Game Elements to Engage Students Learning the Open Source Software Contribution Process
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.
Tue 3 SepDisplayed time zone: London change
14:00 - 15:30 | Session 2: End User Programming + EducationResearch Papers at LT1 Chair(s): Alexander Repenning University of Colorado, Boulder | ||
14:00 20mTalk | Investigating the Usability of Coding Applications for Children: Insights from Teacher Interviews Research Papers Mika Morgan University of North Texas, Stephanie Ludi University of North Texas, Katherine Gash University of North Texas, Thien Truong University of North Texas | ||
14:20 20mTalk | Game Elements to Engage Students Learning the Open Source Software Contribution Process Research Papers Italo Santos Northern Arizona University, Katia Felizardo Federal Technological University of Paraná, Igor Steinmacher Northern Arizona University, Marco Gerosa Northern Arizona University Pre-print | ||
14:40 20mTalk | Physical vs. Virtual Representations Within Concreteness Fading for Primary School Computing Research Papers Anthony Trory University of Sussex, Kate Howland University of Sussex, Judith Good University of Amsterdam, Benedict du Boulay University of Sussex | ||
15:00 15mShort-paper | The Paradox of Spreadsheet Self-Efficacy: Social Incentives for Informal Knowledge Sharing in End-User Programming Research Papers Qing (Nancy) Xia University College London, Advait Sarkar Microsoft Research and University of Cambridge, Duncan Brumby University College London, Anna Cox University College London | ||
15:15 15mShort-paper | Cocobo: Exploring Large Language Models as the Engine for End-User Robot Programming Research Papers Yate Ge College of Design and Innovation, Tongji University, Shanghai, China, Yi Dai Shanghai Research Institute for intelligent Autonomous Systems, Tongji university, Shanghai, China, Run Shan College of Design and Innovation, Tongji University, Shanghai, China, Kechun Li College of Design and Innovation, Tongji University, Shanghai, China, Yuanda Hu College of Design and Innovation, Tongji University, Shanghai, China, Xiaohua Sun School of Design, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, China Pre-print | ||