DISSERTATION PROJECT

Designing a Gamified Doubt Solving Platform for Coaching Institutes.

AARUSHI JHAMB MD/16/68 Submitted to National Institute of Fashion Technology – Kannur in Partial fulfilment for the award of Degree of

MASTER IN DESIGN

Faculty Mentor

P. SUVIDHA RAJU Assistant Professor

Department of Design Space

Kannur 2018

APPROVAL OF DISSERTATION This dissertation titled ________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________ submitted by _________________________ to NIFT – Kannur in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Design of National Institute of Fashion Technology at New Delhi and hereby certify that in the judgment of the following members of jury it is worth of acceptance: -

Name

Institute/ Organisation

Signature & Date

__________________ _____________________ _____________________ __________________ _____________________ _____________________ __________________ _____________________ _____________________ __________________ _____________________ _____________________ __________________ _____________________ _____________________

Remarks regarding fulfilling requirements, if any: _____________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________

Signature of CC - Design Space

Date:

II

CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that the thesis submitted by Aarushi Jhamb (MD/16/68), entitled “DESIGNING A GAMIFIED DOUBT SOLVING PLATFORM FOR COACHING INSTITUTES� in fulfilment for the award of Master of Design is a record of original research work carried out by him during the academic year 2016 to 2018 under my supervision. This thesis has not formed the basis for the award of any degree, diploma, associate ship, fellowship or other titles. I hereby confirm the originality of the work and that there is no plagiarism in any part of the dissertation.

Place: Kannur

Signature of the Mentor

Date:

P. Suvidha Raju Assistant professor Masters of Design Space National Institute of Fashion Technology

III

ABSTRACT

This thesis discusses gamification, the use of game elements in a non game context, and its potential integration in an Online Doubt solving platform designed for students doubts in order to enhance student motivation and engagement. After understanding the relation between game elements and motivation, the paper presents an overview of game elements and techniques that can be used to trigger motivation of students, supported by an analysis of two gamified platforms, survey and interviews conducted from students and teachers. Finally, an application is designed that investigates the motivation in students to use the same.

IV

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would

like to sincerely appreciate and respect everyone who have been

supportive to help in completion of this

project successfully without any

obstacles. I would like to express my sincerely gratitude to national Institute of fashion Technology, kannur for giving me this opportunity of a great learning experience in field of design space, especially in UI/UX. A heartfelt acknowledgement to the project guide P. Suvidha Raju for valuable guidance in the research and leading me in the right direction throughout. I am very grateful for her patience, support and teachings from the beginning of the project and course.

I wish to acknowledge my parents Mr. Ajay Jhamb and Mrs. Komal Jhamb with ally my love for being my pillars of support and motivating me to give my best to this project. My wonderful team of Arc mavens for always guiding me and clearing all any doubts from their busy schedule. And my good classmates who showed great support and helped me cross all hardships towards the end.

V

DECLARATION I declare that the thesis entitled “DESIGNING A GAMIFIED DOUBT SOLVING PLATFORM FOR COACHING INSTITUTES� is a record of original research work undertaken by me for the award of the degree of Master of Design in Discipline under the supervision of P. Suvidha Raju, Assistant Professor, Master Design Space, National Institute of Fashion Technology, Kannur, and has not formed the basis for the award of ay degree, diploma, associate ship, fellowship, or titles. I hereby confirm the originality of the work and that there is no plagiarism in any part of the dissertation.

Place: Kannur

Signature of the candidate

Date:

Aarushi Jhamb MD/16/68 Masters of Design Space National Institute of Fashion Technology

VI

CONTENT Sr. No.

Chapters

I

Title Page

II

Approval of Dissertation

III

Certificate

IV

Abstract

V

Acknowledgement

VI

Declaration

1

Introduction 1.1. Introduction

1.2. Problem

1.3. Research Questions

1.4. Objective

1.5. Scope and Limitation

1

4

6

6

7

2

Review of Literature

9

3

Methodology 3.1. Methodology

3.2. Research Method

3.2.1. Case Study

3.2.3. Interview

3.2.4. Survey

4

5

Data Analysis 4.1. Case Study Analysis

4.2. Interview Findings

4.3. Survey Results

4.4. User Personas Design Intervention 5.1. Concept Development

5.1.1. Application features

5.1.2. Game Elements

5.2. Information Architecture

5.3. Low Fidelity Mockups

5.4. High Fidelity Mockups

5.5. Usability testing

Pg. No.

21

23

24

25 27

32

34

44 47

54

55

56

64

6

Discussion and Conclusion

71

7

References

75

8

Appendices

79

LIST OF FIGURES Sr. No.

Chapters

Pg. No.

Fig 1

Related Fields

9

Fig 2

Frequency of gamified elements reported in studies

12

Fig 3

Motivation pattern

15

Fig 4

Pedometer designed with game elements to keep runners motivated

28

Fig 5

Nike+ offers opportunity for achiever kinda players to choose to complete and socialise with other like minded people.

29

Fig 6

Badges awarded against certain activities performed on the website

31

Fig 7

Activity bar on Stack Overflow

31

Fig 8

Class of the Respondents

35

Fig 9

No. Of Coaching respondents Attend

36

Fig 10

Frequency of raising Doubts

36

Fig 11

Doubts solver preference

37

Fig 12

Online platforms referred

38

Fig 13

Challenges faced to get doubts cleared

38

Fig 14

Challenges quoted to get doubts cleared

39

Fig 15

Teachers Availability

40

Fig 16

Doubt solving classes frequency

41

Fig 17

Strength attending Doubt sessions

41

Fig 18

Teachers Availability in relation to student strength

42

Fig 19

Doubt Solving Probability

43

Fig 20

Fear of Asking Doubt

43

Fig 21

Motivation for Gamified Platform

44

Fig 22

Information Architecture

54

Fig 23

Low Fidelity Mockups

23

Fig 24

login screen

23

Fig 25

Home screen

56

Fig 26

hamburger Menu options

57

Fig 27

Doubt marathon Screen

58

Fig 28

Answering screen

59

Fig 29

Raising a Doubt Screen

60

Fig 30

My Doubts Screen

61

Fig 31

My Profile screens

62

Fig 32

system usage

63

Fig 33

system Complexity

65

Fig 34

System’s ease to use

65

Fig 35

Technical Support requirement

65

Fig 36

System Integration

66

Fig 37

System Inconsistency

66

Fig 38

System learning

66

Fig 39

System Cumbersome

67

Fig 40

user confidence

67

Fig 41

user Engagement

68

Fig 42

Motivation mapping

68

LIST OF TABLES Sr. No.

Chapters

Pg. No.

Table 1

User Persona (Teacher)

44

Table 2

User Persona (Student)

45

Table 3

Categorisation of badges on task basis

50

Table 4

Points Distribution on activity basis

52

Table 5

Respondents comments on application usage

69

CHAPTER 1 : INTRODUCTION "In every job that must be done, there is an element of fun. You find the fun and SNAP! The job is a game." Mary Poppins.

Having grown up with computers and games, I have seen how technology has become a part of our day today life in so many different aspects of our life. We well versed with various Internet services, different smart technologies and hardware. And now an equitably new concept that has penetrated the tech world is gamification which can be best described as usage of game elements in non-gaming contexts. Myself being a passionate gamer find this development in the tech world very interesting and positive for the world.

Gamification has successfully penetrated in a lot of industries by now and one of the fields in which it has already begun implementing is in the learning applications and now there endless learning applications for every skill, be it learning cooking or learning new languages. The possibility of using computer games and learning at the same time would be the perfect combination for many students. Johnson et al. (2013) state: “In higher education, when students are expected to think critically in order to solve problems, game-like simulations can be leveraged in any discipline to reinforce the real world applications of concepts�.

