Design and Implementation of a Gamified Online Education Platform for Teaching and Learning Secondary-School Physics

Abstract

As digital transformation progresses in different sectors of the society, online educational platforms are becoming more and more prevalent. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, educational organizations throughout the world have been forced to provide online education. Online learning platforms have the advantage of allowing students to take courses from anywhere at any time, making them learn at their own pace and convenience. However, online education lacks supervision from teachers as compared to its offline counterpart, many young students struggle to maintain their motivation and hence become less engaged with online classes. To solve this engagement problem, many researchers have proposed the use of gamification in online education. In accordance with the research in educational gamification, this paper presents FunPhysics, a gamified web-based platform for teaching and learning secondary-level Physics. Apart from incorporating major game elements like points, badges, leaderboards, and levels, FunPhysics makes learning interactive, dynamic, and playful by visual simulation of core concepts of high-school Physics. Our two preliminary user studies indicate that interactive and gamified learning platforms can contribute positively with regard to user engagement, motivation, and perceived sense of achievement and learning ability.