Constructing Knowledge Taxonomy from E-learning Portal for Higher Learning Institution

Electronic Educational Technology additionally called E-Learning entrance are being utilized more by school, universities, colleges and even individual teacher so as to manufacture a learning environment through Knowledge Sharing. Learning organizations gather enormous measure of data which ought to smother information the executives and information duplication adequately. For this reason, information engineering should offer a methodical technique to reuse and share the current information. This paper consequently builds Taxonomy from a lot of catchphrases for information sharing, reuse and information seek in which the developed scientific categorization ought to be free from other information arrangement. An arrangement technique utilized in developing scientific categorization is Bayesian Rose Tree and K-mean closest neighbor classifier, with the goal that the quantity of discrete qualities will build the execution of information mining model as far as order exactness. The created ordered technique and scientific categorization can be connected in reality information for effective information seek.

E-Learning gateway is a site that contains enormous proportion of data which is altogether gainful for understudies or agents at an affiliation. It may demonstrate online courses, anticipated classes, associations with website, looking functionalities, etc. Generally, most by far of E-Learning passages have been compelled to keep up supposition related with understudy’s data and not giving an over the top measure of thought on understudy’s tendencies.

Nowadays, E-Learning door are being presented progressively more by universities, junior schools, schools, associations, and even individual instructors in order to add web development to their courses and to overhaul customary eye to eye courses . E-learning gateway systems gather an enormous measure of data which is really huge for surveying the understudies’ execution and could make a gold mine of enlightening data . Generally, a substantial bit of understudy showing structures have been limited to keep up doubts related with understudy’s data (acquired in the midst of assessment works out) not paying an unreasonable measure of thought to understudy’s tendencies. A particularly reassuring methodology towards this examination objective is the usage of learning logical arrangement before applying data mining strategies. Consequently information logical arrangement methodology and information requested ways are essential to gather a data establishment and incredible data examination. Data logical order offers a couple of techniques to engage required data segments to be looked fast and besides it offers a couple of points of interest for adaptable procedures to comparable data segments in a solitary game plan system, for instance, examination, true envisioning, and backing.

In dealing with space express inquiries into pecking request can help better understanding and improve inquiry yield. Dynamic structures are fundamental in various controls. The advantage of different leveled gathering is that it makes tree structure which fuses topic chains of significance in substance anyway the matched branch may not be the best model to depict enlightening accumulation in much application. At any rate when the target record is broad, multi-branch gathering may sensible. Starting at now there are various multi-branch gathering computations . The system proposed by Adams and Knowles rely upon Dirichlet spread tree.

In this paper we receive Bayesian rose tree calculation for learning scientific classification enlistment and the remainder of the paper is organized as pursues, in area 2 we clarify the earlier work of scientific categorization utilizing Multi-branch Clustering. In segment 3 we talk about a methodology of multi-branch bunching with precedent. In area 4, structure of progressive Clustering utilizing Bayesian Rose Tree calculation is actualized. In area 5 automatic Taxonomy is built and tested utilizing E-learning application lastly the paper is finished with end and future work.

In the zone of data mining much work has been focused on Taxonomy enrollment. On account of the enthusiastic augmentation of available data and information, customers has also delivered an extended excitement for using logical characterizations to structure information for more straightforward organization and rescue (Hunter, ND; Lambe, 2007). In the corporate world, learning authorities spend some place in the scope of 11 and 13 hours seven days searching for and separating information (Whittaker and Breininger, 2008). Greater and greater stores of cutting edge information and data require more ways to deal with empower individuals to recover unequivocally what they need at some irregular moment (Malafsky, 2009). A key ideal position of logical characterization is that, when information is productive and dependable over an affiliation, staff will contribute less vitality looking and scrutinizing, with the result that they upgrade their examination appreciation and impact their capacities (Serrat, 2010). Pincher (2011) sets that, without a logical characterization proposed for securing and supervising, or one that reinforces better chasing, a wide scope of the official’s systems in an affiliation are about inconsequential. Melding both learning and setting in logical order building isn’t simple (Ryan P. Adams, Zoubin Ghahramani and Michael I. Jordan, 2012). Twofold Trees worked from Hierarchical gathering computation may not be the best model in various applications (Xiting Wang, Shixia Liu, Yangqiu Song and Baining Guo, 2013). Dynamic Clustering counts havea extraordinary comparability measures to make a Taxonomy from a great deal of Key words (Xueqing Liu, Yangqiu Song, Shixia Liu and Haixun Wang, 2014). Appeared differently in relation to Binary trees, Multi-branch trees have a fundamental and better interpretability.

