Applying Digital Badge Mechanism to Design a Digital Game-Based English Learning Environment(2/3)

This project, deeply rooted in the spirit of the main project, aims to create a digital game-based English learning environment in a massively multi-player online role-playing game (MMORPG) with the integration of the design-based research (a circular and repeated design process involving design, development, implementation, analysis, and redesign). The first year of the project focuses on system requirement analysis, system function module development, learning material and activity design, assessment and questionnaire design and development, and pilot study implementation. The pilot study aims to familiarize students andinstructors with the basic functions and operations of the proposed system, to analyze their perspectives about and overall utilization of the system and relevant instruction, and to have necessary modification based on the testing on the system performance and stability. The second year of the project centers on the modification of digital game-based English learning environment based on the pilot study in the first year, design and development of the digital badge mechanism, and the implementation of instructional experiment. The purposes of the experiment are twofold: (1) to investigate if the proposed digital game-based English learning environment with embedded digital badge mechanism effectively enhances EFL learners’ idiomatic learning outcomes, and (2) to understand students’ learning attitude and behavior via interviews. The third year is mainly composed of an extended instructional experiment with a bigger scale, analysis of experiment results, and corresponding improvement of system functions. The purpose of the experiment is to examine the effects of online learning community embedded in the digital game-based English learning environment in terms of knowledge building and collaborative learning, where learners strengthen idiom-related applications via diverse contexts, challenges, and tasks. Together with the embedded digital badge mechanism, the experiment aims to probe into if the proposed digital game-based English learning environment enhances learners’ idiomatic competence and strengthens their higher-order thinking abilities such as problem solving and collaborative learning. The significance of the current project lies in designing and constructing a digital game-based English learning environment based on digital badge mechanism and digital game-based learning theories, with the purposed of gamifying English learning and investigating the effects of digital game-based English learning environment on college English education.