment. Course outcomes have been created to cover the subjects of information security, computer systems, internet, information technologies used in health. As a qualitative and quantitative data collection tool in the study; "Motivation and Self-Regulation Scale" developed by Liou and Kuo (2014) and adapted into Turkish by Şekerci (2017), "Mobile Learning Tools Acceptance Scale" developed by Özer and Kılıç (2017) was developed by the researcher within the scope of the thesis. The developed academic achievement test, semi-structured interview form and weekly course evaluation form were used. Data Analysis: Selection of groups Item analysis, independent samples t-test and dependent (related) groups t-test, descriptive statistical methods and content analysis methods for qualitative data analysis were used in the analysis of quantitative data. Results: According to the results obtained from the quantitative data, although the average level of acceptance of mobile learning tools of the experimental group students was higher than the average of the control group students, no significant difference was detected. According to the results obtained from the motivation scale against technology learning, the motivation of the experimental group students increased, while the motivation of the control group decreased. At the end of the application, no significant difference was found between the motivation of the experimental and control groups towards technology learning. According to the results of the academic achievement test, which is another quantitative data collection tool, the control group students achieved significantly higher test results than the experimental group students. When the data were analyzed according to different criteria, it was seen that the students who participated actively in the lesson in the experimental group (students with a high degree of active participation) achieved higher results than the students in the control group. When the groups were examined in general, no significant difference was found in the academic achievement test results of the experimental and control groups. According to the results obtained from the qualitative data, gamification elements motivated the students to attend and attend the lesson. However, the difficulties experienced by the students for various reasons had a negative effect on their motivation. Discussion, Conclusion and Suggestions: The findings obtained at the end of the study were discussed with the results of the studies carried out in the literature under the title of discussion. The results of the research were given and suggestions were presented to the designers, trainers and researchers for the studies to be done.