Electronic educational systems assemble huge proportions of understudy data, from web logs to considerably more semantically rich data encased in understudy models. Different leveled gathering is a for the most part used model for provoking logical order from set of watchwords. The benefit of Hierarchical gathering is that it makes a tree structure which is definitely not hard to interpret. Different leveled Clustering system social event’s variety of data’s by making a dendrogram. The created tree is certainly not a singular course of action of packs, rather amazed measurement chain of significance, where bunches at one measurement are joined at another measurement. This licenses picking the element of collection that is most sensible for our application. Figure1 gives a model. The goal here is to make data Taxonomy from set of watchword phrases. In the figure file set-A (DSA) and record set-B (DSB) are clearly same anyway report set-C (DSC ) is dissimilar.

E-learning approach is regarded as a recommended approach, if it is adept enough to observe users and interrupted with specific domain [16]. An E-learning system is acting based on the knowledge that specifies the context of adaptation. The Taxonomy is designed to support various learning models and theories. The general purpose knowledge we use is Probes which has been verified useful for web search. Probase’s core taxonomy contains about 2.7 million impressions involved from a mass of 1.68 billion online pages. Beyond the core taxonomy, Probase is able to integrate information from varied sources by understand the data using the knowledge in its core taxonomy. The reason that Probase is able to gather large amount of information is because of its probabilistic character. In figure 2, the browser affords a search interface for concepts, and shows a concept’s is-a hierarchy, its instances (entities), and its related notions.

A user’s query may be syntactically and semantically parsed to identify meaningful term. As shown in figure 3, we conceptualize “students Query” by categorizing there subject interest. We consider four students with various interests. The graph shows their overall search queries about the subject’s topics on a scale of 1 to 5. As we can see each student provides various no. of search queries, based on which the data is provided to him/her. These queries are considered as our “Input data” and the provided notes based on the topics as considered as “Clustered information”.

We observe the work presented as initial and improvement can be done to pursue in many directions. First, we can use other sensitive Hashing method to improve the search accuracy. Second, we can also apply our automatic constructed Taxonomy method to real world application to improve the effectiveness of search. Third, our proposed method is based on the current user query. Moreover, the modified query is based on Boolean search and our method can be applied to any database which support Boolean search.

By means of this paper, we showcase a grouped technique that automatically hypotheses Taxonomy utilizing a list of key-words. We analyzed automatic constructing method based on keyword co-occurrence is not so easy to resolve an optimize threshold due to lower conditional probability. We project a procedure of conceptualization and also that of mine-context from the data received from numerous search-engines, after which we persuade novel taxonomy utilizing the method proposed by Bayesian Rose tree and steered a group of experiments to expand the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.

Comparative Study of Graduate Students’ Views on Virtual and Real Learning

Learning is obligatory up to a convinced age. Learning is an extensive intermediate of obtaining necessary knowledge and skills. Learning is inherently split into two types i.e., distance education (virtual learning) and mainstream education (real learning). Has we know learning online is an immense concept. The term online learning, virtual learning, e-learning, distance learning is identical. Each one of them refers to act of applying technology and software in learning. Virtual learning indicates that it is an arrangement that furnish tutor digitally-based clarification anticipates at constituting reciprocal, progressive learning environment. Notably virtual learning made use of computer software and the Internet to convey guidance to learner. Whereas the term real learning, traditional learning and offline are one and the same. Real learning is generally face-to-face learning reciprocal action that takes place in a materialistic locale. This refers to lecture-based learning where educators provide guidance to students. Virtual learning and real learning both are the concepts of learning but how students engage in that process is slightly different. Virtual learning has received much attention in this epidemic circumstance. This technological era made our works much effortless because Internet technology has been considered as an important medium for many aspects of our lives including academic learning. In these prevailing conditions virtual learning has made students busy in obtaining education. This study compared the student perspective towards virtual and real learning, even though virtual learning boost traditional learning, students are satisfied with real learning. This study sought to compare virtual and real learning are two level- usage or adoption of technologies, level of satisfaction. Though these comparisons, we investigated whether students are opting for virtual or real learning, due to face-to-face interaction, immediate responses and flexibility student view is towards real learning.