Right from an early age we have been playing different kinds of games, be it playing with friends, or some sport, board games, card games, they have Page 1 of 89

always been drawing our attention and have always managed to keep us engaged. There are various web based games from which the players can gain some knowledge and even if the game is not supposed to be for educational purposes, some learning will happen at the back of his mind without the player having any knowledge of it. As technology is expanding everyday and taking more and more space in our everyday lives , usage of technology in context of educational institutions will probably increase with time. Richard Van Eck (2006) finds games suitable for educational purposes because besides being fun, they are also • Immersive • Includes socialization • Have clear goals • Requires the player to go through a frequent process of hypothesis formulation, testing and revision • Adapts individually to the player Gamification is the process of using game like elements into a non game context like badges, leaderboards, points , challenges which creates a level of difficulty alternatively encouraging people activity and resulting into a boost in customer participation. It has already successfully penetrated in learning applications in education sector and have been widely used as an effective

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teaching method for primary school education but it still is new in secondary education level, thus have a lot of scope for development. One such field in secondary level education is the coaching institute industry. With the increase in students reliability on coaching institutes for better grades in broads and for entrance exam preparations the number of students enrolled each year has increased. Thus the need to change the teaching methods is clearly seen in the sector due to increased number of students per batch along with the increased pressure of vast course materials. Moreover due to the above mentioned reasons one problem which is prominently observed faced by students is the unresolved doubts. Due to various reasons at times students are not able to solve doubts on time which affects their performances later and alternatively affects their grades as well. However gamification being a medium to enhance user engagement on an online platform can help to eliminate this problem in the coaching institute industry. This study is to understand the students engagement behaviours and the relation between the various game elements and students motivation towards such platforms aiming to design an online experience for the students where they can solve each others doubts in a gamified and to create a useful community of students to share knowledge in a fun experience.

However their are certain people who do not like computer or any other digital based games, how would they feel if such an application is implemented in coaching institutes? What will be their motivation towards this application?

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Will it be able to reduce teachers workload? How will be students be motivated to solve other students doubts? How will game elements derive motivation in students? What are the correct game elements for this platform?does gamification encourage learning and motivation?

These questions are the motivation for this research. Finding out how game elements are successfully deriving motivation in students to play on the platform and what will be the motivation for students to use the doubt solving platform for a coaching institute.

1.2. Problem In Service sector in India, private coaching industry in one of the areas which is growing at a rapid speed. It caters to a lot of categories of students like primary and secondary students, medical aspirants, JEE and other engineering aspirants, CAT and other management aspirants, law aspirants etc. This industry withstood strong even in the biggest recession times. According to an article on ideas market “The average growth rate for the coaching industry for the past six years is a whopping 35%. The current size of the private coaching industry in India is about $23.7 billion and is likely to touch $40 billion by 2015.�

Private coaching have become a common name to all the households and in the students life as every parents wants their children to score better in their exams and prepare them for competitive entrance exams for various professional Page 4 of 89

courses and for this a fare share of the middle-class parents spend approximately one-third of their monthly income on private tuitions for their kids to perform better in their exams. As per the report “Even high-calibre students sign up for private tuition to score the 96-99% cut-off averages demanded by the best colleges.� As per the current scenario of the private Coaching industry this is evident that the student enrolment is increasing day by day but with the increase of quantity of students the burden is increased on the teachers as well , due to which they have to deal with management tasks, course content , students doubts and issues, tests , teaching and parents interactions. With the plethora of tasks on their desk they sometimes neglect the revival of course content and repeat the old ones and pass the doubts to students to handle.Due to this students at times a left with unresolved doubts till the end which alternatively affect their performance.

On the other hand Gamified applications are making a route in the Indian education system and have shown some great results in students engagement and learning capacities from such applications.

Learning application and Private Coaching Industry issues together forms the background for my thesis, finding out how gamification has been used in the Learning applications and User interaction with both elements which later will be applied to the design of the doubt solving platform.

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1.3. Research Questions In order to investigate the role of game elements on students engagement behaviour and motivation towards using such portal and for design conceptualisation of the application the following research questions have been formed: RQ 1: How is game elements and motivation interrelated?

RQ1.a. What are the different game elements?

RQ1.b. What are the correct game elements for this platform?

RQ 2: What will be Students motivation towards this application?

RQ2.b. How will be students be motivated to solve other students doubts?

1.4. Objectives This motivation deriving this research is my own observations and interest in games. While growing up un-resolved doubts was always an issue for myself as well and reaching out to peers and teachers to resolve them sometimes used to be a task due to availability and self confidences issues at times. However with the learning application being handy in the current times this issue can be resolved but there is a need for more research in this area reflecting results in order for the coaching institutes to take this into consideration. Although similar concept has been already used in question and answer platforms but that are majorly on broader levels not for the coaching institutes, whereas on Page 6 of 89

coaching institute level there are other sites which have designed doubt solving platforms but with using gamification in a broader level.

Below are the Objectives of the research: • The main Goal is to study the game elements • To find the inter-relation between game elements and user motivation.

• How is a User motivation loop created.

• Finding what will be the motivation in students to use gamified doubt solving application.

• Design a gamified online user experience for students enabling them to help solve each others doubts making a teachers life easier.

• To create a beneficial community of students, where they can share knowledge and have fun at the same time.

Hopefully this research will be a thoughtful contribution to create a beneficial community of students where they can learn, practice and have fun at the same time alternatively relating teachers pressure to some extent and providing them time to work more on quality content.

1.5. Scope and limitations Scope:

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Coaching industry being an integral part of a millennial generation students education system has a lot of opportunities to experiment to enhance the working system of such a platform.

• Teachers being overloaded with work takes manual help but as the generation is now well versed with the technology an app which can reduce their workload to 40% will be acceptable to the community.

Limitations: • Selecting the right game elements will be a difficult task.

• Avoiding the confusion being a lot of different tasks in play in one single app.

• Collecting unbiased data from Teachers and students for the application design.

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CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW This Chapter investigates the background and reviews the literature which is relevant for this research. First chapter talks about gamification and its relation with different related areas. Then the main two elements of gamificationmotivation and game elements is discussed in detail

with the ending the

chapter with mapping the relation between the two and ignorer to understand how it will help to build the student engagement loop for the doubt solving the platform.

Research on gamification in education Industry is connected to various research fields, thus the main areas which make the base of this research are technology, game learning, game elements and user motivation see fig 1.

Fig 1: Related Fields Gamification is use of game elements in a non gamified context which provides the users a gamified experience in whole unlimitedly motivating them towards Page 9 of 89

using the system. To understand the it deeply first the types of players were studied. As per the study from Gamification of design, Cunningham (2011), The players in a game can be divided into various categories but the 4 main types are: Explorers , Achievers , Socializers and Killers • Explorers Explorer category users, in brief, likes to march out into the world in order to bring things back to his community and announce, “I discovered this thing!” In a way, the experience is the objective for such players. For an example - In the game Super Mario Brothers ,suiting the explorer player type perfectly. A player had to play 100 games or more to discover every hidden level behind every pipe and block, and bring that knowledge back to his friends for kudos.

• Achievers People who like to win are always an integral part of any competitive game.

They carry a great deal of projects, services, and brands. While designing exclusively for this player type the problem is that it’s tough to develop a system where everyone can win and achieve. And for this player type, losing at the game will likely cause them to lose interest in playing it. Moreover, a common angle observed by companies while working with their clients on gamification of their experiences is that the majority of system, site, and product designers are high-achieving people. So, you naturally come to the conclusion that the majority of players are similarly inclined which Page 10 of 89

alternatively turns out not to be true at all. The majority of players are socializers. • Socializers This player type includes players who play games for the sake of a social interaction. Games which are focused on socializers encompass some of the most enduring games of the history like dominoes, bridge, mahjong, poker and the thing keeping them together is that each game is an extraordinary social experience. Saying that socialisers don't care about the game or winning will not be true because they certainly do but to them, the game is a background for a meaningful long-term social interactions. For them its a context and catalyst, not the end in itself. • Killers Also called as griefers, this kind of players constitutes the smallest population of all of the player types. However, understanding them is really important. In terms of their desire to win they are similar to achievers but unlike achievers, for them winning isn’t enough. Their mantra is that they must win and someone else must lose. Moreover, killers always desire as many people as possible to see the kill, and for their victims to express appreciation and respect. However through my analysis by far about the four categories of the users for the platform to be designed for the client is in the ratio : 80% socializer

50% explorer

40% achiever

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20% killer

With the different types of players in playing in one cohesive environment their motivation towards the game is different for each element in the gamified platform. In this section, various game elements are listed which consists of elements gathered from gamification by design (Cunningham, Zichermann 2011), Lister, M. C. (2015), and personal findings during the playing and research.

As shown in Figure 2, game elements which are commonly used are points, leaderboards, badges and levels. O’Donnell et al. (2013) reported that badges, progress bars, leaderboards, and a storyline with accompanying visual hold the most potential for effectiveness within an educational setting.

Figure 2: Frequency of gamified elements reported in studies Points Research reviewed on point system found that the points provide an instant feedback that students find motivating. Many researchers also mentioned the Page 12 of 89

fact that point system must be used in combination with other game elements in order to be effective in motivating students.

Point system is further divided into: • Experience points • Redeemable points • Karma Points • Skill Points • Reputation points These points are being used in the design asper the environment required to create in a gamified Platform.

