Ocean literacy gamified: A systematic evaluation of the effect of game elements on students’ learning experience

Abstract

Low levels of concern about anthropogenic climate change have been attributed to a range of factors, some of which relate to education. These include people’s lack of understanding and engagement with the multifaceted nature and extent of the problem that it presents to current and future generations. Limited knowledge is also known to be an obstacle to individual behaviour change, with important implications for young people’s perceptions of the urgency to act and awareness of the consequences of their own behaviours. In this study, we explored ways to address low levels of understanding about ocean science dimensions to climate change phenomena, cognisant of a growing awareness that formal education curricula do not adequately engage young people with developing ocean literacy. Participants were a sample of secondary school students (11 to 14 years) in Portugal and the UK. Using a gamified mobile application, it was examined relationships between the use of different game elements such as points, badges and leaderboards, and learning outcomes. Systematic evaluation of each element shows how different game features affected the participants’ learning experience and learning outcomes. Implications for formal and informal marine education, climate education, and how to improve ocean literacy efforts, are also discussed.

Keywords:

• Gamification
• ocean literacy
• educational technologies
• cognitive learning
• motivation

Acknowledgements

The authors are thankful to the student participants who took part in the study as well as the schools involved. We would also like to thank the Interdisciplinary Centre of Marine and Environmental Research (CIIMAR) for their help.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Funding

This research was supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council Design Star CDT (AH/L503770/1). The research was also supported by project OceanClass - Do oceano para a sala de aula funded by the Blue Growth Programme of EEA Grants Portugal (EEA.BG.SGS3.022.2019), (2021-2023) and by national funds through FCT (Foundation for the Science and Technology) within the scope of UIDB/04423/2020 and UIDP/04423/2020.