Learning from Errors: An Empirical Study on the Impact of Gamification on SQL Query Formulation

Abstract

The application of gamification is becoming increasingly popular throughout all areas of education claiming to impact student motivation and learning experience positively. With the aim of providing empirical evidence on the effects gamification has on students, this paper examines how gamification influences the errors students make when learning Structured Query Language (SQL). An empirical study was carried out with 133 students enrolled in a Database course from the Universidad Nacional Autó noma de Mé xico, where participants were split into three groups (gamified, competitive, and non-gamified) to understand if the environments influence the number and types of errors made by students. After analyzing 1,009 answers submitted by the students, it was observed that (i) students participating in the gamified environment tended to make fewer semantic errors; (ii) the competitive environment yielded better results reducing the prevalence of syntax errors; and (iii) the most common errors are concentrated in the SELECT and WHERE clauses. Overall, while the observed differences between non-gamified and gamified environments were minimal, it was concluded that gamification (and competition) positively influences specific aspects of students' learning.