Using Gamification to Promote Accurate Data Entry of Practicum Experience Hours in Graduate Students

Abstract

The current study evaluated the effects of a gamified package intervention on the accurate data entry of practicum experience hours by 15 behavior analysis graduate students at a small private university. The gamified intervention (Practicum Slayer) included feedback, added reinforcement in the form of points to access putative primary reinforcement, badges, and thematic enhancement. We compared this intervention to a feedback-only condition using a multiple-baseline design across classes. We collected weekly data on the percentage of students per class who entered data into the Behavior Analyst Certification Board (BACB) Fieldwork Tracker with 100% accuracy. The intervention was effective at increasing accurate data entry for all classes, and 93.33% (14 of 15) of participants reached 100% accuracy in their data entry by the end of the study. Social validity data indicated that participants received the gamification package with moderate positivity. We discuss limitations of the study and areas for future research.

Teaching Graduate Students to Identify and Adhere to Practicum Requirements

“…In the provided scenarios, the information that was included was prearranged such that all Experience Standards requirements related to balance of restricted and unrestricted hours and supervision requirements were met. However, in a prior error analysis of Fieldwork Tracker completion accuracy using participants' actual experience hours, the incorrect balance of restricted and unrestricted hours and the incorrect balance of group and individual supervision hours were two of the most common errors (Parry-Cruwys & MacDonald, 2021). Future research should examine the effects of BST on the entry of actual experience hours into the Fieldwork Tracker.…”

“…As no further information was provided by this participant on their anonymous survey, the researchers cannot speculate regarding the participant's concerns about the training. At least one recent study that included attempts to "gamify" fieldwork hour accrual also received a small percentage of negative responses on the social validity survey (Parry-Cruwys & MacDonald, 2021). Research into additional methods of decreasing stress and increasing motivation in graduate students completing their fieldwork experience is warranted.…”

“…graduate students on the BACB Experience Standards (BACB, 2018) and Fieldwork Tracker. In a prior study, 15 practicum students were provided with self-study materials related to the practicum experience and none of the 15 participants filled out their Fieldwork Tracker with 100% accuracy when provided with only the self-study materials (Parry-Cruwys & MacDonald, 2021). When a gamified addition to the practicum class was implemented, accuracy in data entry improved to 80% to 100% for all participants.…”

“Miner Troubles”: a Gamified Matching-to-Sample

“…The authors propose that the intersection between behavior analysis and gamification can be mutually beneficial, expanding the toolkit available to behavior analysts for behavior interventions and fostering collaboration in explaining and exploring behavior analysis concepts for gamification researchers. This intersection has already begun in various research subjects, including: delay discounting (Young & McCoy, 2015), the use of common resources (Camargo & Haydu, 2016;de Oliveira et al, 2023), healthcare interventions (Vaidya & Armshaw, 2021), increasing accuracy of data entry (Parry-Cruwys & MacDonald, 2021), reading and writing instruction (de Souza et al, 2017;Nascimento et al, 2012;Tripiana-Barbosa & de Souza, 2015), and mathematics instruction (de Souza et al, 2023). However, there is scope for further development, considering the advancements made by both games/gamification and behavior analysis over the past decade.…”