A discussion on introducing half-anonymity and gamification to improve students´ motivation and engagement in classroom lectures

Many university students, especially engineering students, hesitate to state their opinions or ask questions in front of other students during classroom lectures since they do not want to feel embarrassed or humiliated, or just because they need some practice speaking in front of an audience. In this study, we develop a gamified (arranged as a game), half-anonymized (incorporating only very slight clues to identify other users) education support system that can be utilized to improve classroom interactions and propose an educational methodology that encourages class members to engage simultaneously in both off-and online communication. Using the system, students take part in an online, mediated class-wide discussion, while also engaging in face-to-face verbal discussion with their neighbors. The system provides students with an interactive, cooperative learning environment free of the influence of real-world human relationships that can impede students´ active engagement in class. The contribution of the paper is in its investigation of how to make students more proactive in class by harnessing the power of gamification and limited anonymity. We also report the findings from an experimental implementation of the system in a class of 17 university engineering students.