The article presents the factors influencing the learning outcomes in distance format, modern types of e-learning and factors that affect the educational motivation of users in online courses. The features of educational motivation are considered and the process of motivational design in e-learning is presented. As a key method of increasing motivation and involvement in the educational process of online courses, the article describes the technology of gamification. The paper also presents the «Octalize» method, developed and applied for the balanced and effective use of gamification techniques, assessment of the main motivational factors, as well as for the analysis and design of optimal conditions for the presence of game elements in the educational process.

The article presents the results of the study of the relations of psychometric parameters of intelligence and creativity of middle school age students with the efficiency of their problem solving in a computer game, a variant of the famous game “Lines”. The computer game performance was estimated in the final game score. The presence of a weak, but significant positive relationship between the final game score and the indicators of creativity, but not of intelligence, was shown. The obtained empirical data are discussed from the prospects of the use of a computer game as a special diagnostic tool for cognitive abilities, and those psychological variables that can be analyzed as relevant factors for high computer game performance.

The article presents the results of an empirical study of the interrelation between dynamic and total individual performance indicators of gaming behavior in the "PLines" game with test measurements of general intelligence and divergent creativity (N = 151). It is demonstrated that the dynamics of point accumulation in the game can be used, with a great likelihood, for relating subjects to determined groups with a certain level of ability (high intelligence and creativity vs low intelligence and creativity). The data that it is the high-test indicators of cognitive abilities that determine the effectiveness of the gaming behavior of the subjects, and not vice versa is another fundamental result of the study. The subjects of discussion are the prospects for further use of this computer game in the diagnosis of ability sets in real life, the need to expand the pool of investigated psychological indicators that contribute to decision making in a situation of uncertainty, and the benefits of referring to the procedural characteristics of solving problems in psychological diagnostics.

The aim of this paper is testing a computer game as an alternative tool for the assessment of intelligence and creativity of school children. The relevance of the research task is determined by the growing interest in practical psychology in the use of computer games as a special diagnostic tool in educational process. There are two original factor models that have been developed and the structural equation modeling of measured parameters has been carried out. The relationships between game dynamic and final individual results in the computer game, on the one hand, and psychometric intelligence and divergent creativity, on the other, are presented. Weak correlation between the above-mentioned and individually measured intellectual and creativity characteristics of the participants with the computer game results was discovered. Consideration of these characteristics in the form of a common latent factor makes it possible to identify the corresponding dependencies only in some cases when there is a dividing the sample into groups according to their ability level. Particularly, the dynamics of game scoring allows to refer participants to the target group with a certain level of abilities (high intelligence and creativity versus low intelligence and creativity), and it is the high level of psychological traits that determines effectiveness in the game behavior, but not vice versa. The qualitative ratios of the two groups of subsets of participants were revealed: weak, medium and strong players and players with three different levels of psychological abilities. The prospects for the further use of computer games for assessment of cognitive abilities in the measurement of combination of psychological abilities are discussed.

The present study is focused on testing the computer game system ‘PL-modified’ as a diagnostic tool for measurement of higher-order cognitive skills by middle-school students in individual and collaborative game. The ‘PL-modified’ is a computer system designed as a game which implies a set of concrete parameters specially elaborated for assessment of the cognitive actions of analysis, planning, and reflection — the basic higher-order cognitive functions which determine high achievements in school education according to the Russian theory of developmental education. 189 middle-school students at the age of 11—12 years participated in this study. Two research questions were asked: 1) whether the cognitive actions of analysis, planning, and reflection measured by special markers of the computer game system performance are correlated with each other as a valid indicator for the new constructed diagnostic instrument; 2) which type of the game — individual or collaborative — provides better conditions for manifestation of the above mentioned higher mental actions. Abstract intelligence as an additional anticipated factor for high game performance was also assessed and controlled. It was revealed that participants exhibit the higher level of the cognitive actions of analysis and planning in collaborative game. At the same time the patterns of the interactions between the researched variables as well as distinct parameters of game performance are determined by the concrete level of intelligence which rather varies in different pairs of collaborators. We discuss our results from the position of the further prospects for the application of the ‘Pl-modified’ computer system as a potential instrument of measurement and development of higher-order thinking actions. In terms of the modern educational programs teachers need simple diagnostic tools for measurement of school-children’s thinking development. Traditional ‘pen-and-paper’ techniques become quickly outdated as much as they may not be sufficiently motivationally attractive for children and focus only on the result of the thinking process. In this regard, such diagnostic instrument formed in the format of a computer game and centered on the whole gaming process allows fixing children’s actions and provides important information on the dynamic characteristics of their mental process.