WIP: For the Love of the Game: Exploring Student Motivation in Game-Based Learning Environments

This Work-in-Progress Research Paper centers on game-based learning and its impact on student motivation as a function of their self-defined demographic factors. Specifically, this work investigates the game-based learning experience of civil engineering undergraduates engaged with the Cone Penetration Testing module of GeoExplorer, a virtual learning environment that simulates in-field learning about the structural properties of soil, providing students with the opportunity to practice competencies and mindsets associated with real-world data collection and analyses. In this paper, we explore the impacts of GeoExplorer on student motivation by addressing the following research questions: (1) How, if at all, do students experience identifiable motivational shifts over the course of their engagement with GeoExplorer? (2) What is the interplay between engagement with GeoExplorer, demographic factors, including students' racial, ethnic, and gender identities, and student motivation? and (3) How can game-based learning environments best address the needs of students with different motivational attitudes? Preliminary analyses of 60 response pairs to the pre- and the post-GeoExplorer engagement surveys from 2021 were analyzed. Deductive analytical practices using ‘a priori’ qualitative coding, based on Self-Determination Theory (SDT) of motivation, were used to examine the following survey item: What factors contributed to your motivation over the past week in the course? Please give specific examples of activities, interactions, emotions, thoughts, etc. that may have contributed to your motivation. While our early findings indicate distinct differences in students' motivational outcomes between the pre- and post-survey, no clear patterns in motivational shifts are identified across the board, suggesting that the GeoExplorer experience may have impacted each student's motivation uniquely. However, patterns emerged between students' pre-survey motivation types, based on demographic factors. Additionally, unique shifts in motivational attitudes between the pre- and post-surveys were found to occur within each demographic grouping. These findings and challenges in performing this study are further discussed with a proposal for possible future directions.