2018 6th International Conference on Information and Communication Technology (ICoICT)
Increasing Students Interaction in Distance Education
using Gamification
Case Study: IDEA Telkom University
Mhd. Rizky Ferianda1, Anisa Herdiani2, Indra Lukmana Sardi3
School of Computing
Telkom University
Bandung, Indonesia
1
mhd.rizkyferianda@gmail.com, 2anisaherdiani@telkomuniversity.ac.id, 3indraluk@telkomuniversity.ac.id
Abstract—Distance education helps students interacting with
course materials, teachers, and their peers without time and
place barriers. IDEA is distance education implemented in
Telkom University with various of functionalities like course
materials, discussion, quiz, and assignment. Meanwhile, the users
of IDEA were decreased because the functionalities are not well-
supported by a good interaction design. To overcome this
problem, we propose gamification method, an application of
game-dynamics, mechanics, and frameworks into non-game
settings. There are five steps of gamification: understanding the
target audience and the context, defining learning objective,
structuring the experience, identifying resources, and applying
gamification element. We implement four gamification elements
into the basic IDEA, they are points, badges, leaderboard, and
reward. To evaluate the impact of gamification in IDEA, we used
Technology Acceptance Model and it shows a promising result.
The value of five constructs are higher than previous research.
Keywords—Distance education; gamification; interaction;
Technology Acceptance Model;
I. INTRODUCTION
Distance education is a system and educational process in
which all or some of the learning process done by teachers or
lecturers separately by the space and time [1]. IDEA is one of
the implementation of distance education media that has been
implemented in Telkom University as an alternative learning
media for the students and the lecturers. But, as a distance
education media, IDEA is considered not too effective for
alternative learning media because the usefulness effect of
IDEA is still quite low due to low quality of user interactions
[2].
Based on that problem, in this research we conduct an
implementation of gamification concept to distance education
IDEA. Gamification is a method that apply game-dynamics,
mechanics, and frameworks into non-game settings [3]. This
method is considered quite effective when applied in a learning
activity, because it will make the learning process becomes
more attractive and increase interaction with users, so that
students will be motivated to achieve the learning target [4] [5].
ISBN: 978-1-5386-4571-0 (c) 2018 IEEE 125
There are five steps in gamification, understanding the
target audience and the context, define learning objective,
structuring the experience, applying gamification elements [6].
To evaluate the implication of gamification, we use
Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), the same method used
in previous research. The results of evaluation and analysis of
user testing, will confirm whether the implementation of
gamification gives a good impact for IDEA and solving the
problem.
II. LITERATURE REVIEW
A. Gamification
Gamification is a method that originates from the use of
game thinking and game mechanics in a non-game context to
engage users and solve the problems [5]. There are five steps of
gamification in [6]:
a) Understanding the target audiences and the contexts:
The key factor that determines the success of an education
program, is a good understanding of who the students are.
This step combined with the context in which the program is
being delivered, will help in designing a program that
empowers the student to achieve the objective of the program.
b) Defining learning objectives: In this step we define
the specific goals which could include: the student
understanding a concept, being able to perform for every task
after the training, and/or completing learning programs.
c) Structuring the experiences: A powerful tool that
enable instructors to sequence a knowledge and quantify what
the students need to learn and achieve by the end of each
stages.
d) Identifying resources: When designing a section into
gamification, tracking mechanisms, currency, rules, and
feedback can be helpful in determining levels at each stage
and this may be applied at each stage of the learning program.
