Gamification of a BPMN Modeling Course: an Analysis of Effectiveness and Student Perception

Background. Gamification, i.e. the use of game-like elements in non-recreational contexts for increasing user participation and interest, has been adopted several times for Software Engineering activities for both practitioners and learners. There is, however, little evidence in the literature about applications of gamification to the discipline of Process Modeling, and even fewer experience reports are available about the use of gamified tooling in education. Aims. Our research aims at filling this current gap by applying BIPMIN, a tool that employs gamification of Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN), in the practical sessions of an Information Systems course, to assess whether gamification leads to improvements in the students' BPMN knowledge and their commitment in performing the exercises. Method. All the exercises of the course were performed with a gamified tool, that embedded means to evaluate automatically the students' efforts in terms of completeness, syntax errors, and semantic errors. We analyzed the improvements over time during the course and compared the results obtained at the end of the year with those obtained by students of the previous edition, to assess whether gamification leads to higher grades. Results. The grades of BPMN-related exercises were higher if gamified concepts were applied. Students managed to have a solid grasp of modeling fundamentals around halfway through the course, and no evident reduction in productivity or results is measured when the most difficult BPMN concepts are introduced. Conclusions. The application of Gamification to an entire Information Systems course appears beneficial for process modeling education, with higher grades, favorable student reception, and positive learning effects as students keep interacting with the gamified tool.