Game Elements to Engage Students Learning the Open Source Software Contribution Process

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Santos, Italo, Felizardo, Katia Romero, Gerosa, Marco A., Steinmacher, Igor
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2024
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author Santos, Italo
Felizardo, Katia Romero
Gerosa, Marco A.
Steinmacher, Igor
author_facet Santos, Italo
Felizardo, Katia Romero
Gerosa, Marco A.
Steinmacher, Igor
contents Contributing to OSS projects can help students to enhance their skills and expand their professional networks. However, novice contributors often feel discouraged due to various barriers. Gamification techniques hold the potential to foster engagement and facilitate the learning process. Nevertheless, it is unknown which game elements are effective in this context. This study explores students' perceptions of gamification elements to inform the design of a gamified learning environment. We surveyed 115 students and segmented the analysis from three perspectives: (1) cognitive styles, (2) gender, and (3) ethnicity (Hispanic/LatinX and Non-Hispanic/LatinX). The results showed that Quest, Point, Stats, and Badge are favored elements, while competition and pressure-related are less preferred. Across cognitive styles (persona), gender, and ethnicity, we could not observe any statistical differences, except for Tim's GenderMag persona, which demonstrated a higher preference for storytelling. Conversely, Hispanic/LatinX participants showed a preference for the Choice element. These results can guide tool builders in designing effective gamified learning environments focused on the OSS contributions process.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2407_04674
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Game Elements to Engage Students Learning the Open Source Software Contribution Process
Santos, Italo
Felizardo, Katia Romero
Gerosa, Marco A.
Steinmacher, Igor
Software Engineering
Contributing to OSS projects can help students to enhance their skills and expand their professional networks. However, novice contributors often feel discouraged due to various barriers. Gamification techniques hold the potential to foster engagement and facilitate the learning process. Nevertheless, it is unknown which game elements are effective in this context. This study explores students' perceptions of gamification elements to inform the design of a gamified learning environment. We surveyed 115 students and segmented the analysis from three perspectives: (1) cognitive styles, (2) gender, and (3) ethnicity (Hispanic/LatinX and Non-Hispanic/LatinX). The results showed that Quest, Point, Stats, and Badge are favored elements, while competition and pressure-related are less preferred. Across cognitive styles (persona), gender, and ethnicity, we could not observe any statistical differences, except for Tim's GenderMag persona, which demonstrated a higher preference for storytelling. Conversely, Hispanic/LatinX participants showed a preference for the Choice element. These results can guide tool builders in designing effective gamified learning environments focused on the OSS contributions process.
title Game Elements to Engage Students Learning the Open Source Software Contribution Process
topic Software Engineering
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.04674