Objectives of the Study

  • The main objective of this research is to know the level of fulfillment in virtual learning.
  • To know the awareness, cleverness and posture of students towards virtual learning.
  • To know how digitalization works in higher education sector in current pandemic situation.

Review of Literature

According to Valentine, before any discussion of virtual learning we need to look at the way the term has been defined in the past and how it is currently defined in the literature. Virtual learning has been around for well over 100 years. One of the earlier forms of virtual learning was done through correspondence courses started in Europe. This stayed the primary means of distance learning until the middle of this century when instructional radio and television became more popular.

As technology has change, so as the definitions of virtual learning. Videotaped lectures have been started in university and professional courses for the last two decades (Moore and Lockee, 1998). In these days the Internet and compressed video have taken virtual learning in new directions, and also, they allow virtual learning to occur in real time. Live video instruction is the most popular and fastest growing delivery mode in the United States (Ostendorf, 1997). But real learning plays very big role in student satisfaction level.

Impact of Virtual and Real Learning

The existing condition of Covid-19 has resulted in shutoff all the institutions and universities over the universe, this consequence situation altered education system completely, with the idiosyncratic hike of distance learning, where learning is tackled remotely on digital platforms. Essentially considering students health, on popular demand by the government and concerned education departments to make students engaged with their academics, universities are offering e-learning. By the immediate transformation of traditional learning to virtual learning, these impact on student level of fulfillment. Classes on Microsoft teams, Skype, Zoom, Google meet are becoming problematic to learners because classes get disturbed due to Internet issues. Even though student doesn’t have specific knowledge on using the technologies related to virtual learning it is necessary to go with virtual learning rather than real learning only to avoid the wide spread of Covid-19.

Expansion in virtual learning prepare student to utter numerous courses, training programs with in a time span. In reality learners are haste to complete their courses for the certification desire, rather than procuring more proficiency.

Level of Student Satisfaction in Virtual Learning and Real Learning

Tutoring is not only the process of gushing knowledge into a learner’s head but also to make students to engage in learning. In real learning fundamentally students are accommodated in a particular classroom space which generate focus and interest to learners towards studies. Educator interaction with learners at appropriate time impact positively on learners these leads to students’ high level of satisfaction. In virtual learning through one-to-one learning, there is no chance for group learning or personal interaction between the teacher and the students, this has a negative effect and possibly their chances of being less satisfied.

Data Analysis and Interpretation

90% respondents indicated high level of satisfaction with real learning and 10% were disagree, where as 11% respondents of virtual learning indicate high level of satisfaction and 89% were disagree.

The students of UG and PG were considered for this survey who pursuing their degree in various institutions and universities.

Educator role is extremely important in learning environment. Educators well-timed reply empathetically impact student satisfaction. The face-to-face interaction of teacher and student are tremendously impressive and students adore the learning environment.

Government and concerned educational departments need to work on the developmental programs of virtual learning which is beneficiary for learners. If they are not gratified then the concept of virtual learning is onerous to extend. Here educator and learner face-to-face interaction and quick responses are the main points that lead towards student satisfaction. If these two factors are undoubtedly entertained then student fulfillment will increase otherwise, it leads to student dis satisfaction.

Awareness, Cleverness and Posture of Students Towards E-Learning

Learning is obtaining of knowledge and getting expertise in something by study. Learning can be expedited by directly means student individually visit classes conducted in the institutions or by indirectly means such as virtual learning. The current study investigates the awareness, cleverness and posture of students towards virtual learning. It is known that technology assist learners to become maverick, efficient and investigator and also it can mislead learners if they become regular practitioner of technology. In these pervasive circumstances unexpected shift from real learning to virtual learning found problematic to students because they don’t have required knowledge in adoption and usage of tools related to virtual learning (this is not with every student) learner awareness and cleverness also depend on system and home environment. Not everybody knows how to use tools related to virtual learning, students with IT background can use related technologies and tools without any complication, where as if we take into consideration of students except IT background students doesn’t have specific awareness in usage of tools.

