Having proposed our project problem on a previous page of this site, and our groups' personal connections to that problem on a different page of this site, we now need to establish parameters for the proposed solution. In approaching this problem, certain parameters of the problem need to be defined to work toward a pragmatic, investigable, and data-supported solution. This will start out with needed definitions to establish said parameters including the terms:
Game-based learning
Engagement / motivation (in a learning content)
Competitive vs. Non-Competitive Gaming
Competitive vs. Non-Competitive Students
These definitions establish the limits of the problem so our proposed solutions can fit within those same boundaries.
An interdisciplinary field focusing on the importance of games and play in human learning, and explores the connection and interaction between games and play in games that have defined learning outcomes (Jagušt, B, I., & So, H.-J, 2018). While there are games focused solely on education and student advancement, studies have shown that with enough time, knowledge, and drive, teachers who connect learning outcomes to games that are primarily bought for entertainment purposes are also finding beneficial results (Tüzün, H., 2007; Charsky& Mims, 2008). These benefits include problem-solving skills and cognitive flexibility, long thought to be the most important skills to gain from formal education (Shute, Ventura & Ke, 2015).
A plethora of research exists that mentions the importance of motivation and engagement in education, but the definitions can be often misused or interchanged when this is neither accurate nor appropriate, although the two words are very closely connected. It has been suggested that engagement is a multidimensional construct that consists of 3 parts; (1) cognitive: tasks are related to the learner's skill, and the difficulty raises in relation to the skill level, (2) emotional: interacting with the educational resources provokes a range of emotions, both positive and negative, and negative results lead to immediate feedback, and (3) social: students must make decisions based on their own experiences, but are often put into roles which require deep thinking about a situation (Pesare et al., 2016). Motivation exists when students have a direct interest in pursuing the completion of a given goal, that is to say, they are engaged in completing their tasks. Gros (2008) theorizes that engagement and motivation are interesting benefits brought about by the use of games, but are not enough for educational purposes to merely use games for these two factors. They do note, however, that designing a learning environment built around the educational aspects of games can be an appropriate way to improve upon current learning standards. Studies have found that students are motivated by games that they are familiar with and are given a degree of autonomy in how they play (Robertson, J., & Howells, C., 2008). This leads to a feeling of ownership, which has been shown to be an important attitude toward learning as it inherently motivates and engages students who feel they are building something special (Kynigos, C., & Yiannoutsou, N, 2018)
These are goal-oriented, directed towards achieving one’s own goals even though this may have a negative effect on other competitors. Competition is so ubiquitous in gaming that some scholars like Byers (2011) include the competitive element directly into their criteria of what a digital game is, in that "A digital game must include (1) rules, (2) goals and objectives, (3) outcomes and feedback, (4) conflict or competition and challenge or opposition" (page 360). Competition in games may take different forms such as competition against oneself, a virtual opponent, peers, or against time. Researchers have stated that competition in DGBL is positively related to motivation and can enhance learning (Chen et al., 2020).
Non-competitive games are designed without competitive features such as scores, leaderboards, standings based on time of completion, or direct competition between players (Obery et al., 2021). The majority of these games focus on either collaboration (students are working together toward a common goal but individuals are often completing separate tasks to further the entire group's progress) or cooperation (working together jointly to complete an educational outcome) (Touati & Baek, 2017). It is important to note that the majority of games have a competitive element involved in them due to the very nature of advancing past the challenges put forth by the game designers. For this study, we are most concerned with the idea of competing against peers.
After contemplating our own classrooms and reading a variety of articles concerning the concept of competition, the group decided to create their own definition of a competitive student. When only accounting for this personality trait, competitive students enjoy proving their proficiency over their peers. They thrive when they are given a task to complete in a more correct fashion or faster than their peers. These students value an even playing field, well-defined parameters, and fairness of a task over being first; it is the excitement of trying to "win" that motivates or encourages these students and therefore can still benefit from a competitive environment. Competitive students who are working in groups may be involved with interpersonal conflict if their peers are not approaching the task with the same level of attention or intensity. They may try to manipulate competitive tasks so their friends score close to the top of a leaderboard alongside them, but they will put their own performance first. They may disengage or become lost when faced with open-ended tasks.
Non-Competitive students excel at tasks that allow them to show proficiency without being compared to others using a scoring system. They value projects that allow them to be creative with their problem solving and will take extra time to complete a task to the best of their ability. These students enjoy looking at problems from many directions and prefer to take the time to explore instead of speeding toward a single correct answer so that they can be faced with another problem. Non-competitive students prefer working with other non-competitive people to avoid being overwhelmed by competitive members of their class. They enjoy collaborating and cooperating with their friends and make sure that recognition is shared among their group. These students tend to disengage when they are being evaluated in front of others or when tasks are too narrowly defined.