Thesis (MSC) - Cyprus International University. Institute of Graduate Studies and Research Master of Management Information Systems

Includes bibliography (sheets 50-61)

ABSTRACT Gamification is a term that has picked up cash throughout the most recent couple of years. Nowadays, many institutions are implementing gamification as an approach to enhance academic efficiency and also to motivate students to study effectively. This study purposes to ascertain the level of engagement of students in the usage of gamification, as well as the impact of gamification in the assessment of the performance of students in an online learning environment. This research adopted both qualitative and quantitative techniques. It used a survey approach in the data collection in two aspects. The first aspect was the valuation of student level of engagement towards the use of a gamified learning environment using well- structured questionnaires. The second aspect was to test the assessment of the scores of students between the gamified learning environment in Moodle and the non-gamified learning environment in Moodle. This research used a formative research design on the online gamified setting to know the level of engagement of students towards the use of the gamified approach. Pre-test and post-test questionnaires were used for this evaluation. The population of the study was second year summer school undergraduate students in the Management Information Systems department. The data was analysed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS 24). The paired-samples T-test analysis was applied to the pre-test and post-test questionnaires, as well as quizzes taken by the students in Moodle and in the gamified learning environment based on the statistics of the compared mean in order to illustrate and compare a difference between the pre-test and post-test questionnaires and the quizzes taken in Moodle and the gamified learning environment. The findings of the results showed that the level of engagement of the students in the gamified Moodle environment was not very significant, as compared to the non-gamified Moodle environment. Furthermore, the assessment of student performance illustrated a great difference which showed that the scores from the gamified learning environment are higher than that of the non-gamified learning environment, which depicts that students perform better in gamified Moodle environments.