In the survey students of commerce background were taken into consideration. 47.6% of respondents indicate that they don’t have knowledge regarding the usage of tools or technologies 38.1% of respondents indicate that somehow they can manage with the available tools, 14.3% of respondents indicate that they doesn’t have required tools related to virtual learning

To bring awareness and cleverness in usage of technologies among the student government and other education departments should give various programs to learners to get specific knowledge related to usage of tools.

Conclusion

Student satisfaction level is one of the main pillars of learning. The research suggest that satisfaction level of graduate students is not up to the mark due to various reasons like no face-to-face interaction among educator and learners and also dis connectivity of classes due to issues with the Internet. If concerned education departments and government work on these factors virtual learning can increase the satisfaction level among the learners. The survey indicates that most of the student does not have required knowledge in the usage of tools and technologies related to virtual learning. Here ministry of higher education department should consider the student awareness towards the technology and should educate learners by IT professionals regarding the adoption or using of tools and technologies.

VLE and University Students’ Learning Experience

The growing adoption of modern information and communications technologies (ICT) in the dissemination of pertinent information through the Internet tools has occasioned significant improvements in both teaching and learning experiences among lecturers and students. Sneha & Nagaraja (2013) submitted that, one notable online platform for achieving enhanced quality educational outcomes are virtual learning environments (VLEs).

Wikipedia (2020) defines a virtual learning environment (VLE) as “a web-based platform for the digital aspects of courses of study, usually within educational institutions”. The 2008 UK educational policy was driven towards the adoption of VLEs to enable student have access to online classroom learning information that will improve their learning experience (Ronnie, 2011).

These learning management systems have over time been proven to be very effective for teaching complete online courses with millions of students taking such courses at their convenience from different locations across the globe (Rahmany, Sadeghi & Chegini, 2014). Thus, Barker & Gossman (2013) explained that the principal goal of VLEs is to facilitate, stimulate and offer learning experiences that are well established outside the physical classroom engagements.

Rationale

VLEs have been widely adopted in several learning institutions at various times for enhancing learning processes. However, the exact nature of its impact has been reportedly mixed. For instance, Posey, Burgess, Eason & Jones (n.d.), Barker & Gossman (2013) and Mosquera (2017) found that, VLEs boost academic performance, meet the learning needs of all students and prepare administrators, educators, and students with current progress and performance reports.

Nevertheless, Godwin-Jones (2012) and Walker & White (2013) have argued that, VLEs are a waste of time, drains students, promotes social class variations, a worthless resource with no value addition to the teaching-learning process, an institution-oriented rather than a teacher-oriented system, which discourages many instructors. Consequently, in order to validate the actual impact (positive or negative) of VLEs on students’ learning experience, the study of this nature becomes essential.

Research Objective

Essentially, the study aimed at examining the impact of VLE on students’ learning experience at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David, London Campus using both primary and secondary research approaches.

Literature Review

This current study draws from earlier studies of Dudeney & Hockly (2007), Green, Brown & Robinson (2008), Mogus, Đurđević & Šuvak (2012), Barker & Gossman (2013), among others, who offered a detailed conceptualization of virtual learning environments in relation to their impacts on the general learning environment. As earlier emphasized, VLE represents a virtual teaching/learning space such as video or Web conferencing which is designed to enable instructors and learners to interact over the Internet (Dudeney & Hockly, 2007).

Relevant information regarding class activities, instructional resources, and regular coursework are shared with the aid of VLE Moodle (Green, Brown & Robinson, 2008). Thus, students can simply login to the class online portal to access all available information relating to their course structure, complete their assignments and tests and, make online submissions accordingly (Christensson, 2008).

It is worth knowing that, since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019 and the eventual enforcement of the 2020 global lockdown, a large number of institutions of learning have fully resorted to the use of VLEs with students now having access to scheduled online exams and submissions within the time frame (Soni, 2020; Ahmady, Shahbazi & Heidari, 2020). These technologies have in can in several ways assist learners to gain easy access to a bulk of educational resources irrespective of their location.

