Gamification of commonplace learning activities : a case study in educational robotics in competitive arenas

Gamification is the utilisation of game-mechanics and game-solving methods to engage audience. It is applied to commonplace activities where such activity is not commonly associated to the nature of game play, for example, learning mathematics, undertaking science laboratory experiments, completing a spreadsheet and designing software algorithms. Fundamentally, gamification of a specific learning activity does not modify the material content, but enhance the value of the learning activity. This inherently becomes the motivation for students to undertake the learning activity in order to solve the given problem space. In this position paper, the framework of a commonplace learning activity will be formalised and expanded to include the application of gamification. The groundwork for gamification is then adopted in a competitive arena. Competitive arenas are a well-defined problem space that provides well-structured problems to allow students to carry out test and multiple attempts at solving the given challenge. Similarly to competitive sports (hence, the name arena), the competitive nature of the problem space engages and drives students to be involved in the learning activity. Three case studies are discussed that demonstrates the viability and initial attempts in the application of gamification in the context of educational robotics. This includes urban search and rescue, soccer playing robots and problem based arena.