2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

With the development of Industry 4.0 technologies adopted in machining industry, more and more machine tools and systems become smarter and automatic. However, contrary to our expectations, the machining automation has not much reduced the labor shortage issue in the machining industry, and this demand gap is gradually expanding in recent years. Although this issue is multiaspect and complicated, it is evident that one of the main reasons comes from the conventional training system. By comparing with the outdated training content, which has been realized and emphasized by machining training providers, the problems regarding the training method have not yet attracted sufficient attention.

In order to realize the training outcomes efficiently, instructor-led and on-the-job training methods are widely adopted by most of the machining training programs. However, trainee’s engagement, i.e., interest and involvement, is often ignored, which is one of the main reasons for downward enrollment and retention rate of many machining related programs from trade schools or community colleges. To engage the younger generation into this career field, more attention should be paid to incorporate more training methods favorite with young students, and the interactive training method with game-based elements has been proved to be a good solution in many similar applications.

Gamification, a technique to facilitate training and learning within the playable context, has the potential to enhance training engagement. In a gamified application, game design elements and gameplay mechanics are added to motivate trainees to stay in the loop of repeating necessary equipment operations while mitigating the mental fatigue they might have due to lack of interest and the boreout syndrome at machining workspace. Gamification is promising to improve self-motivation by stimulating the desire to pursue a gaming-inspired goal (i.e., reaching a winning condition in the game or earning a level-up badge to show off on the profile). By connecting the training tasks to a gaming goal, trainees would be more likely to enjoy doing the practice and feel less forced.

The objective of this study is to systematically evaluate the conventional machining training under the guidance of the Octalysis Framework with eight core drives of gamification and come up with the Octalysis score to each core drive. In addition, the Octalysis for conventional machining training will be compared with the designs and mechanics of successful skill-learning games to identify the strong and weak aspects of learning engagement. From this study, it is expected to propose a new perspective to evaluate the current machining training method on student attraction and engagement and improve it with appropriate game-based elements.