Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection

The college experience is enlightening, empowering, educational, but can also be overwhelming and stressful. If one investigates the atmosphere at your standard university campus, there is no doubt that all students are exhausted in their own unique way. The various responsibilities and obligations inherent in the academic course load, student organizations, sports teams, and other extracurricular activities that a student commits to fosters this stress. A common pattern, especially among students, is the progression from stress to exhaustion to lack of motivation, or helplessness. The Mayo Clinic published an article stating: “when stress begins to accumulate from negative or challenging events in life that just keep coming, you can find yourself in a state of feeling emotionally worn out and drained” (https://www.facebook.com/MayoClinicHealthSystem, 2020). That being said, the implementation of gamification in the college experience can significantly improve intrinsic motivation within students, thus reducing the stress and exhaustion. Gamification with regards to higher education is the use of game design elements in non-game contexts in order to engage and motivate learners. The primary purpose of gamification is to make learning more fun and interesting, as well as to increase learners’ engagement, motivation, and productivity. Video games and the concept of gamification in general have shown positive signs of relieved anxiety and increased enjoyment in many different aspects of life, such as education. The overarching goal of introducing gamification into the college environment is simple: To increase satisfaction, learning, participation, engagement, and retention among the student population.

The college experience is enlightening, empowering, educational, but can also be overwhelming and stressful. If one investigates the atmosphere at your standard university campus, there is no doubt that all students are exhausted in their own unique way. The various responsibilities and obligations inherent in the academic course load, student organizations, sports teams, and other extracurricular activities that a student commits to fosters this stress. A common pattern, especially among students, is the progression from stress to exhaustion to lack of motivation, or helplessness. The Mayo Clinic published an article stating: “when stress begins to accumulate from negative or challenging events in life that just keep coming, you can find yourself in a state of feeling emotionally worn out and drained” (https://www.facebook.com/MayoClinicHealthSystem, 2020). That being said, the implementation of gamification in the college experience can significantly improve intrinsic motivation within students, thus reducing the stress and exhaustion. Gamification with regards to higher education is the use of game design elements in non-game contexts in order to engage and motivate learners. The primary purpose of gamification is to make learning more fun and interesting, as well as to increase learners’ engagement, motivation, and productivity. Video games and the concept of gamification in general have shown positive signs of relieved anxiety and increased enjoyment in many different aspects of life, such as education. The overarching goal of introducing gamification into the college environment is simple: To increase satisfaction, learning, participation, engagement, and retention among the student population.

For our Barrett Honors thesis, our team decided to complete the Founders Lab thesis pathway. Founders Lab offers Barrett students the opportunity to spend their year working on developing entrepreneurial ideas into innovative new businesses by designing not only a business model, but the marketing, sales, and financial models of it as well. This team-based thesis/creative project empowers Barrett students to find solutions to a challenge and gain valuable experience launching a new business of their own.

Through the use of Arizona State University’s Founders Lab, our group of four Barrett, the Honors College Students completed a research thesis regarding the interest of college students in a sleep light technology product. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) pioneered a sleep light technology with the ability to regulate melatonin production and circadian rhythm, resulting in an improvement of sleep quality. The technology was originally invented for astronauts to improve their sleep while in space on a spacecraft. Utilizing this technology, our group performed extensive market research with the intention of determining if college students would be interested in purchasing a consumer product incorporating the sleep light technology. We created a brand called Rhythm Illumination and began by building a website and brand guide. Next, we utilized Google Forms to generate responses to a variety of questions regarding current sleep habits, current sleep problems, and whether or not there was interest in a product like this. After determining that college students have room for sleep quality improvement and there is interest in this kind of product, we worked towards our goal of gaining traction for the product. We decided to utilize both Google Analytics results and a Zoom event’s attendance as proof of interest in our product. Google Analytics revealed over one hundred unique users on our Rhythm Illumination website. We also had eleven event attendees. Between these two tools, our team was able to conclude that there is interest among college students for a consumer product utilizing NASA’s sleep light technology

Founders Lab is a thesis pathway for Barrett students under W.P. Carey’s Center for Entrepreneurship. The pathway provides students of all majors with the opportunity to experience entrepreneurship through designing a business idea and obtaining traction for that idea. In this honors thesis project, safety on the Arizona State University campus was considered to create a business idea involving personal safety jewelry. Throughout the year of Founders Lab, this concept has been refined and ultimately tested for its demand and potential.

Founders Lab is a thesis pathway for Barrett students under W.P. Carey’s Center for Entrepreneurship. The pathway provides students of all majors with the opportunity to experience entrepreneurship through designing a business idea and obtaining traction for that idea. In this honors thesis project, safety on the Arizona State University campus was considered to create a business idea involving personal safety jewelry. Throughout the year of Founders Lab, this concept has been refined and ultimately tested for its demand and potential.

A Skunkworks project is the name given to a small team of individuals leading an innovative undertaking, and conducting research and development outside of the normal scope of an organization. With this concept in mind, our team of six individuals was tasked with finding and conceptualizing innovative solutions within varying business markets of interest. Our team started off with five markets that we identified issues in and were passionate about solving. These included Sports Engagement, Education, Student Debt, Digital Literacy, and Viral Health. From extensive research, trial and error, and endless conversations we settled on creating business models in two final areas: Student Debt and Viral Health. Our research in Student Debt led us to the discovery that the average Arizona State student, takes out $21,237 in loans for their four year degree and in the whole state of Arizona, a student takes out an average of $22,253. Our solution to this problem was to create a student financial app that served as an efficient debt tracker that provided important information about finances, investing, and student loan information. Additionally, our team also wanted the address the issue of sexually transmitted diseases, just a small scope of Viral Health, within Arizona State University. Our research led us to discover that 50% of people report not getting tested, and from this population most reported it was due to anxiety and financial issues. From our research the StayInformed app was created to provide students with better accessibility to both at-home and clinic testing services, and updated education on sexual health. With this project model we hope to increase the rate of students testing and allow students more agency over their sexual health. Although these two services are addressing very different markets, they both utilize forward thinking technology to create much needed solutions and better the lives of students.