Levels Levels are best when used with points because after gaining certain amount of points the user needs to level up. However levels needs to be critically designed as it directly affects the users motivation.Levelling up in said to be an in game benefit.

Badges Badges are the symbolic awards given to a user against any task skill or or knowledge. Badges can be social, collectible and visual in nature (Pg 56, Cunningham 2011). Badges provide the power to the users to flaunt others their Page 13 of 89

knowledge and mastery in certain activity. In the study conducted by C. Lister 2015, “Mixed results were found with respect to the impact of badges and achievements on student motivation and performance at the post-secondary level. Some research found badges and achievements supported student engagement, while other research found there was no impact or a negative impact on student engagement and motivation�. All the players are not motivated with badges at the same level like for the low performing students the participation badges are motivating whereas for high performing students badges gained against any skill or knowledge is motivational.

Leaderboards Leaderboards are the easiest way to display the players achievements and success. The motivational value for leaderboard varies in a leaderboard only few will stand on the higher positions whereas the other will end up at the bottom which might be presumably demotivating. However individual leaderboard other hand have more motivational value as their the user is competing within its own performance. Leaderboards impact on motivation varies with the players.

Motivation is a feeling in the users which derive them to perform in a certain gamified environment it can be either intrinsic or extrinsic. Motivation the feeling in the players which can be natural or either created by certain elements

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to make them perform a creation task. However motivation can be both negative and positive.

Figure 3: Motivation pattern Intrinsic motivation Intrinsic motivation is the one when people perform an activity just for the sake of doing the activity but not for some external reward. Its the motivation attained when the task is has some meaning for the user. It is gained when they interested to either overcome some challenge or just to have some fun. Activity provides feedback, not points although points can provide also feedback when they are well structured (Kapp, 2012). To provide the user with intrinsic motivation the method is to create the tasks with which the user can relate its personal needs.

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Extrinsic motivation Extrinsic motivation is the one that comes from some external force. It is attained when the users are interested in participation to attain some external value like money, grades, points or badges. The task is not satisfying enough and external incentives are needed for increasing the users satisfaction (Farzan & Brusilovsky, 2011). Examples of extrinsic motivators are reward and reputation. It is recommended to provide external motivators for boring tasks or to tasks that have low value from learner’s perspective (Kapp, 2012).

Gamification is derived by the interrelation of motivation , game elements and player types. But gamification in education have its affects on community building and entrance examination.

When we think of online communities, first thing that pops up in our minds is Facebook groups or MeetUp groups having thousand of members standing behind a single major purpose.

There are communities of movie lovers, dog lovers, travellers, entrepreneurs and many more who have come together to collectively celebrate what they love.

Yet, it is an observable pattern that a major portion of the members in these communities remain silent. Though they have an inherent love for what the community stands for, yet it remains passive.

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This article takes into consideration a special kind of community, a peer to peer doubt solving platform for students, that requires little to no need for tutor intervention. Most humans need some kind of reward to act. The reward can be material or intangible, like recognition, respect, love, forward movement towards their goal etc. This is where gamification does wonders.

Rewarding people to do things they have an inherent desire to do. Providing that extra push needed to become ‘active’ rather than staying a passive mute spectator.

Like all communities have a common purpose, an online community of students too has one purpose or the other. Students flock to a doubt solving community with a hope that their doubts that remain unsolved in classes will get solved there.

Since, this is a problem that students across the globe face, there is no dearth of such platforms online. A lot of businesses exist around this problem where an expert solves a doubt for money.

But, let us keep money out of the equation and try and appreciate the innumerable micro communities that exist world over. These are called, classrooms. We wonder, if it is where this problem of unsolved doubts takes birth, can it not die there itself?

Every class has students who are better at one thing than others. It might be a subject, a particular chapter or non academic stuff like sports, debating, Page 17 of 89

quizzing, acting etc. If somehow, one could harness the inherent human motivation to display what we are good at using gamification, it could lead to a collective improvement in both academic and non academic abilities of a classroom. It might become a self sustaining ecosystem of learning and take immense burden off teacher’s shoulders and let them become supervisor of the pack rather than the leader.

But why would a student teach others what they know?

Well, for a combination of rewards like coins, badges, titles, top position on leaderboards, fame, respect, recognition, satisfaction, gratitude. Do these things matter to a student? Most of it is literally what every youngster craves for, from their parents, teachers and peers.

Everyone of us has had teachers who would offer candies to students to get them to perform a task. Weren’t they the best kind of teachers? They would get the class all excited when they would out of nowhere, show a bar of chocolate up for grabs for anyone who would do a particular task. This offering of a flexible reward in an untimely manner is called non linear reinforcement in the language of gamification. The existence of a reward (Even though its nature and timing of arrival is unknown), keeps you going at a particular task until you achieve it and with it, the reward.

The article is part of a project to build an online platform, a micro community of students of a class who get rewarded every time they solve doubts raised by Page 18 of 89

their peers. We would like to see how do students respond when exposed to game elements like levels, badges, XPs, Titles etc. Do more percentage of doubts get solved when this system is deployed?

Teachers love making teams to increase the fun factor of a classroom and increase the overall productivity. Think of a ‘doubt solving day’ inside a classroom, where a pre prepared list of doubts of every student of a class is available and teams of students (A good mix of strong and not so strong students) have a go at them.

The one who solves the maximum, gets multiple digital awards or maybe some life saving chocolates. Would it not be a fun day at school?

Gamification when deployed in a localised environment creates a system for all kinds of players (Achievers, Killers, Socialisers, Explorers) to thrive. Using it in a closed ecosystem like that of a classroom, helps us avoid the empty bar problem (basically people don’t show up at a bar till there already are a good number of people at the bar, a paradox isn’t it?) as in case of classrooms, you will have the entire strength using the platform from the very first day.

Yes, there exist a lot of challenges like: • Students being too shy to post doubts.

• Dominance of top students over the whole community • Quality assurance Page 19 of 89

and many others, but all of these are addressable if right rewards are given for the right action on the community and teachers learn to use the system to everyone’s advantage.

Thus, a tutor’s supervision can never go out of the picture completely but a well designed gamified doubt solving platform can be the next most fun thing inside classrooms that students can have to themselves that fosters learning.

Gamification concept is new to the Private coaching industry but is not know to education industry. It is already been used by various application in education sector to name a few are Byju’s, Toppr. But they emphasis more on chatbot and video calling method to get the doubt solved directly with the teachers. These application are the majorly used applications by the students in the current scenario. Byju’s uses only point system in the website which alone doesn't provide the gamified experience to the users as their main focus in on the connection of students with the teachers over video calls. Whereas Toppr is a platform which have introduced chatbot to solve the doubts anytime where they connect volunteering teachers with students to solve their doubt with a usb of 24 hours service. Other application which uses gamified elements are Quora and Yahoo answers but these are question/ answering website with a larger scale of target users and the context is quiet vast, as they doesn't focus on certain community of users.

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CHAPTER 4 : METHODOLOGY 4.1. Methodology Following section talks about the methods which are followed to conduct a research. Below are the few research methods: 1. Experiments Experimental Research is a method to measure cognitive abilities generally done verbally, on paper or on computer following which the results are compared and need to make sure that the participants should not fear about his/ her performance. This method is done with an aim search for the links between users performance and other factors.

2. Surveys Surveys is a method of collecting information from the users , generally from a fare share of

large groups of people using questionnaires however other

methods to collect the information are interviews or telephonic conversation.

3. Questionnaire Questionnaire is a good alternative to interview and experiments if the users availability is limited. It gives the respondents their time and space to fill it with ease. The result will be unbiased ad the respondent will have his own space to answer without getting affected by the researcher or anyone else.

However still some people can fill in socially preferred answers. Though Page 21 of 89

people can be encouraged to fill true information to avoid wrong data which alternatively affects the results of the study.

4. Interviews Its is face to face method which can be done both in real time space or virtually. The power of deciding the time and space would be interviewees so that they can be comfortable while answering. Interviews can be either formal or informal. Formal has a set fo questions and is focused on that whereas the informal can be more like a discussion.

5. Case studies Case study is a details process to study a certain topic. Different methods are used for data collection and analysis but for this generally observation and interviews is used. Case studies can be one or more as per the research requirement.

6. Participant and non-participant observation Its is observation method which can be further divided into two namely participant observation and non-participant observation.

In participant observation is a part of the group being observed. This is a difficult process and in this the researcher has to gain the trust of the group as well as maintain sufficient detachment to be able to conduct an unbiased study.

