Gamifying Moodle without becoming a programmer: an undergraduate thesis delivers a guide and tool for instructors
Antonio Rangel Chaves and Vitor Diniz Pagani Vieira Ribeiro defended at FCTE/UnB an undergraduate thesis lowering the entry barrier for teachers who want to gamify Moodle courses — with a guide and a practical tool.
Brasília, August 8, 2024
Moodle is the LMS present in most Brazilian universities — and it is precisely where gamification meets its most concrete barrier. Applying game mechanics to a course is not a task for an unsupported instructor. The undergraduate thesis defended in August 2024 by Antonio Rangel Chaves and Vitor Diniz Pagani Vieira Ribeiro dismantles that barrier, under the advising of Prof. Sergio Antônio Andrade de Freitas .
The work delivers two complementary pieces: a structured guide discussing how to introduce gamification in Moodle activities and courses, and a tool that operationalizes those decisions without requiring plugin or scripting knowledge. The duo deliberately chose the teacher as target user — a choice that shapes the design: language, examples, granularity, and what remains invisible to the user are all calibrated for that persona.
By pairing Gamification with active learning , the thesis narrows a classic gap: between what research knows how to do and what actually reaches the classroom.
The full text — written in Portuguese — is available at the UnB Undergraduate Theses Digital Library.
About CEDIS: The Center for Studies, Development, and Innovation in Software (CEDIS), linked to the University of Brasília, researches and develops innovative software solutions with strong presence in Gamification .