A growing number of studies have been conducted on digital game-based learning (DGBL). However, there has been a lack of attention paid to individuals' self-efficacy and learning performance in the implementation of DGBL. This study therefore investigated how the badge mechanism in DGBL enhanced users' self-efficacy in the subject domain of English as a foreign language. In the study, a digital gamebased English learning environment was designed with a badge mechanism including digital badges, leaderboard ranking, and learning practice with star icons. A quasiexperimental design was implemented. A total of 50 third-grade elementary school students participated in this study. Hypotheses were tested, and data were analyzed using paired sample t tests, multiple regression analyses, linear regression analyses, and logistic regression analyses. The results show that the badge mechanism had a significant positive influence on the learners' self-efficacy and English learning performance. The study also investigated how self-efficacy could affect English learning performance, with the results revealing that it had a significant positive influence on
Journal of Educational ComputingResearch 0(0) 1-24 ! The Author(s) 2015 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav learning performance. In addition, a subsequent analysis showed that those students with higher self-efficacy performed better than those with lower self-efficacy.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.