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In non-participant observation is the one where researcher is not part of the group being studied. The observation can be done different ways. For example, it can be continuous for a certain time period , or can be done regularly for a short time or can be random. Observation maps both what was said and done at the time of observation and the things which dint happened at the time of observation.

4.2. Research Methods The following section discusses about the research methods which have been used in this thesis, which includes desk research (secondary research), case study Analysis of gamified applications, Survey and Focused Group Interviews. The reason for the chosen methods is given along with the method in the following sections.

4.2.1. Case studies Case studies analysis was done to understand how game elements were used in a non game context to create user engagement loop (RQ1). Detailed case studies were conducted on two gamified web and mobile based platforms Nike Plus application and Stack overflow website to investigate the users motivation to use the website / application and analyse how the game elements have been used to create an engagement loops for the users motivation to use the website / application.

1. Nike Plus : making fitness Fun Page 23 of 89

Nike Plus case study was referred as its has shown positive results in user engagement on a large level within a small period of time. This application is not related to education sector but still was chosen for the study as it It has beautifully used the game elements like leaderboard , levels and badges in a comprised way and have managed to engage the users in a social loop. The study was conducted to understand the user flow of the application and the social loop created by the app by challenging other users to complete a task against achievement of certain points having a social value.

2. Stack Overflow : Questioning and Answering website for web developers Stack overflow is a website widely used by the developers and have been successful in creating a beneficial community of developers where they answer each others queries and earn points. This website was chosen for the study to understand the how badges , leaderboard and points were used against every task creating a loop for the users by motivating them with the use of reputation building and unlocking levels on the website.

4.2.2. Interviews A detailed interview was conducted with the teachers of 2 coaching Institutes with total 5 respondents. The interview was structured to investigate the teachers side of the problem of unresolved doubts, currents methods used by them to curb this problem, their views on gamification application and to understand the pressure on teachers which affects the problem. This method Page 24 of 89

was used in the case of teachers because the data collected was aimed to get a deep insight about the teachers routine and the factors affecting their availability and most importantly to gain their view point regarding gamified application to map how it will help them to save time for other better usage.

4.2.3. Survey Part 1 : Survey to investigate root cause of problem.

To investigate the issue of unresolved doubts of students in private coaching institutes a survey was conducted within the students of coaching institutes being the target users for the application. The questionnaire was made using google survey forms, which is an online service provided by google to produce online forms, which is survey tool. This online survey was sent to the participants via emails and text messages on whats app. The focus while preparing the questionnaire was on gaining insight target users problem of unresolved doubts , mapping the extent of this problem and to enquire about their motivation towards a gamified platform. Thus the questionnaire included questions related to the frequency of their doubts , whom they approach to get them resolved, what are the reasons of unresolved doubts, to check the teachers availability to resolve them, to check the the reason affecting teachers availability and importantly their motivation towards a gamified platform for the same.The copy of questionnaire can be found in the appendix.

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Sample : the questionnaire was sent to students from class 10th to 12th studying in coaching institutes. Total respondents to the questionnaire was 60 students.

Part 2: Survey to gain students feedback on the application usage A usability test was conducted to check the usability of the application after the prototyping stage. In the this process a samples size of 30 respondents (basically students) were shared with the link of the marvel software based prototype and were made to use the application without any provided task insight. Their journey on the application was recorded and later was used to observe their behaviour pattern over the website and their pattern of using the application was compared with the actually designed user flow following a small 3 question questionnaire concluding their feeling about the application and to check weather they were successfully able to accomplish their task.

The copy of the questionnaire can be found in the appendix.

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CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS / RESULTS 4.1. Case study Analysis 4.1.1. Nike Plus “According to the Centres for Disease Control, more than two-thirds of American adults are overweight or obese, and fewer than 20% get enough exercise� (Pg-96, Cunningham etal, Gamification by design). The above statistics clearly shows that fitness can be lot more interesting and engaging than it seems.

Nike Plus is a social running game application with the most current version of an iPhone and web application that engage highly developed game mechanics to motivate both casual and hardcore runners to compete and enhance their fitness program. This application has set a beautiful example of what good gamification can do to prompt the players towards living a healthy lifestyle.

Analysis: Nike plus develop well on the users self motivation. Their running, fuel and train apps shows the standard gamification principles by allowing the users to set their own goals and track their progress themselves.

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Figure 4: Pedometer designed with game elements to keep runners motivated As shown in fig 4 the pedometer is designed by using achievement element.

The loop is opened by giving the option to the user to share his jog or run on Facebook and while on their run the social family has given the power to like or comment on their performance to cheer them, using a roaring sound with very like. This creates a social value for the run giving the runner the appreciation for his hard work.

The second element used by Nike+ application is the option to challenge other players in. Their advanced version of the application which is kind of another level to the gamified experience created. A “tag” game lets players challenge their friends to run faster or farther on their next run, or risk becoming “it.” It’s a clever mechanic with a built-in viral loop: once you’re “it,” the other players

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are given a “Trash Talk� wall to encourage you to start a new challenge and tag someone else.

Figure 5: Nike+ offers opportunity for achiever kinda players to choose to complete and socialise with other like minded people.

Players with a Nike Plus web account can log into the site and join challenges (as shown in Figure 5) started by other runners around the world.

They can also create a new challenge. This attracts the achiever kind of players the most.

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Surpassing the basics, these apps also take advantage of the excellence of competition by empowering users to share their progress in their community online.

What works for the Nike+ application along with he other gamification application is that they further improve the quality of what’s already there constantly. Their usage of the habit loop fits naturally into the structure the gamers themselves wish.

Nike + perceive that weight loss and healthy lifestyle requires a social push to be successful, then modify that process into a competitive yet motivational activity. Design for the path of smallest resistance, do not gamify by creating a fake motivation.

4.1.2. Stack Overflow Stack overflow is a question answer website using game elements in a non gamified context. The aim to the website is all about getting answers thus is not not a discussion forum. The user flow of the website is that for each activity their some points gained by the user like Good answers are voted up. Users have the power to mark answer accepted to the ones that helped him which alternatively provide point to the answerer. The game elements used are reputation bar(leaderboard), point system, levels and barcode. Reputation built: question voted up, answer voted up, answer accepted. With reputation increase privileges increase like ability to vote, comment and edit post. With highest Page 30 of 89

levels, become part to communities and can edit community wiki this generally Attract achiever kind players.

Analysis:

Figure 6: Badges awarded against certain activities performed on the website Stack overflow uses elements like points, badges (as shown in fig 6) , reputation bar and levels to create a gamified experience.

Figure 7: Activity Bar on Stack overflow The engagement loop is created within the user by using the reputation bar (as shown in fig 7) in the home screen itself which given the motivation to the other users to compete. Moreover the level element motivates the users to Page 31 of 89

perform more and more on the portal as each levels marks their knowledge in the subject and makes them greedy to attain superiority over others. The badges are the unexpected element to the portal which motivates the users on unexpected levels, and is the virtual reward for them to flaunt. However the they have no link to share the reputation build on social platforms which is a negative aspect for them.

4.2. Interview Findings To understand the root cause of students doubts remaining unsolved, its affected on the students performance interviews were conducted with teachers and students of 2 coaching centres.

GENERAL FINDINGS 1. Currently teachers have to manage everything manually due to no online systems.

2. Materials with students is being shared through mails which doesn’t provides any surety that students have gone through them or not and is a time taking process as well.

3. For attendance register is circulated in the class through a helper where students mark their attendance which sometimes given inaccuracy.

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4. Regarding doubts due to long class sections and back to back batches and extra manual admin work teachers are left with 2-3 hours only per day for doubt sessions that too at the end of the day.

5. As per teachers sometimes students comes with doubts marked but they themselves never have tried it before and when asked to come again after trying it once they never show up.

6. Teachers said that they have sometimes tried taking doubt session in the weekends by making all the students with doubts be together in the class and submit there doubts and students are asked to solve it on the board, whosoever knows the answer but the process failed as it was a time taking process and very few students showed up in next session.

7. Students with only 1-2 doubts stopped attending the classes as it wasted their time as recorded by students.

As per my understanding from the interviews is that the coaching institute needs the administration, doubt sessions, test sessions and material sharing to be digitalised. The process of doubts sessions failed as it was not gamified and couldn’t create a interest within the students to attend the session again. It lacked productivity in it.

STUDENT INTERVIEW FINDINGS

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1. Students were divided into different batches based on their capabilities which were being tested through their monthly test results.

2. Every month batches were shuffled and divided on their capability basis and the level of teaching is based on that.

3. This is the one of the reasons as!89 per my understanding through the interview students tend to get competitive but at the same time develop a sense of inferiority because there is always a fear of marks as that might change their batch and thus their group of friends.

