Renewing Systems Analysis: The Impact of Game-Based Learning on Repeating Students

A South African study examines whether a game-based, inverted-classroom intervention can improve outcomes for students repeating a Systems Analysis and Design course. Set against a backdrop of high failure rates and overcrowded classes, the work tests a model in which repeating students were separated from first-time students and taught through quiz games, a "Happy Hour" review format, and court-style expert-witness sessions carried out within project groups. The research spans the course offerings from 2015 to 2018 and uses a mixed-methods explanatory case study design, grounded in game-based learning and the inverted class as its theoretical foundations.

The central finding is that repeating students in the intervention outperformed prior cohorts and their peers. Their average final marks rose by roughly 8 to 12 percent over earlier years, pass rates of 65.9 to 76.9 percent exceeded the combined class rates, and satisfaction with the course reached levels such as 89.5 percent in 2015, compared with 78.3 percent for the comparison group. Interviews with five purposively selected participants corroborated these figures, describing the hands-on games as suitable and helpful in overcoming fear of failure and shyness, and in building skills they carried into later studies and careers.

The qualitative strand also clarified why these students had struggled initially. Their reasons were varied, including work-study conflicts, a sudden increase in workload, late enrollment, and difficulty choosing a technology focus, yet each participant reported gains in active learning and critical thinking. These accounts align with a meta-analysis by Mao et al. (2022), which reported a large positive effect of game-based learning on critical thinking. The authors conclude that small-class, paper-based games offered an effective response to overcrowding. The course later returned to a single class and adopted the Quizizz application, suggesting the approach could be sustained through digital tools.