CIE at PES University tried several mitigations during the ‘learning winter’ (pandemic). A long shot was to gamify and personalize learning – the benefits of which are well supported by research. This led to the creation of “LnF” (Learning ‘n Fun), an experimental mobile app/platform for gamification and personalization of learning.
About the paper – Remote learning has been in the shadows of mainstream higher education institutions (HEI), with classroom / physical presence taking center stage. The Covid-19 pandemic disrupted the prevalent modes of education and pushed remote learning to the forefront. While remote learning has its advantages, there are also downsides, such as lack of learner engagement, learning fatigue, etc., resulting in less than satisfying learning outcomes. The pandemic also showed that simply moving existing teaching artifacts and methods to the virtual realm is only partially adequate, especially for topics requiring experiential learning such as innovation and entrepreneurship. This project attempts to ad- dress some of these critical challenges by building a smartphone application platform for remote learning, emphasizing personalized and gamified learning.
The project team adopted a creative approach to realize this ambitious project during the challenging pandemic by engaging current university students in all the implementation teams, eliminating the need to obtain external resources and funding. The student teams were motivated as the project was integrated with their regular university coursework. The gamified smartphone application with Design Thinking as the first learning module was developed and tested for functionality and usability. This project has received encouraging user feedback and provides a platform for developing and testing more engaging methods in the future for personalized remote learning, using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML).
The paper was presented at the 25th International Conference on Interactive Collaborative Learning (ICL, Vienna, Sep 2022, technical sponsors – IEEE & ASEE) – “Learning in the Age of Digital and Green transition”
Paper Title: Addressing Online-Learning Challenges Through Smartphone-Based Gamified Learning Platform
