Exploring the Impact of Gamified Web-Based Collaborative Writing on Individual L2 Writing Performance in Higher Education

Abstract

The present study intends to investigate the effect of using a gamified platform called Classcraft on the individual L2 writing performance of Iranian university students of TEFL. For this purpose, a group of 120 male and female intermediate university students was assigned to three treatment groups as well as a control group, each containing 30 participants, in a quasi-experimental pretest/post-test design. The first experimental group benefited from both gamification and collaboration while interacting via the Classcraft platform to do the tasks. The second experimental group did the writing tasks individually via the same platform, while the third group practiced collaborative writing without gamification. Finally, the control group did the writing assignments without either gamification or collaboration. The results of the two-way ANCOVA revealed that the gamification factor significantly improved the writing performance of the students who utilized the gamified platform (i.e., the first and second experimental groups). However, the collaboration factor failed to exert a statistically significant impact on the scores of the participants who did the tasks jointly (i.e., the first and third experimental groups). The findings of this study can provide practical implications for language teachers, materials designers and policy-makers in education.