Distance Education Gamification in Social Virtual Reality: A Case Study on Student Engagement

Sustaining students' interest and engagement in semester-long courses in distance learning settings is a tangible challenge in Higher Education. Social Virtual Reality platforms feature richer, spatial affordances in comparison to 2D, web-based synchronous and asynchronous systems. Gamification is a promising method which adds an additional, affective layer to learning in the direction of the enhancement of motivation. In this article the results of an exploratory study on student active engagement applying gamification in a postgraduate distance education course taught at a UK university are presented. Based on the design principles of a gamified course, student experiences and recommendations to practitioners are discussed.