The application of game principles to nongame contexts has proven to be a powerful pedagogical strategy in the educational area to motivate, engage, and improve learners' performance. In this study, gamification is applied to increase the time and the effort that learners spend in carrying out outside-class activities, as well as to modify a quite common study pattern of working at the last minute, that is, near exams or deadlines. Our aim was to motivate students to work weekly on the contents of the subject by carrying out practical exercises that led to a deeper knowledge acquisition, development of skills, and the achievement of the learning outcomes gathered in the subject teaching guide. We describe here the gamification strategies applied to two tertiary database courses in two consecutive academic years, following, in one case, a ranking-based strategy, that is, achieving points by performing different activities; and, in the other one, a strategy based on earning badges and experience points. Next, we analyze the student log activity data along with deadlines and exam information, to assess at what extent gamification helped fulfill our goal. Likewise, we discuss the results of an anonymous survey carried out at the end of the semester to gather the students' opinion. We can conclude that the gamification activities are well appreciated by the learners, especially those that take little time to complete and can be repeated many times to prepare their final exams.

中文翻译：

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使用游戏化策略培养课外学习时间：在高等教育数据库课程中进行的一项实验研究

游戏原则在非游戏环境中的应用已被证明是教育领域中一种强大的教学策略，可以激励、参与和提高学习者的表现。在这项研究中，游戏化被用来增加学习者在课外活动中花费的时间和精力，以及修改一个非常常见的学习模式，即在最后一分钟工作，即临近考试或截止日期。我们的目标是通过进行实践练习来激励学生每周学习该学科的内容，从而更深入地获取知识、发展技能并实现学科教学指南中收集的学习成果。我们在这里描述了在连续两个学年中应用于两个高等教育数据库课程的游戏化策略，在一个案例中，基于排名的策略，即通过执行不同的活动来获得积分；另一个是基于获得徽章和经验值的策略。接下来，我们分析学生日志活动数据以及截止日期和考试信息，以评估游戏化在多大程度上帮助实现了我们的目标。同样，我们讨论了在学期末进行的匿名调查的结果，以收集学生的意见。我们可以得出结论，游戏化活动很受学习者的欢迎，尤其是那些花费很少时间完成并且可以重复多次以准备期末考试的活动。我们分析学生日志活动数据以及截止日期和考试信息，以评估游戏化在多大程度上有助于实现我们的目标。同样，我们讨论了在学期末进行的匿名调查的结果，以收集学生的意见。我们可以得出结论，游戏化活动很受学习者的欢迎，尤其是那些花费很少时间完成并且可以重复多次以准备期末考试的活动。我们分析学生日志活动数据以及截止日期和考试信息，以评估游戏化在多大程度上有助于实现我们的目标。同样，我们讨论了在学期末进行的匿名调查的结果，以收集学生的意见。我们可以得出结论，游戏化活动很受学习者的欢迎，尤其是那些花费很少时间完成并且可以重复多次以准备期末考试的活动。