Abstract

It is unknown about utilizing Self-Determination Theory (SDT) needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness in postgraduate research students’ motivation and the level of SDT needs are often lower among students. They are frequently confused on how they are progressing on research, causing feels of nonbeing a progression in achieving their research goal. They are more likely to feel less connected with colleagues and supervisors. To increase students’ SDT needs, we developed a gamified system using User-Centered Design (UCD) three iterations and a one-week pilot study of the system informed that game-design element neither increased the effort among them to complete a weekly goal nor did it increase social interaction. This outcome guided us to conduct a one-week pilot study of the students’ daily routine before re-developing the gamified system. This pilot study aimed to find out the views and comments regarding the usual daily activities on students’ SDT needs satisfaction when performing their daily task and social interaction with others. The result of the study has informed us that the level of autonomy is relatively low among students, but the level of competence and relatedness are comparatively high. Future research will run over four weeks using a within-subjects technique with a quantitative and qualitative method. Intrinsic Motivation Inventory (IMI) measurement will be used to generate users’ data output. This will demonstrate the effect of a gamified system on SDT needs compared with the daily routine of the students.