Effects of WeChat-Enhanced Gamified Teaching on Academic Performance and Satisfaction in Entrepreneurship and Career Guidance Courses Among Chinese Vocational College Students

Background and Aim: The impact of WeChat on vocational education is enormous, and more researchers apply it to the gamified teaching process of Entrepreneurship and Career Guidance Course (ECGC). This study aims to reveal the tremendous impact of gamified teaching with the WeChat application on vocational college students at Guangdong Communication Polytechnic (GDCP), China. Materials and Methods: Targeting 86 freshmen at GDCP from two classes of ECGC, the research used a quasi-experimental design to assess students’ academic performance of gamified teaching via the WeChat application. Following the intervention, course satisfaction surveys were distributed to the experimental group students. Results: Remarkably, ANCOVA analysis results revealed statistically significant improvements in students' desire to explore careers and positive attitudes towards entrepreneurship with the WeChat application. While career decision-making self-efficacy (t=0.52, p＜0.05) and entrepreneurial self-efficacy (t=3.52, p＜0.05) showed minimal change, using the WeChat application cannot make freshmen feel confident that they can find a good job or succeed in entrepreneurship. Conclusion: These findings challenged the assumptions of Self Determination Theory (SDT), suggesting that further exploration needs to refine the theoretical frameworks in this context. Moreover, feedback from post-experiment questionnaires underscored students' ability to leverage WeChat as a powerful tool for engaging in classroom activities, making the gamified teaching experience effective. This research highlighted a promising approach that gamified teaching strategies and the WeChat application can be effectively combined to build an actively engaged learner community, providing empirical support for cognitivism theory.