Using gamification to orient and motivate students to contribute to oss projects

Guilherme C. Diniz, Marco A.Graciotto Silva, Marco A. Gerosa, Igor Steinmacher

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

20 Scopus citations

Abstract

Students can benefit from contributing to Open Source Software (OSS), since they can enrich their portfolio and learn with real world projects. However, sometimes students are demotivated to contribute due to entrance barriers. On the other hand, gamification is widely used to engage and motivate people to accomplish tasks and improve their performance. The goal of this work is to analyze the use of gamification to orient and motivate undergraduate students to overcome onboarding barriers and engage to OSS projects. To achieve this goal, we implemented four gaming elements (Quests, Points, Ranking, and Levels) in GitLab and assessed the environment by means of a study conducted with 17 students, within a real OSS project (JabRef). At the end of the study, the students evaluated their experience through a questionnaire. We found that the Quest element helped to guide participants and keep them motivated and points helped by providing feedback on students' performed tasks. We conclude that the gamified environment oriented the students in an attempt to make a contribution and that gamification can motivate and orient newcomers' to engage to OSS projects.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationProceedings - 2017 IEEE/ACM 10th International Workshop on Cooperative and Human Aspects of Software Engineering, CHASE 2017
PublisherInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
Pages36-42
Number of pages7
ISBN (Electronic)9781538640395
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 28 2017
Event10th IEEE/ACM International Workshop on Cooperative and Human Aspects of Software Engineering, CHASE 2017 - Buenos Aires, Argentina
Duration: May 23 2017 → …

Publication series

NameProceedings - 2017 IEEE/ACM 10th International Workshop on Cooperative and Human Aspects of Software Engineering, CHASE 2017

Conference

Conference10th IEEE/ACM International Workshop on Cooperative and Human Aspects of Software Engineering, CHASE 2017
Country/TerritoryArgentina
CityBuenos Aires
Period5/23/17 → …

Keywords

  • barriers
  • engagement
  • gamification
  • motivation
  • newcomers
  • open source software

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Management of Technology and Innovation
  • Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management
  • Software
  • Social Psychology

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