Share Paper: Designing an Incentive-Based Online Education System to Encourage Student Collaboration

  1. Jennifer Seaton, University of Saskatchewan, Canada
  2. Joanne Traves, University of Saskatchewan, Canada
  3. Gordon McCalla, University of Saskatchewan, Canada
  4. Richard Schwier, University of Saskatchewan, Canada
Thursday, June 27 10:00-10:30 AM Salon B

Abstract: Student motivation has proven to be an obstacle to the success of online courses. We have developed NECSUS, an incentive-based system designed to encourage social interaction between students, which was incorporated into an existing short independent study course. NECSUS is inspired by computer games, such as The Sims and MMORPGs, which utilize social interaction in game play as a method to encourage socialization. Techniques, such as losing access to other students if relationships are not maintained regularly, are employed. The importance of socialization is further emphasized by incorporating interdependence between users in such a way that aspects of the system ...