4. This whole act alternatively motivates students to clear their doubts on time.

5. As per on of the students this acts negatively as well sometimes because sometimes due to self doubt on the standard of the doubts they leave it from discussing which creates and issues later on.

6. Students have taken online quizzes before as well and they find it quite exciting as there they get a feeling to win.

7. Students shared their experiences on the online quiz games and how time limit given them an Adeline rush.

4.3. Survey Findings • Class : Class of the students was asked for better idea of the student mindset at different class levels. Overall there were 60 respondents from which 50%

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were the 12th standard students , 43.3% were the 11th class students with remaining 6.7% were the 10th class students

!

Figure 8: Class of the Respondents • Subject Count: Respondents were asked about the number of subjects they take tuition for and the samples clearly state that students take max number of 3 tuitions mainly for Physics, Chemistry and Maths with 58.4% students stating that. This shows the reliability of the students on the coaching centres is to the extremes.

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!

Figure 9: No. Of Coaching respondents Attend • Doubt raising Frequency: the respondent were asked about their frequency of asking doubts and the response was quite positive. The following bar chart shows that 46.7% of students ask doubts sometimes whereas 38.3% of students ask doubts Oftenly and 10% students always raise doubts. This cumulatively shows that majority of students frequently ask their doubts.

!

Figure 10: frequency of raising Doubts

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• Doubt Solver Preference: This question was aimed to find the medium students approach the most to get their doubts solved and as per the response it is clear that teachers and friends are majorly approached to get their doubts solved. The below charts shows 81.7%

respondents approach teachers,

73.3% to friends and 40% to the class toppers. However with the 35% approaching online platform shows that online platform is as well one of frequent choices for a good amount of group of students.

!

Figure 11: Doubts solver preference • Online platforms : Respondents who voted for online platforms in the above section were asked to name a few online platforms whom they approach to further study there features and user flow. The response clearly states that Quora and topper are the most used online platforms by the students to find

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answers

for

their

doubts.

!

Figure 12: online platforms referred • Challenges : The respondents were asked if they face any issue to get their doubts resolved and the response below clearly states majorly students face issues while getting their doubts solved.

!

Figure 13: Challenges faced to get doubts cleared • Challenges faced: Students were asked to mention the issues faced and the response is quite varied. Three main issues were: teachers availably, last Page 38 of 89

minute unresolved doubts due to reachability, and students fear to ask doubt in the class.

Figure 14: Challenges quoted to get doubts cleared

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•

Teachers Availability : Teachers availability being the main issue the students were asked to scale it on the scale from 1 to 10 and the result shows its moderate with majority of 40% scaling it to 4.

!

Figure 15: Teachers Availability • Doubt Solving Classes: respondents were asked to rate the frequency of doubt solving classes, being the current method to solve the doubts. The following charts shows only 8.3 % students said that the doubt solving classes are held always, whereas 31.7 % said it happens oftenly and 45%

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stated that it happens sometimes.

!

Figure 16: Doubt solving classes frequency • Strength attending Doubt sessions: the response to this is quite varied as the majority of strength which attends doubt solving sessions 40 - 60 % strength of the total class.

!

Figure 17: Strength attending Doubt sessions • Teachers Availability in relation to student strength : Students were asked if the teacher availability to solve doubts is affected by the strength of the

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batch and the response clearly states yes with 71.7 % respondents agreeing to it.

!

Figure 18: Teachers Availability in relation to student strength • Doubt Solving probability : with this question aim was to know the probability of understanding the doubts clearly. As a lot of times we ask the doubts but clear understanding is not achieved which due to time constraint is not resolved again which later hampers the performance so to tap the probability to doubts solving satisfaction this was asked and the answer received is quite positive. For 40% of the total respondents the doubt solving

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satisfaction

is

upto

60-80%.

!

Figure 19: Doubt Solving Probability • Fear of asking doubt: this question was asked to check if the students had any fear of the level of doubt to the teacher. And the results shows clearly that 48.3% of students face issue of fear while approaching anyone to ask their doubt.

!

Figure 20: Fear of Asking Doubt

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• Motivation for gamified platform: to tap the students motivation towards a gamified platform this quest was asked and the response received is quite positive with majority likely to solve sorbets of other if awarded certain points against it.

!

Figure 21: Motivation for Gamified Platform 4.4. User Personas On the basis of the interview with the students and the teachers of Alpha Institute of Physics user personas were created to create a storyline for the users for better understanding of the stakeholders of the application.

Table 1: User Persona (Teacher) Name

N.K Darbal

Age

56

Profession

Physics Enthusiast, teacher, owner of Alpha Institute of Coaching

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User story

N.K. Dabral owns a physics Coaching centre taking 15 batches a day each ranging from 1- 2 hour. He tends to start his day at 6 am and ends the day around 9 pm with the last batch at 8 pm. Apart from this he takes guest lectures in few nearby colleges as well. Mr. Dabral teaches around 30 students in each batch and after taking all the classes works on the management issues for an hour daily. Apart from teaching he ahas to meet parents of the students at times which takes around 1 hour of his day. To solve students doubts he says around 15 min per student on an average is consumed and assuming 20% students as well with doubts eats up a major part of his day for doubt solving.

Social Sites

Facebook, linkden

Table 2: User Persona (Student) Name

Nina Chatterjee

Age

18

Profession

Student ( Class XII) , IIT-JEE Aspirant (Coaching :Alpha Institute of physics, School : Dav public School)

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User story

Being a 12th class students most of her times is use in her studies, in her free time she plays mobile games like candy crush, suduku and Ludo with her family. She loves to scroll down social media in her free time and have around 1000 friends inner facebook. She is a part time blogger as she loves to write. She is academically an average student and currently preparing for her JEE MAINS entrance exams and wishes to become a computer engineer in future. She is a soulful person and helpful in nature. On weekly basis she has 3 tuitions to attend in different coaching for a hourly batch and on weekends goes for mains prep coaching for 3 hour long class.

Social Sites

facebook, instagram, snapchat, google+

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CHAPTER 5: DESIGN INTERVENTION 5.1. Concept Development After gaining knowledge about the game elements, its mechanism , its relation with the students motivation all the theories and the understanding was listed down and connections were established between them and the application objectives which alternatively helped in designing the platform.

Below goals were listed for the application through brainstorming session with the team: Consumer goals : • To solve the doubts Business Goals: • To create a community which can help each other.

• To provide teacher ample time to focus on study material.

Product Goals: • Quality content 5.1.1. Features of the application Various features have been designed keep in mind a unique approach to solve the problem and give an quick action for the task.

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Me too: If a student is uploading a doubt and other students have the same doubt then he have the option to click on me too in that case if that doubt is solved he will also get the answer in his inbox. This will reduce the repletion of the doubts.

Trending Doubts : Trending doubts are the lists of doubts which have been me too’d by the students more than 10 times in a day so the top five questions will appear on the dashboard of the home screen which will help the students to get the idea of the doubts which are most common among all because that alternatively is either an important or difficult question.

Doubt Marathon: It is a unique feature being added in the application to create an excitement in the students to take time and solve other peoples doubt and attain special batches and points against it. This feature will allow the application start a daily challenge of about 10 - 20 question with a time limit

to it which

alternatively will act as practice paper to the students. Question to each group of students will be unique in itself. The question will have the option to answer or pass the question. At the end number of questions completed in the minimum time will be awarded certain points to add to the users overall reputation. Whereas for verification of the answers is done my the asker when he receives the notification and thus player gets points.

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5.1.2. Game Elements of the Application As per the above understanding of the users motivations and game elements working pattern the elements for the application were designed keeping the goal for the application strongly in mind. All the elements are chosen integrality to enhance the users flow on the portal and establish a interactive engagement flow with the users to take them in the never ending loop.

Out fo the 7 gaming elements the elements suitable for the portal are: • Badges • Points • Leaderboard Badges The Platform badges divided into three broad tags: 1. Bronze badges. Bronze badges will be awarded for basic use of the application; they are believed to encourage students to use all the typical, routine functions of the application: posting doubt questions, answering doubts, voting up or down, editing, filling out your user profile, and so forth. Bronze badges will be relatively easy to get and will provide immediate positive feedback to new users.

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2. Silver badges. Silver badges will be for the experienced students who will regularly use the application. These badges are to encourage continued participation and for returning to the site by awarding longer term goals.

Silver badges will be uncommon, but definitely attainable if the student is interested enough.