The growing application of Web 2.0 programs, chat rooms, e-mail, or online fora is gradually replacing the physical classroom meetings thus, facilitating students’ access to the desired information (Safa, 2012). These programs also stimulate regular interaction and collaborations among instructors and learners with a number of individuals now transiting to virtual schooling (Solomon & Schrum, 2010).

A number of earlier studies on the link between a VLE and students’ learning experience, have been documented with several empirical outcomes. For instance, a study by Ronnie (2011) showed that a VLE effectively boosts student Learning through the provision of real-time responses and feed-forward to students in the London borough secondary school with greater motivation to correct their work and take full responsibility for their learning. Barker & Gossman (2013) found that, the use of VLEs Moodle exerted a positive and statistically significant impact on student’s independent learning and learning outcomes in the UK.

Rahmila (2015) also found that the use of virtual learning for sharing materials, posting notes and other up-to-date information, wields positive effects on students learning outcomes in Indonesia. Study of Clarence (2017) showed that, simplicity of usage, instructor assistance, learner control, technical capability, technical support, as well as visual learning tools, significantly influence the use of a VLE in promoting skills development. Mosquera (2017) found that, students feel excited and inspired towards the application of VLEs in Colombia. They however noted that, the principal threats to application of VLEs include inefficient educational technologies, low laboratories and computers capacity in addition to delayed Internet connectivity.

Research Methodology

Research Method and Methodology

The study adopted a combination of survey and case study research methods for the collection of relevant information, while the method of data analysis includes frequency and percentage distribution as well as graphical analysis of the responses.

Quantitative, Qualitative and Combine Approach

The research approach adopted in this study include both quantitative and qualitative approach. Essentially, in the course of gathering and analyzing data, quantitative research entails the use of numbers and statistics like time spent on VLE, whereas qualitative research relies on the use of words and connotations like list of benefits and challenges of VLE.

Data: Primary and Secondary Data

The primary data used in this study are direct products of the author’s survey and case study through research instruments, while the secondary data employed in the study were generated from previous empirical studies for further discussion.

Data Collection Process

The data were collected using research instruments (questionnaire, class notes and lecturer’s narratives) in the course of the survey and case study. Quantitative data were collected using close-ended and Likert Scale questions, while the qualitative data were collected using open-ended questions which enabled the participants to express their observations regarding VLEs implementation and their learning experience.

Population, Sample and Sample Size

The population of the study comprised all the students at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David, London Campus. However, a sample of 24 students was drawn from Health and Social Care department for convenience and easy accessibility.

Ethics in Data Collection

During the survey, no respondent was compelled to fill in any section of the survey questionnaire under coercion, and all information given was handled with strict confidentiality. There was no observed nor perceived conflict of interest between concerned parties and all literatures have been cautiously cited with a list of references provided in the reference section. Explicitly, the data were processed and utilized solely for the objective of this study. Thus, only the researcher can access the raw data stored on a password-protected computer.

Result/Findings, Analysis and Discussion

Primary Data Analysis

Essentially, the data extracted from the research instruments were transferred to Excel spread sheet further analysis, leading to the production of frequency and percentage tables and graphical representations of the quantitative responses. The result revealed that, out of the 24 students that participated in the survey, 11 (45.8%) of them reportedly use laptops, while 2 (8.3%) use a desktop. Similarly, 6 (25%) use tablets, while 5 (20.8%) use smartphones for virtual learning. Thus, most students access the VLE using laptops, followed by tablets and smartphones.

The result also showed that, 3 (12.5%) students received average satisfaction, while 16 (66.7%) feel good about online classes with 5 (20.8) of them judging it to be excellent in the course of the study. Thus, most student have good impression about the implementation of VLEs. It was further established that, all the 24 students (100%) reportedly have the quality of their learning improved using the Moodle. Also, 4 (16.7%) of the students indicated that their lecturers are moderately helpful, 17 (70.8%) indicated that, their lecturers are very helpful, while 3 (12.5%) indicated that, their lecturers are extremely helpful when studying online. Logically, most of the lecturers are very helpful to student who use VLEs to study.

In terms of the usefulness and familiarity of the students with the application of Microsoft Teams, 1 (4.2%) of the student adjudged it to be slightly useful, while 13 (54.2%) of them deemed it to be moderately useful. 10 (41.7%) of them adjudged the program to be very useful to them during online academic activities. Thus, Microsoft Teams remains useful for virtual learning.