e) Applying gamification elements: The process of
gamification in education is derived from the elements applied
to the learning program. As mentioned earlier, gamification is
adding elements like games, or so-called game mechanics,
into settings that are not a game.
B. Technology Acceptance Model (TAM)
Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) a model of
acceptance of information technology systems to be used by
the user. TAM was developed by Davis et al. based on the
TRA model. TAM adds two main constructs to the TRA
model. These two main constructs are perceived usefulness and
perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness and perceived ease
of use both have influence on behavioral intention, ease of use
perceived ease of use, and affect perceived usefulness [7].
III. RESEARCH METHOD
The research consists of five steps: pre-research,
observation, pre-implementation, implementation, testing-
evaluation-and analysis. Fig. 1 shows the method conducted in
the research.
Fig. 1. Research Method
A. Pre Research
Literature review was conducted as part of pre-
implementation step to know more about the method and help
to determine the number of research samples.
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B. Observation
The first step of gamification is understanding the target
audiences and the context. In this research, we involve 42
students who take Information Technology Project
Management (ITPM) course. ITPM is a course that contains
teaching on project management in general aspect and how it
applies to information technology projects that have special
characteristics.
C. Pre Implementation
1) Defining Learning Objectives: Distance education
IDEA is a learning management system (LMS) that developed
by information system directorate to support the learning
process at Telkom University. The purpose of IDEA is to
make the learning process at Telkom University is more
flexible in addition to the process of learning in the classroom
[8]. So, gamification was applied as the solution from the
problem of the research and support the main purpose of
distance education IDEA
2) Structuring the Experiences: The structure of
experiences applied in IDEA shows in Fig. 2.
Objective
Increasing students’ interaction in distance education IDEA
Stages/Milestone
Structure of Students’ experience:
Fig. 2. The Structure of Experience
3) Identifying Resources: To determine levels at each
stage, we identified the resource needed: tracking mechanism,
currency, rules, and feedback. Tracking mechanism monitor
students’ activities in IDEA. The manifestation of tracking
mechanism in this research are leaderboard, badge, and
participant list in the discussion forum. With those elements,
teacher can see the learning process of the students. Currency
is the measuring unit of students’ activities. We use points and
time to give challenges to students to contribute as much as
possible and finish every task on time. Rules implemented in
every task to make sure that every activity are still on the
track. We define feedback mechanism using online
questionnaires to evaluate the achievement of learning
objective.
D. Implementation
In this research, we implement four gamification elements,
they are badges, points, leaderboard, and reward.
1) Points: Points is something that students must collect as
the basis of assessment. The students will receive the points
when they interacting with IDEA through logging in,
discussions, and following quizes. In discussions, points are
given when students comments to a specific topic. In every
level of comments, the system will give different point, for
example comments on level 3: 1 point, level 2: 2 points, level
1: 3 points (see the details in Tabel I). Assignment have a
special treatment, not by points, but by lecturers grading.
However, the system will still keep students’ submission time
to evaluate whether the students deliver the assignment on
time or not.
Every student can get one or more badges, depends on their
interaction or activities in the system. The more they interact
with the system and accumulate the points, the more badges
they can get. Fig 3 shows the profile pages of two students with
total points 327 and 297 points. The badges show us what kind
of activities the students do in the system.

