Gamification of Collaborative Learning Scenarios: An Ontological Engineering Approach to Deal with Motivational Problems in Scripted Collaborative Learning

Resumo

To date, one of the major problems in the field of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) is to engage students in meaningful interactions. Past research have addressed this issue by using scripts, a procedure that humans and computers can use to reduce extraneous interactions. Nevertheless, it has caused negative learning outcomes and motivational problems over time. Thus, in our work, we propose an innovative approach that combines gamification, a strategy to increase engagement, and personalization to improve the chances of successful learning. Both gamification and personalization of collaborative learning (CL) are complex tasks that require a specific organization of knowledge about game-design and theories of human learning. To deal with this, we formalize such knowledge into an ontology and, on top of it, we built computational tools, procedures and mechanisms to support well-thought-out gamified CL activities. We conducted three full-scale empirical studies during a semester in real situations with around 60 students each. Findings of these studies have shown statistically significant differences between our approach and the current state of the art. We found positive effects of our approach on students' intrinsic motivation and skill/knowledge acquisition with a strong positive correlation among them. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work that developed an effective and efficient method to deal with motivational problems.