Using gamification to teach forecasting in a business school setting

While gamification has been creatively embraced in education, recent studies emphasize the need for more experimental research on gamification impact on learning outcomes. Teaching forecasting is a challenging task due to the complexity that forecasting techniques entail, and due to their popularity in business environment. This study experimentally examines the impact of three preexisting gamified implementations on the students’ comprehension of specific forecasting topics using controlled and treatment groups. Our sample consists of 243 undergraduate students from the Business Administration Department in the School of Business and Economics of the University of Thessaly. Our findings show that gamification improves students’ performance up to almost 15.80%, compared to traditional teaching methods, under certain conditions. These results are not in full alignment with previous findings, a fact which highlights the need for further research on the impact gamification can have in different academic majors.

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