The Impact of Gamified Assessment on the Learning Burnout of Undergraduate Computing Students: A Quasi-experimental Research

Abstract

Learning burnout refers to the negative attitude and behavior of being bored with learning due to learning pressure or lack of learning interests. It affects not only students' academic performance but also their physical and mental health. Currently, the research on learning design to alleviate learning burnout has only been the subject of a few studies. Considering that gamified assessment theoretically gave it potential to affect students' learning burnout, 120 undergraduate computing students at a university in mainland China participated in this study to investigate whether such a learning process was conducive to affecting learning burnout. The research was a quasi-experimental design with pretest and posttest. For the experimental group (n=60), gamification elements were integrated into two sessions including the question and answer sessions and after-class quizzes by Quizizz for six weeks (2 hours per week). During the data collection, all participants involved completed the pretest and posttest of the Maslach Learning Burnout Inventory-Student Survey via an electronic questionnaire. The quantitative data were analyzed through ANCOVA. This study found that students' learning with gamified assessment for six weeks did contribute to alleviating students' learning burnout, particularly in terms of cynicism and low efficacy. The findings can be a reference for exploring the integration of gamified assessment into tertiary education.