Gamification of a Software Engineering course and a detailed analysis of the factors that lead to it's failure

This paper describes the setup for a gamified classroom for the subject of Software Engineering. A series of papers have resulted from this work: “Understanding Student Motivation” at CSEDU 2013 [1] and “Bridging the Motivation Gap”, an IGIP SPEED Young Scientist award paper here at ICL 2013 [2]. The intention behind gamifying the course was to increase student engagement and motivation by allowing for independent learning with flexible speed and choice of emphasis. Daniel Pink's [3] motivational theory, which is also found in gamification factors, outlines that autonomy, mastery and purpose lead to these goals. The adopted approach also deals nicely with the vast differences regarding background knowledge and the spread of interest of each of the students. During the latter part of the course a student survey was conducted. Out of 90 students, 59 answered. As a general rule, students did not receive the gamification ideas in a positive light. We examine what went wrong regarding the gamification factors and propose changes for the next iteration of the course.