TABLE I. RULE OF POINTS

No Activities Points
1 Using distance education IDEA
Log in to distance education IDEA 1 points
2 Discussion Forum
Comments in level 1 of discussion 3 points
Comments in level 2 of discussion 2 points
Comments in level 3 of discussion 1 points
Receive appreciations (likes) from
1 points
other members.
3 Online Quiz
Answer the question correctly 10 points

2) Badges: Badges are marks received by every student

after accomplishing certain step. For example, “Illuminator
Badges” achieved after the students giving 15 comments. The
list of all badges can be seen on Table II.
Fig. 3. Badges Collection
TABLE II. LIST OF BADGES
3) Leaderboard: show real-time achievements or points.
No Badges Description
The system accumulates all points achieved by the students,
Explainer Badge achieved after giving 10 and displays it decreasing from the highest to the lowest points
1
comments.
(see fig. 4).
Refiner Badge achieved after giving 25
2
comments.

Illuminator Badge achieved after giving

3
40 comments.

Nice reply Badge achieved after receiving

4
5 likes.

Stunning reply Badge achieved after

5
receiving 15 likes.

Inspiration reply Badge achieved after

6
receiving 25 likes.

Geek student Badge achieved after

7
collecting 300 points.

Robot Einstein Badge achieved after

8
collecting 700 points

Enthusiast Badge achieved after logging Fig. 4. Leaderboard

9
in to IDEA more than 30 times.
Leaderboard will encourage the students to interact with the
Security Badge achieved after changing system and get as many points as possible so that they can be
10
password. the winner of the ‘game’, meaning: the top student.

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 4) Reward: Reward is elements obtained from lecturers to Behavioral Intention (BI)
the students who have been actively interacting or getting activities.
badges and/or earning the highest points as well as being the BI3 I tend to interact in Gamilearning when I have free time
highest points on the leaderboard. Example of the reward is in campus.
addition to the final score in the course. BI4 I tend to participate in Gamilearning’s discussion as
often as possible.
E. Testing, Evaluation, and Analysis
BI5 I tend to suggest my friends to use Gamilearning.
We conduct the implementation of gamification on IDEA
Perceived Ease of Use (PEU)
in two rounds, each in 8 days, to 42 students who take
Information Technology Project Management (ITPM) course. PEU1 It is easy to learn Gamilearning.
For each round, there are 3 activities: discussion, quiz, and PEU2 It is easy to use Gamilearning.
assignment (see the testing scenario in Fig. 5). PEU3 It is easy to be skilled in using Gamilearning.
PEU4 It is easy to find course materials from Gamilearning.
PEU5 It is easy to communicate with other students and lecturers
1st Round through Gamilearning.
7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 PEU6 I can access Gamilearning everywhere
Discussion Perceived of Usefulness (PU)
Quiz PU1 Using Gamilearning improve my performance.
Assignment PU2 Using Gamilearning simplify my work in completing
course activities.
PU3 Using Gamilearning improves learning effectivities.
2nd Round
29 30 1 2 3 4 5 6
PU4 I’m feel that Gamilearning is helpful for course
activities.
Discussion
PU5 I can review questions and answers in Gamilearning’s
Quiz
quizzes.
Assignment

We use five-level Likert scale to measure all indicators.

The options show in table IV.
Fig. 5. Testing scenario
TABLE IV. LIKERT SCALE
After the 2nd round of implementation, we evaluate the Option Points
impact of gamification to the students using TAM (Technology Strongly disagree 1
Acceptance Model) questionnaire in five constructs: Attitude Disagree 2
Toward using Technology (AT), Actual Technology Use (AU), Neutral 3
Behavioral Intention of Use (BI), Perceived of Usefulness (PU) Agree 4
and Perceived Ease of Use (PEU). Indicators for every Strongly agree 5
construct shows in Table III. For simplification we named the
new system by Gamilearning.
We conduct reliability test using composite reliability and
Cronbach’s alpha to every indicators block. The threshold
TABLE III. CONSTRUCTS’ INDICATORS
value for each test is 0.6 to be accepted.
Attitude Toward Using Technology (AT)
AT1 I’m comfortable participating in Gamilearning. TABLE V. CONSTRUCTS RELIABILITY TEST
AT2 I’m happy interacting in Gamilearning.
Cronbach’s Composite
AT3 I’m enjoy learning in Gamilearning. Constructs
Alpha Reliability
AT4 I’m feel that my account in Gamilearning is secure. AT 0.640 0.776
AT5 I like the interface of Gamilearning. AU 0.772 0.850
Actual Use (AU) BI 0.825 0.878
AU1 I’m only using Gamilearning when I need it. PEU 0.683 0.779
AU2 I access Gamilearning every week. PU 0.630 0.776
AU3 I spend more than 15 minutes accessing Gamilearning.
AU4 I always access Gamilearning when I’m in campus. Table V shows that all constructs’ indicators pass the
AU5 I’m satisfied with Gamilearning performance. threshold for Cronbach’s alpha and composite reliability
Behavioral Intention (BI) criteria so that the measurement tool is reliable. We asked all
BI1 I tend to use Gamilearning in every course’s activities. students from the course to evaluate Gamilearning using all
indicators. The results can be seen in Table VI.
BI2 I tend to use Gamilearning as often as possible in course

