The Influence of Gamification and Platform Affordances on User Engagement in Online Learning: the Case of Skyeng

Student: Veriaeva Kseniia

Supervisor: Olga Solovyeva

Educational Programme: Advertising and Public Relations (Bachelor)

Year of Graduation: 2019

The objective of current research was to reveal relevant affordances of educational online-platforms and test how perception of these affordances was interrelated with user engagement. Conceptual framework with a new taxonomy of affordances has been suggested. A large-scale online-survey has been conducted with 375 participants who have been studying on Skyeng, online-platform for learning English. Factor analysis and multiple regression were applied in order to analyze data. The results demonstrated 4 platform affordances: technical comprehension, adaptability, phasing and intermittence, external reward. Obtained affordances reflected the core of gamification concept and, thereby, described the nature of relationships between users and educational online-platform. A model of interrelation between platform affordances and user engagement was received after regression analysis. According to this model, technology credibility and usability is the most influential predictor of enhancing user engagement while external reward is less influential than other affordances.

Student Theses at HSE must be completed in accordance with the University Rules and regulations specified by each educational programme.

Summaries of all theses must be published and made freely available on the HSE website.

The full text of a thesis can be published in open access on the HSE website only if the authoring student (copyright holder) agrees, or, if the thesis was written by a team of students, if all the co-authors (copyright holders) agree. After a thesis is published on the HSE website, it obtains the status of an online publication.

Student theses are objects of copyright and their use is subject to limitations in accordance with the Russian Federation’s law on intellectual property.

In the event that a thesis is quoted or otherwise used, reference to the author’s name and the source of quotation is required.

Search all student theses