Observing Undergraduate Students' Emotions in Gamified and Non-Gamified Educational Systems: A Qualitative Case Study

In this full research paper, we contribute to the gamification literature by exploring students' emotions when completing educational tasks in a gamified and non-gamified education system, qualitatively explaining some triggers for their emotions. Background: An emotion is a spontaneous, short-lived, and subjective response to whatever is happening. Despite the various existing theories, we draw on Ekman's theory, which identifies seven basic emotions: anger, fear, sadness, happiness, contempt, surprise, and disgust. In education, gamification has been widely used with one of its objectives being to provoke positive emotions in students. However, little is known about students' emotions when using gamified and non-gamified educational systems. Research Questions: Advancing the literature, we answered the following research question: what emotions are experienced by students when performing tasks using a gamified and non-gamified educational system? Methodology: For up to 30 minutes, nine males and seven females completed educational tasks in general knowledge, English, and reasoning. Some interacted with a gamified version of an educational platform, which included 10 gamification elements based on Self-determination theory, while others engaged with the same tasks in a non-gamified version of the same system. During system usage, we employed the Noldus Observer XT and FaceReader systems to map students' emotions over time. After system usage, semi-structured interview data provided a deeper understanding of why certain emotions were experienced. Finally, we conducted a Thematic Analysis to qualitatively interpret the data. Findings: Participants remained indifferent most of the time in both settings, indicating that the gamification elements had no extra role. The most frequent emotion was anger, an emotion experienced when a goal is prevented from being pursued. They also experienced some disgust. Those exposed to gamification elements were more likely to be happy and equally likely to be sad. In terms of gender, male participants felt more anger and disgust, while women felt more happiness and sadness.