3. Gold badges. Gold badges will be for the hardcore and the completionists.

This is basically for the achiever category players. These badges will reward the most difficult feats; a student will have to not only participate but be skilled and knowledgeable about topics to earn these. Gold badges will be something of an accomplishment.

These badges are designed keeping in mind that they are (almost) never awarded by people; they are always earned by achieving a measurable numeric goal interrogated out of the site database. They are based on data and one doesn't have to worry about currying a moderator or another user’s favours to earn badges; just use the application like one normally would, and the site itself will award these badges to them. As its said badges are supposed to be fun, too!

Description of the badges used below: Table 3: Categorisation of badges on task basis BADGE CATEGORY

BADGE NAME

ACTIVITY ( BADGES ASSIGNED FOR)

Bronze

Teacher

Answered first question

Bronze

Student

Asked first question

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BADGE CATEGORY

BADGE NAME

ACTIVITY ( BADGES ASSIGNED FOR)

Bronze

Curious

First Me too

Bronze

Completionists

Completing Profile

Bronze

Supporter

First vote Up

Bronze

Critic

First Vote down

Bronze

Editor

First Edit

Bronze

Speedo

Answer a question within 2 min of posting

Silver

Yearling

Active Member for a year

Silver

Enlightened

First answer judged best answer by the asker

Silver

Specialist

Highly active within a specific category

Silver

Sorcerer

Answered a question more than a month later

Silver

Guru

Judged best Answer by the asker

Silver

Generalist

Active in many Categories

Bronze

Nice Answer

Answer Voted up for 10 times

Silver

Good answer

Answer Voted up for 25 times

Gold

Great Answer

Answer Voted up for 50 times

Silver

Trendsetter

Question me too by 10+ students

Silver

Chief Editor

Edited 50 Answers

Gold

Nerd

Thanks from Easy Ed in an unusual way

Silver

Photoexpert

Good photo quality

Gold

Player

Doubt Marathon

Most of the badges can be awarded more than 1 time but not all.

• Points: Points are really important for a system to engage user. It gives a sense of power to the user. In gamification 5 kinds of points can be used to form the foundation users experience:

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• Experience Points • Redeemable points • Skill Points • Karma Points • Reputation Points However in some cases point system is direct, overt and highly motivational.

Moreover it is not necessary for a system to have all five kinds of point system because sometimes 2-3 kinds of points can help one achieve its objectives. For this application the points which have been used are : • Experience Points • Skill Points • Karma Points • Reputation Points Table 4: Points Distribution on activity basis ACTIVITY

POINTS

First login

25 points

Profile completion

25 points

Every answer

50 points

Raising Doubt

25 points

Voting

25 points

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ACTIVITY

POINTS

Photo and Video Quality

15 points

Monthly checkin

15 points

Completing the loop

15 points

Editing Answer

50 points

Doubt marathon participation

50 points

Doubt marathon Winner

100 points

On Validation of answer by the asker

50 points

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5.2. Information Architecture Below the information architecture of the doubt solving platform designed for the teacher-students management application. Easy Ed: Information architecture is the flow of the website from one screen to screen.

This helps to identify the clicks to complete a task and helps to understand the flow better and design with minimum possible clicks. The information architecture is to reduce the flow to minimum and carry the task for users with ease.

Figure 22: Information Architecture

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5.3. Low Fidelity Screens Low fidelityScreens were made to see the look of the application and to check the user flow before the final high fidelity screens. The tool used to make theses screens was sketch app.

Figure 23: Low Fidelity Mockups

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5.4. High fidelity Mockups High Fidelity mockups are the final screens of the application. These screens were made using Adobe XD tool and were later made into a working prototype to test the usability of the application.Below are the main final screen from where the main activity is being performed.

Login screen - Login screen has a dual login. Different for both students and teachers. Students can direct login from their Facebook or google account.

Figure 24: login screen Page 56 of 89

Home screen - Home screen contains main functions of platform in the footer with a dashboard containing groups he is member of, the trending question and suggested questions. Trending questions are the questions here which have been me too more than 10+ times

Figure 25 : Home screen Hamburger menu - Hamburger menu contains the secondary task lists, like the profile, types of quest and and. Listings logout , settings and the main

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profile glimpses to motivate the user every time and keep him updated about his performance.

Figure 26: hamburger Menu options Doubt Marathon - It is a unique feature being added in the application to create an excitement in the students to take time and solve other peoples doubt and attain special batches and points against it. This feature will allow the application start a daily challenge of about 10 - 20 question with a time limit to it which alternatively will act as practice paper to the students. Question to

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each group of students will be unique in itself. The question will have the option to answer or pass the question. At the end number of questions completed in the minimum time will be awarded certain points to add to the users overall reputation. Whereas for verification of the answers is done my the asker when he receives the notification and thus player gets points.

Figure 27: Doubt marathon Screen

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Answering the question - User has the option to answer the question by three means - typing, upload image from gallery and click picture from camera.

Figure 28: Answering screen Raising a doubt -

- The instructions in the screen are only for the first time users.

- users have the open to keep their identity hidden at the time of raising a doubt.

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- after uploading question user has to create tags related to topic source and tag no of the doubt if he has uploaded image and for easy search.

Figure 29: Raising a Doubt Screen My Doubts - This screen has further three windows to it : - Raised doubts - Answered doubts - Solved doubts

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Once u raise a doubt it will reflect in raised section, when even 1 person will answer it it will reflect in answered, further to if the user find a satisfactory answer and mark it as solved it will come to the solved category.

Figure 30: My Doubts Screen Profile screen - Profile screen shows the users personal details, image , points earned and ranking on the leaderboard and follow option, further it is divided into three categories : Credentials, Leaderboard, Skills • Skills category Page 62 of 89

It consists of the badges earn against each task which can be shared with friends through social posts to give a sense of power to the player. • Credentials screen This screen has all the bifurcation of the points earned by the player which can be shared with friends on social platforms.

Figure 31 : My Profile screens

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Golden BadgeGolden badge is a batch which a students will earn virtually as a reward against his/her exemplary performance on the portal. This badge will be automatically awarded to the user by the portal on the basis of the points and badges achieved 5.5. Usability Testing There are various method for usability testing however the the quickest way to perform usability testing is the System usability Scale. In this system the users were provided with the prototype link and were asked to use the prototype without any task being provided. After providing the participants half hour to use the application a questionnaire was given with with 11 question where they had to scale their experience on various pointers from the case of strongly agree to strongly disagree. This method was created by Originally created by John Brooke in 1986 is widely used to evaluate the product and its service in various web based and mobile based applications. However this is one of the various methods.

This method here was used as it was the easiest and quickest and dint required any moderator.

Below are the results for the questionnaire:

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Figure 32: system usage

Figure 33: system Complexity Figure 34: System’s ease to use

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Figure 35: Technical Support requirement Page 65 of 89

Figure 36: System Integration Figure 37: System Inconsistency

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Figure 38: System learning

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!

Figure 39: System Cumbersome

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Figure 40: user confidence

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!

Figure 41 : user Engagement

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Figure 42 : Motivation mapping On further Questioned about any comments about the application below were the comments received from 18 respondents out of total sample size of 30 respondents.

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Table 5: Respondents comments on application usage Nice concept (2) its good.. but the doubt marathon could be improved. I confused their for a moment.

Doubt marathon concept is good but it took time to understand at once. if any instruction box before starting in provided would be good. doubt marathon was good feature for practice purpose. it is a nice platform , chatbot to discuss the doubt in much detail with friends I think will be a good option.

I think all the game elements are good, doubt marathon answers at the same moment will be good.

I think doubt marathon is not a good idea or may be needs to worked upon more. sharing the result online option is good. overall a good app Nice Application but nothing extraordinary about the app I got stuck for once at the doubt marathon being it a new type of system.

Its is a good application. the community system was bit confusing It is a good application.

Social sharing feature is good.

Doubt marathon was a good concept.

Doubt marathon result was confusing.

New concept kudos Will use it again.

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CHAPTER 6: DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION Discussion 15 papers were studied out of which 10 papers have reported that the impact on users motivation against use of gamification is positive. The various gamification elements like points, badges, leaderboards and levels gives the users an instant feedback and thus encourage them to learn more. Thus the immediate feedback derives the motivation in the students and is a key element of gamification (O’Donnell et al., 2013). By using game elements in a non game context creates a game like environment for the users which is similar to video games and thus create a sense of newness and helps the motivate users who are tech savvy.

Elements of gamification contribute to increased engagement and motivation for some students; however, these elements cannot stand alone (Deterding, 2014; Gåsland, 2011; Mekler et al., 2013b). A good design gives the users the freedom to learn, to fail and to try again.