In terms of play times, students were asked to rank how they manage their time while learning online. The result showed that, 3 (12.5%) and 2(8.3%) of the student ranked themselves 5 and 6 respectively, while 8 (33.3%), 9 (37.5%) and 2(8.3%) of the them ranked themselves 7, 8 and 9 respectively. Thus, most students properly manage 70-80% of their play time, when learning online.

In terms of academic schedule, students were asked to rank how they manage their time while learning online. The result showed that, 2(8.3%) and 5 (20.8%) of the student ranked themselves 5 and 6 respectively, while 7 (29.2%), 8 (33.3%) and 2(8.3%) of the them ranked themselves 7, 8 and 9 respectively. Therefore, most students properly manage 70-80% of their academic schedule time, when learning online.

In terms of daily time consumption on virtual learning, it was gathered that, 4 (16.7%) of them spend 1-3 hours on virtual learning daily, while 14 (58.3%) and 6(25%) of them spend 3-5 hours and 5-7 hours daily. This suggests that most students spend 3-5 hours on virtual learning daily, while few of the spend 1-3 hours on same activities.

In terms of the overall students’ experience with the VLE Moodle platform of UWTSD, 10 (41.7%) of the students considered their learning experience somewhat better, while 14 (58.3%) considered their learning experience much better. Thus, the implementation of VLEs significantly enhance students learning experience.

The use of VLE proved to be yielding enormous benefits such as regular information about course works, access to online resource materials, proper guide on coursework among others, while the disadvantages include connection problems, poor concentration, among others, with Internet connection problem and delays dominating the list of problem noted by the participants.

Secondary Data Analysis

A study of Rogers (2004) reported that VLE boost students’ learning outcomes by 79%, while traditional teaching approaches only enhance of student learning by 28%. Also, Barker & Gossman (2013) found that 75.8% of students have easy access to VLE, while 20.6% of the students encounter difficulties when utilizing the VLE Moodle. It was further established that 53% of students have their learning outcome improved through the VLE Moodle. Rahmila (2015) found that, 50% of students engage in online learning with 92.5% having their learning experience significantly improved and 2.5% having no improvement.

Sclater, Peasgood & Mullan (2016) established that VLE accounted for 25% of the differences in students’ final grades. Paulo, Luísa & Carlos (2017) found a 60% positive relationship between students’ access to the VLE and students’ academic performance in Portugal, given 80.0% of student having very high accesses to online learning platforms. Mosquera (2017) noted that, VLE enhanced the learning experience of 75.46% of students.

Summary of Findings

The major findings of the study include: most students access the VLE using laptops and have good impression about the implementation of VLEs. Also, all the students have their learning improved using the Moodle, most of the lecturers are very helpful to student who use VLEs to study, most students appropriately manage 70-80% of their play and academic schedule time, when learning online, while most students spend 3-5 hours on virtual learning daily.

Conclusion and Recommendations

The study shows that, the use of VLE proved to be yielding enormous benefits such as regular information about course works, access to online resource materials, proper guide on coursework among others, while the disadvantages include connection problems, poor concentration, among others, with Internet connection problem and delays dominating the list of problems noted by the participants. However, when those problems are adequately addressed, the implementation of technology-based learning will significantly enhance students learning experience.

The study therefore recommend that the University of Wales Trinity Saint David should swiftly make efforts to address the problems highlighted in this study to enable both students and lecturers to tap from the enormous benefits of VLEs implementation. Also, free Internet access should be provided for the student to enhance access to the VLE Moodle.

The Undergraduate Students’ Perception toward The Implementation of Gamification in E-Learning

Abstract

This research was conducted to examine the undergraduate students’ perception of the implementation of gamification in E-Learning. The subject of this research are 36 students of Fifth semester in English Language Education, Ganesha University of Education. The questionnaire is the instrument of this research. The researcher analyzed 36 filled questionnaires, which had been shared via Google Forms link, by 5th semester of undergraduate students in English Language Education, Ganesha University of Education, concerning the implementation of gamification in E- Learning. The results show that the percentage of the participants who think positively toward the implementation of gamification in E-Learning are higher than the rest who do not think positively regarding it.

