The interplay between gamification and network structure in social learning environments: A case study

Social learning environments (SLEs) are software suites that enable the application of both traditional and innovative teaching methodologies, blending activities tailored to the specific goals of the teaching style. In particular, SLEs have been used to introduce, on a medium and large scale, gamification strategies as a complement to traditional learning procedures. In this context, the existence of gamified activities can probably change the type and strength of the social relationships encouraged by the SLE among students. In this case study, we examine an SLE endowed with gamification capabilities and discuss the interplay between the designed gamified tasks and the resulting network of communications among the agents. Our findings reveal that the network structure reflects the interactions within the class in a nontrivial way and conversely that the network structure can be used to anticipate or predict the evolution of the student groups throughout the course. The results of this study support the claim that when the activities are designed around well-conceived gamification and reward mechanisms, they quite easily capture the interest of the participants, whose engagement does not diminish with the progress of the academic term.