Gamification - Additional Benefits Gamification doesn't only has its impact on student engagement and motivation but has proved to have other benefits as well which includes students feelings of acknowledgement and accomplishment. In a a gamified classroom testing it was observed that learners appeared “more motivated to complete voluntary tasks” such as preparation for class, attendance and participation (p. 645 Charles et al. (2011).

Gamification - Drawbacks Gamification has certain drawbacks as well. It has been proved that not all users are motivated by gamification. These kind of players can be either the killers type players or the ones who doesn’t find interest in games. It is really important to take care while designing the gamified platform that the introduction of competition within the students through the gamification system does not motivate irresponsibility among the students and does not encourage demotivation within the students. Haaranen et al. (2014) reported that “some learners have strong negative feelings about the use of badges in a Page 70 of 89

college course. For this reason” ,he also recommended that “options be built into gamification systems that would allow learners to turn off elements such as badges”. It was analysed that there are differences between the motivation level of students who play video games regularly against the students who do not. The students who play video games regularly have greater tendency towards liking the game elements. But being a millennial generation the majority of the students now are tech savvy and prefer video games more than the physical games which clearly states that in the coming time gamification scope is just going to broaden with time.

Considerations for designing the platform Game elements are motivating as they have a direct impact on the users social, cognitive, emotional areas. Thus while designing platform which where game elements have been implemented, designers need to take into consideration the appeal of the elements to each of the above mentioned areas.

A good gamified platform is supposed to have a “special meaning for the user, the ability to inspire the user to master the topic and it should be autonomous, by providing a feeling of free choice” (O’Donovan, Gain & Marais, 2013, p.

244).

Social aspect should always be taken care of while designing a gamified platform. As a game which is does not have an online presence doesn’t sell because the users are not Abel to connect themselves with it being it a socially derived generation.thus the users should be provided with the power to share their badges earns and other achievements gained with their social family, as it will “increases the amount of weight the achievements and levels carry with the student” (Goehle, 2013, p. 241). “Collaborative or group achievements and badges can also be built into course design, allowing learners to work together to attain their goals” (Goehle, 2013) which will further magnify their social interaction.

Emotional aspect is also important to take care while designing the gamified platform as it impacts directly the students feeling of success and failure, as well as frustration and anxiety (Dominguez et al., 2013). A properly designed gamified environment provides its users the exposure all of the above mentioned emotions. If a platform is designed carefully high level of irritation or nervousness can be avoided by designing the tasks and other various learning activities with appropriate levels of challenge to excite the students. If

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the sequence of the learning process is designed carefully , it helps to make sure that the students do not experience high level of irritation.

One unsaid motivation to play any game is that they are fun. “Gamification is designed to introduce elements of play into learning; however, poorly designed gamification can result in learners being forced to play” (Deterding, 2014; Prince, 2013), which is not fun. It is a big challenge faced by designers while designing a gamified platform that game elements alone cannot make a non gamified context look fun and at time adding game elements like points, leaderboard and level in not sufficient enough to make it engaging to the users and thus these elements are not sufficient enough to encourage intrinsic motivation in the users.

To make it more effective in motivating and engaging the users one has to include some narrative stories to the environment.“A story links the tasks together to create a cohesive whole” (Villagrasa & Duran, 2013, p.430).

Creating a storyline that is in co ordination to the gamified environment requires a lot of effort from the designer. Thus content writers and the designers need to sit together and carefully decide which elements can be implemented to make sure of the enhanced engagement and motivation of the students.

To test the application a usability test was conducted within a sample size of 30 students. The results of the test were very positive and the users quoted it as a helpful application for them to be used further in future. However there were some suggestions and views provided by the users stating few changes in the doubt marathon which can be applied in the further development of the application.

Conclusion As per the findings of Goehle, 2013 and O’Donovan et al., 2013 the incorporation of game elements Like points, badges, achievements, leaderboards, and levels always results in creating a positive effect on the students motivation in post-secondary level educational sector. On the basis of favourable influence of these game elements, usage of gamified environments into post-secondary level education that includes private Coaching sector is worth consideration. Moreover as per the survey findings from both student based surveys, one before development of the prototype and usability test after development of the prototype its clear that the students motivation towards a gamified doubt solving platform is strong. For evidence can refer to fig 21 and Page 72 of 89

fig 42. However the weaker students may be more motivated by the applications environment than stronger students as the the weaker students motivation towards the application will be primarily to get their queries resolved whereas for the academically stronger students motivation towards using the platform will be primarily to gain points to create a social value within the students and gain a sense of winning among others.

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REFRENCES Sumithra, C. G., Pushpa, B. V., & Prabhu, S. (2017). A STUDY ON BRAND AWARENESS AMONG CUSTOMERS OF BANGALORE FOR BYJU’S THE LEARNING APP. International Journal of Research in Management & Social Science, 12.

Sagar, S., & Kim, S. K. (2015). The Study for Adapting Knowledge Sharing Technologies into Indian Education Market. International Journal of Information and Education Technology, 5(7), 490.

Agarwal, A. (2017). The Lagging Behind of Indian Education System. Global Journal of Human-Social Science Research.

Halvorsen, M. (2013). The use of gamification in learning applications (Master's thesis, The University of Bergen).

Lister, M. C. (2015). Gamification: The effect on student motivation and performance at the post-secondary level. Issues and Trends in Educational Technology, 3(2).

Kim, John Jong-Hyun, and Rachna Tahilyani. "BYJU's The Learning App." Harvard Business School Case 317-048, March 2017.

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Bornfeld, Benny & Rafaeli, Sheizaf. (2017). Gamifying with badges: A big data natural experiment on Stack Exchange. First Monday. 22. 10.5210/ fm.v22i6.7299.

Ahmed, T. & Srivastava, A. Hum. Cent. Comput. Inf. Sci. (2017) 7: 8. https:// doi.org/10.1186/s13673-017-0091-8 Gharibi, R., & Malekzadeh, M. (2017). Gamified Incentives: A Badge Recommendation Model to Improve User Engagement in Social Networking Websites. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ADVANCED COMPUTER SCIENCE AND APPLICATIONS, 8(5), 272-278.

Buckley, P., & Doyle, E. (2016). Gamification and student motivation.

Interactive Learning Environments, 24(6), 1162-1175.

Sailer, M., Hense, J., Mandl, H., & Klevers, M. (2013). Psychological perspectives on motivation through gamification. IxD&A, 19, 28-37.

Deterding, S., Dixon, D., Khaled, R., & Nacke, L. (2011). From game design elements to gamefulness: Defining "gamification". Proceedings of the 15th I n t e r n a t i o n a l A c a d e m i c M i n d Tr e k C o n f e r e n c e , 9 - 1 5 . d o i : 10.1145/2181037.2181040 Goehle, G. (2013). Gamification and web-based homework. PRIMUS: Problems, Resources, and Issues in Mathematics Undergraduate Studies, 23(3), 234-246. doi:10.1080/10511970.2012.736451

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O’Donovan, S., Gain, J., & Marais, P. (2013). A case study in the gamification of a university-level games development course. Proceedings of the South African Institute for Computer Scientists and Information Technologists Conference, (SAICSIT’13), 242 - 251. doi: 10.1145/2513456.2513469 Villagrasa, S., & Duran, J. (2013). Gamification for learning 3D computer graphics arts. Proceedings of the First International Conference on technological ecosystem for enhancing multiculturality, 429-433. doi: 10.1145/2536536.2536602 Haaranen, L., Ihantola, P., Hakulinen, L., & Korhonen, A. (2014). How (not) to introduce badges in online exercises. SIGCSE '14 Proceedings of the 45th ACM technical symposium on Computer science education, 33 - 38. doi: 10.1145/2538862.2538921 https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/education/byjus-learning-app-isnow-a-harvard-case-study/article9680635.ece https://ttls.allsocialassets.com/downloads/CaseStudy/resources/ByjusLearning-App-casestudy.pdf https://www.jirs.ac.in/pdf/Byjus-Classes.pdf http://www.thehindu.com/features/education/school/when-in-doubt/ article7826708.ece

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http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/Doubt-clearing-classes-ndashmixed-responses/article14929231.ece https://blog.toppr.com/toppr-students-dont-get-stuck-with-their-doubts-noteven-at-midnight-ba482aeb1e80 http://yukaichou.com/gamification-examples/top-10-education-gamificationexamples/ http://ideasmakemarket.com/2013/09/aug-entry16-analysis-of-privatecoaching-industry-in-india.html https://www.usability.gov/how-to-and-tools/methods/system-usabilityscale.html www.uxforthemasses.com/wp-content/uploads/.../SUS-System-UsabilityScale.doc

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APPENDICES 8.1. Interview : Minutes of Meeting USER CASE 1 Professor: NK Dabral, Alpha Institute of Physics PART 1: FOCUSING TEACHING PATTERN AND STUDENTS DOUBT 1. How long you have been teaching? Ans. 20+ years 2. Subjects you teach? Ans. Physics - 11th & 12th, CBSE Science and maths 9th and 10th 3. Total student strength? Ans. 1000+ 4. How many hours in a day spent in taking batches? Ans. 13 5. No. Batches in a day? Ans. 10 6. Do you have any online platform? Ans. No 7. How do u manage to solve students doubts? Ans. I organise a doubt class, weekly for every batch, moreover,I've created a group on Whats app of every batch, only for doubts. Students discuss the doubts there and I moderate it from time to time.