Keywords: Gamification, E-Learning, Perception, Undergraduate

Introduction

Nowadays, E-Learning tend to be implemented in the class. In this era, over the years technology has been developed and progressed, as well E-learning also has grown significantly as a tool in an educational context. (El-Seoud, Taj-Eddin, Seddiek, El-Khouly, Nosseir, 2014) “The 21st century has seen rapid progress with such things as the Internet and online learning”. (El- Seoud, Taj-Eddin, Seddiek, El-Khouly, Nosseir, 2014) Remarkably, the efforts at advancing the technology are greater than on make an effort to understand the needs and learning styles of each individual learners.

Gamification has been widely applied to many sectors in this era. The concepts of gamification have been implemented in several industries as well as extensively deliberated in academic literature over the past few years. (Carlson, J., Harris, R., Harris, K. 2017) Risal (2013), S. Deterding, et al. (2011) in Setiana, Hansun (2017) stated:

“Gamification is a process that aims to change a non-game context (example: learning, teaching, marketing) becomes much more interesting by integrating games thinking, game design and game mechanics (game elements)”

The implementation of gamification in E-Learning can help the teacher to engage their online class in order to motivate the students to participate actively and get a good achievement. Applying gamification in education, commonly focuses on enhancing students’ interest to the course, improve the competitive spirit in the class and give the students motivation to participate actively in the learning process via using some game elements such as points, badges, levels and etc. (Çeker, Özdamlı, 2017)

The components of Gamification are linked with the students’ positive actions in lessons by the teacher and observed for better participation, better homework habits, and attitudes in (1) keeping essential equipment ready every time required. The teacher have to announce the method of evaluation which will be used, before the learning process, to establish and maintain it. Next, in the teaching-learning process, the teacher can use gamification components, by using points, and badges for rewarding, transfer it to levels and leaderboard tables (Deterding and fri., 2011 in Çeker, Özdamlı, 2017).

One example of the implementation of gamification in E-Learning is Duolingo. We see Duolingo approaching forward among platforms of language-learning with gamification supported and an international vision. Duolingo website is very widespread, easy to use and at the end, an evaluation exam is available for level of language competency. Duolingo also provides all free courses of language learning. Since 2016, according to the records, there are language courses for 23 different languages provided by Duolingo. The application of Duolingo can be used easily in iOS, Android or Windows operating system platforms. The total of users, who have been registered the software, passed 120 million in 2016 (https://www.duolingo.com/).

Based on the aforementioned background the researcher found some questions which are the questions of this research, (1) Is gamification in E-Learning familiar to undergraduate students? (2) What is the undergraduate students’ perception toward the implementation of gamification in E-Learning? (3) is it good to implement gamification in E-Learning?

Undergraduate students also hold the important role in the successful of implementation of gamification in E-Learning. Consequently, in order to get the answer from the three questions above, the researcher conduct this study to examine the undergraduate students’ perception toward the implementation of gamification in E-Learning. So, the lecture may get some solutions toward these questions.

Methods

This research aims to investigate the perception of 5th semester of Undergraduate students in English Language Education, Ganesha University of Education, toward the implementation of gamification in E-Learning. This research uses both of qualitative and quantitative study. 36 students, who are Fifth semester in English Language Education, Ganesha University of Education, are the subject of this research. The researcher analyzed 36 filled questionnaires by 5th semester of undergraduate students in English Language Education, Ganesha University of Education, concerning the implementation of gamification in E-Learning. In addition, the researcher uses questionnaires as the instruments of this study. The subjects of this research fill the questionnaire which had been shared via Google Forms link.