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 TABLE VI. EVALUATION RESULTS Table VII shows that the implementation of gamification in
Construct Indicators Min Max Mean IDEA give good impacts in increasing all the constructs related
AT AT1 2 5 3,98 to Attitude Toward using Technology (AT), Actual
AT2 3 5 3,86 Technology Use (AU), Behavioral Intention of Use (BI),
AT3 3 5 3,88 Perceived of Usefulness (PU) and Perceived Ease of Use
AT4 2 5 3,55 (PEU). The highest improvement is in Attitude Toward using
AT5 1 5 3,81 Technology (AT) and Behavioral Intention (BI) construct that
Average Score 3,81 covers interaction indicators.
AU AU1 3 5 3,88
AU2 1 5 3,24 SUMMARY
AU3 2 5 3,62
Distance education promising many benefits by facilitating
AU4 1 5 2,88
interaction between students, their peers, course materials, and
AU5 2 5 3,71
the teachers to achieve the learning goals. However, the
Average score 3,47
features cannot be useful if the students did not engage to the
BI BI1 2 5 3,93
system. In this research we propose gamification method to
BI2 1 5 3,62
promote interaction between students and the system so that
BI3 2 5 3,45
the usefulness of distance education system can be increased.
BI4 1 5 3,57
The results of evaluation show that gamification can increase
BI5 3 5 3,81
Attitude Toward using Technology (AT), Actual Technology
Average Score 3,68
Use (AU), Behavioral Intention of Use (BI), Perceived of
PEU PEU1 2 5 4,02
Usefulness (PU) and Perceived Ease of Use (PEU) of the
PEU2 2 5 4,07
students.
PEU3 3 5 3,93
PEU4 2 5 4,00
PEU5 2 5 3,81 REFERENCES
PEU6 2 5 4,26 [1] M. Burn, Distance Education for Teacher Training: Modes, Models, and
Average Score 4,02 Methods, Washington D.C.: Education Development Center, Inc, 2011.
PU PU1 3 5 3,71
[2] R. Shogi, Evaluation of E-Learning IDEA to the Undergraduate Students
PU2 1 5 3,86 of Informatics Engineering, Telkom University using Technology
PU3 1 5 3,93 Acceptance Model (TAM). Evaluasi E-Learning IDEA pada S1 Teknik
PU4 3 5 4,10 Informatika Telkom University Menggunakan Technology Acceptance
PU5 2 5 3,52 Model (TAM), Bandung: Telkom University, 2015.
Average Score 3,82 [3] A. Stott and C. Neustaedter, Analysis of Gamification in Education,
Surrey: Connection Lab, Simon Fraser University, 2014.

Table VI shows that all constructs achieve very good points [4] I. Glover, Play as Your Learn: Gamification as a Technique for
Motivating Learners, Sheffield: Sheffield Hallam University, 2013.
with average value more than 3,5 points. To know whether
these results are better than before, we compare the evaluation [5] A. f. P. Management, Introduction to Gamification, Princes Risborough:
results with the previous research in [2] (see Table VII). APM, 2014.
[6] W. H.-Y. Huang and D. Soman, A Practitioner's Guide to Gamification
of Education, Toronto: University of Toronto, 2013.
TABLE VII. COMPARISON BETWEEN
IDEA (PREV RESEARCH) VS GAMILEARNING (CURRENT RESEARCH) [7] J. Fred D. Davis, "A Technology Acceptance Model for Empirically
Testing New End-user Information Systems: Theory and Result,"
Construct Previous Current Difference Massachusetts Institute of Technology , Massachusetts, 1998.
Research Research
[8] D. S. T. University, User Manual Distance Education (IDEA) - Student,
AT 3,23 3,81 ↑ 0,58 Bandung: Telkom University, 2014.
AU 3,08 3,47 ↑ 0,39
BI 3,11 3,68 ↑ 0,57
PEU 3,53 4,02 ↑ 0,49
PU 3,61 3,82 ↑ 0,21

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