Promoting academic integrity through gamification: testing the effectiveness of a 3D immersive video game

Academic integrity is the foundation of quality higher education. However, the resources explaining the concept tend to be definition-driven, have complex language and sometimes even a severe tone to discourage students from breaking rules. This project deployed a gamified approach, designing and evaluating a 3D immersive video game for university students to facilitate their understanding and adoption of academic integrity principles. The game allowed students to be immersed in a virtual campus through an avatar and navigate a campus (e.g., garden, library, cafe, student accommodation) with scenario-based, academic integrity related dialogues with in-game characters. The paper aims to showcase the game design and student feedback of the game. Observation and interviews were conducted with 15 participants. Thematic analysis of the data shows that the game greatly enhanced student understanding of academic integrity concepts by providing contextualized memorability whilst relieving anxiety. Students’ engagement with the game was linked to game features such as appealing aesthetics, customization, and contextualization. The paper concludes by offering recommendations concerning the employment of gamification as an educational approach for instructing students in higher education on complex concepts, such as academic integrity.