Responses to the questionnaire were analyzed based on total percentages to each item on every question/point. To visualize the perception of the 5th semester undergraduate students of English Language Education, there are 2 types of points in the questionnaire. They are 5 items of yes/no questions and also 5 items with 3 levels of agreement were categorized into three groups (agree, neutral, and disagree). The percentages of all responses were summarized in a table as well as individual graphical representations. Pie charts were used to support the results. The questionnaire contained 10 points is shared by the researcher (see appendix 1)

Findings and discussion

Findings

From the questionnaire which has been filled by 36 participants who are the 5th semester of English Language Education Students in Ganesha University of Education, the results showed a positive perception toward the implementation of gamification in E-Learning. The whole data can be seen in the appendix 1. As for the data for each question will be shown in a pie chart and some in a diagram below:

Figure 1: Q1

Figure 2 : Q2

Figure 3: Q3

Figure 4: Q4

Figure 5: Q5

Figure 6: Q6

Figure 7: Q7

Figure 8: Q8

Figure 9: Q9

Figure 10: Q10

Discussion

The data shown above displays the participants perceptions toward each question. The first question represented whether the participants are familiar with gamification in E-Learning context or not. The data shows that 66.7 % of the participants are familiar with it and the rest 33.3% are not familiar with it. 24 out of 36 are choose Yes, I have for the 1st question, “have you tried some learning applications using gamification in them? (e.g. Duolingo and Coursera)”, which means they are familiar with the implementation of gamification in E-learning context by using some application or platform which uses gamification.

Based on the 2nd question, there are 25 students choose “Yes, I do” for “If you have, do you think these applications can help and motivate you to learn more? And good thing to do? In percentage, it is 69.4% out of 100%. It means, based on their perception, the implementation of gamification in E-learning via some application is a good thing and make them feel motivated.

As for the 3rd question, 34 students answer “Do you feel motivated if your teacher use point and leaderboard system like in some games for each material of the course?” with “Yes, I do”. It displays that as the effect of gamification (e.g. the use of point and leaderboard system) their motivation can be enhanced. It is 94.4% of 36 participants agree to the 3rd question.

For the 4th question, “Do you think the implementation of gamification in E-Learning can motivate the students to get a good achievement during the course?” 97.2% of the participants answer “Yes, I do” to the 4th question. Only 1 person choose “No, I don’t”. It means, they agree that the implementation of gamification in E-learning can motivate the students to get a good achievement.

There are 21 participants agree, 14 participants neutral, and only 1 participant disagree toward the 5th item, “I feel like to learn if teacher uses some game elements (e.g. mission completion, leaderboards, and badges, instant feedbacks) in the online class”. There are 58.3 % of 36 participants feel like to learn if the teacher applies the gamification in the online class. It indicates gamification can be the solution to increase the students’ interest in using online class. As for the 6th item “I feel excited to join the online class which using gamification” almost has the similar result as the 5th item. 22 participants agree 14 participants neutral and there is no one disagree to the 6th item. In addition, it can be said that the students’ excitement also can be increased by implementing gamification in the online class.

For the 7th item, with statement “I think the using of gamification can help the teacher to make their class more challenging and interesting”, almost all of the participants agree to the statement. The percentage shows 83.3% (30 people) agree, 13.9% (5 people) neutral, and 2.8% (1 person) disagree. It means almost of the students agree that the gamification can help the teacher to make their class more challenging and interesting. As for the 8th item, with the statement “I feel that E-learning using gamification is not challenging and boring”, the percentages of the participants who disagree is higher than the neutral and agree.

Based on the 9th item, with the statement “The implementation of gamification in E- Learning can engage the students to be more active in the class”, the participants agree that gamification in E-learning can engage the students to be more active in the class. There are 20 participants (55.6%) agree with it and the rest are neutral and disagree.

As for the last question, “Do you think implement the gamification in E-Learning will be a success and good thing to do?” there are 33 participants who think that it will be a success if gamification is implemented in E-learning and 3 participants don’t have the same perception. The percentage is 91.7% compare to 8.3%. It means gamification is a good thing to be implemented.

Conclusion

It can be concluded that from the aforementioned findings, the researcher found some aswer related to the questions of this research, (1) Gamification in E-Learning is familiar to the undergraduate students (2) The undergraduate students’ perception toward the implementation of gamification in E-Learning is positive and good (3) It is good to implement gamification in E-Learning based on the results.

According to this research, the researcher suggests to the teacher and lecture to design E- learning with implementing gamification in it. It because based on this research findings, gamification has some advantages toward E-learning.

Furthermore, it is suggested for the other researchers to conduct other research on the teacher/lecture perception and also the solution regarding the problems of implementing the gamification in E-Learning.to investigate more deep about it.

References

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