8. Have you come across any parents complaint against students doubts being unresolved? Ans. Yes, thats why I focus a lot on the doubt sessions.

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9. Specify the main difficultly faced while solving doubts? Ans. Repetition of doubts, All students dont ask doubts - feel under confident for no reason.

10. Do you have any doubt solving sessions in your institute? Ans. Yes 11. How do you deal with repeated doubts? Ans. Have to slove them whatsoever, if the student comes and asks the same doubt even after the doubt session after sometime.

12. Have you referred any student to solve the doubt taking help of other students? Ans. Some students are really active and the appreciation from me and other students keep them motivated to keep solving doubts in the class.

PART 2: TEACHERS VIEWS ON THE GAMIFIED PLATFORM In the second part fo the interview teachers were introduced about the gamification process and the basic game elements to be implemented in the platform and the projections on the students engagement on the platform and then were asked about their views against the same.

13. How do you think gamification of doubt solving process will affect students learning? Ans. Since I've seen students feeling really pumped up and motivated because of the recognition and appreciation in the group, i think gamification can really promote in solving and asking doubts.

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14. Do u think students will be motivated towards using the platform? Ans. Absolutely 15. Anything you think should be a must in such a platform? Ans. No downvotes, teachers' moderation, Points for asking doubts, points for answering, Closing the doubt after teacher approval of a particular answer.

USER CASE 2 Name: Munish Mittal, Munish Mittal Classes 1. How long you have been teaching? Ans. 10+ years 2. Subjects you teach? Ans. Maths 3. Total student strength? Ans. 2000 4. How many hours in a day spent in taking batches? Ans. 12 5. No. Batches in a day? Ans. 10 6. Do you have any online platform? Ans. Under development 7. How do u manage to solve students doubts? Ans. I organise a doubt class, monthly for every batch and on regular basis after class their is a gap between second batch, so in the meantime I try to solve for some.

8. Have you come across any parents complaint against students doubts being unresolved? Ans. Yes, but rarely

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9. Specify the main difficultly faced while solving doubts? Ans. Repetition of doubts and their are few who doesn’t come up until last moment and then to explain doubt have to take a full session sometimes which becomes hectic.

10. Do you have any doubt solving sessions in your institute? Ans. Yes 11. How do you deal with repeated doubts? Ans. I forward it the student whom I explained before.

12. Have you referred any student to solve the doubt taking help of other students? Ans. Yes at time I do that but thats the case only I am busy with something.

13. How do you think gamification of doubt solving process will affect students learning? Ans. This is a nice concept and best part will give me some extra time which I can use to create new course content.

14. Do u think students will be motivated towards using the platform? Ans. I think so but some might not take it seriously as the capacity of students solving will be less.

15. Anything you think should be a must in such a platform? Ans. Our involvement in the same. So that I can track which doubts have been already solved.

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USER CASE 3 Name: Sameer Dhamija, Munish Mittal Classes 1. How long you have been teaching? Ans. 9+ years 2. Subjects you teach? Ans. Physics - 11th & 12th 3. Total student strength? Ans. 500 4. How many hours in a day spent in taking batches? Ans. 10 5. No. Batches in a day? Ans. 5 6. Do you have any online platform? Ans. Under development 7. How do u manage to solve students doubts? Ans. I take doubt classes after every chapter and on the weekend as well try to fetch some time from my routine ask allow students who request for extra time to some over.

8. Have you come across any parents complaint against students doubts being unresolved? Ans. Yes, sometimes they do when their kids performance go low. Then they blame that we dont have time because we have enrolled extra quantity of students.

9. Specify the main difficultly faced while solving doubts? Ans. I guess that will be irregularity in doubts, few students lack behind in their work and create a back log which later on creates problem for us as well.

10. Do you have any doubt solving sessions in your institute? Ans. Yes Page 82 of 89

11. How do you deal with repeated doubts? Ans. Have to slove them whatsoever, if the student comes and asks the same doubt even after the doubt session after sometime.

12. Have you referred any student to solve the doubt taking help of other students? Ans. No I don’t pass my burden to my students, moreover each student is my responsibility so I have to take care of them.

13. How do you think gamification of doubt solving process will affect students learning? Ans. It will be a nice concept if designed well.

14. Do u think students will be motivated towards using the platform? Ans. Yes definitely, because its fun as well.

15. Anything you think should be a must in such a platform? Ans. If given power for us to monitor the whole platform then I think will be good coz it will keep us updated about students involvement and their performance.

USER CASE 4 Name: Sonali Gupta, Alpha institute of Physics (guest lecturer) 1. How long you have been teaching? Ans. 5+ years 2. Subjects you teach? Ans. Physics (IIT aspirants) 3. Total student strength? Ans. 150 4. How many hours in a day spent in taking batches? Ans. 5, on weekends Page 83 of 89

5. No. Batches in a day? Ans. 2 6. Do you have any online platform? Ans. No 7. How do u manage to solve students doubts? Ans. As I am guest lecturer I take only weekend classes so I stay back for an hour and solve doubts in the meantime as much as I can in hour . Sometimes stay more when exams are approaching.

8. Have you come across any parents complaint against students doubts being unresolved? Ans. Not really 9. Specify the main difficultly faced while solving doubts? Ans. Well in my case that would be students who dont come up or doesnt match the pace of the course because backlog doubts take more time to solve.

10. Do you have any doubt solving sessions in your institute? Ans. Yes after every class that one hour.

11. How do you deal with repeated doubts? Ans. I solve collect them and take 15-20 min from next class to solve it for everyone at once.

12. Have you referred any student to solve the doubt taking help of other students? Ans. Some students are really active and the appreciation from me and other students keep them motivated to keep solving doubts in the class.

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13. How do you think gamification of doubt solving process will affect students learning? Ans. Since I've seen students feeling really pumped up and motivated because of the recognition and appreciation in the group, i think gamification can really promote in solving and asking doubts.

14. Do u think students will be motivated towards using the platform? Ans. Absolutely 15. Anything you think should be a must in such a platform? Ans. No downvotes, teachers' moderation, Points for asking doubts, points for answering, Closing the doubt after teacher approval of a particular answer.

USER CASE 5 Name: Ambika Sarkar, Munish Mittal Classes 1. How long you have been teaching? Ans. 25+ years 2. Subjects you teach? Ans. Chemistry for Int aspirants 3. Total student strength? Ans. 600 4. How many hours in a day spent in taking batches? Ans. 5 each batch 5. No. Batches in a day? Ans. 6 6. Do you have any online platform? Ans. I guess its about get released, ned to check

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7. How do u manage to solve students doubts? Ans. Ii take extra classes and students are always welcome to Come and ask which they dont do , only a few do tht.

8. Have you come across any parents complaint against students doubts being unresolved? Ans. Rarely , generally we are the ones complaining.

9. Specify the main difficultly faced while solving doubts? Ans. Repetition and only repetition.

10. Do you have any doubt solving sessions in your institute? Ans. Yes 11. How do you deal with repeated doubts? Ans. I take a common class for doubts and as per my experience whichever I feel I of all I discuss on board.

12. Have you referred any student to solve the doubt taking help of other students? Ans. Yes sometimes.

13. How do you think gamification of doubt solving process will affect students learning? Ans. Are wah! This is soemthing good you guys are doing. It will obviously lighter down our stress Level students will start learning from each other which can be a positive team building believe. But yes it might get wrong as well.

14. Do u think students will be motivated towards using the platform? Ans. Absolutely

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15. Anything you think should be a must in such a platform? Ans. Sharing the solved doubts with other. I mean the ones which we solve if they can share it to others will be good.

Survey Questionnaire: The below questionnaire was create on Google forms and was shred with the respondents through email and WhatsApp.

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