Analysing gamification elements in educational environments using an existing Gamification taxonomy

Abstract

Gamification has been widely employed in the educational domain over the past eight years when the term became a trend. However, the literature states that gamification still lacks formal definitions to support the design and analysis of gamified strategies. This paper analysed the game elements employed in gamified learning environments through a previously proposed and evaluated taxonomy while detailing and expanding this taxonomy. In the current paper, we describe our taxonomy in-depth as well as expand it. Our new structured results demonstrate an extension of the proposed taxonomy which results from this process, is divided into five dimensions, related to the learner and the learning environment. Our main contribution is the detailed taxonomy that can be used to design and evaluate gamification design in learning environments.

Just beat it: Exploring the influences of competition and task-related factors in gamified learning environments

“…To achieve this goal, we performed a within-subject quasi-experimental study following the one factor with two treatments design. Treatments were a gamified condition, implemented through the Competition game element [Toda et al 2019b], and a non-gamified condition. To compare conditions, we used a within-subject (paired) design that, according to [Wohlin et al 2012], improves the experiment precision.…”

“…All other functionalities were provided (e.g., simulating the fights and updating the environment based on agents' actions). No gamification was deployed in Task A as we do not consider fighting to the random agent a competition because learners were not considering competing or in conflict with another person [Toda et al 2019b]. Thereafter (Task B), participants were required to improve their agents compared to the version developed in Task A.…”

“…Right after participants finished Task A and before they started Task B, subjects were warned that the result of the task would be competing with their peers (i.e., fighting against other subjects' agents). This inserts participants into a competitive environment as they readily internalize they are performing a task with a competitive end [Toda et al 2019b]. Henceforth, adding an unplugged gamification design into the task by inciting a PVP competition, exposing all participants to conditions with and without gamification to allow us to evaluate whether the Competition game element impacts their motivation.…”

“…Furthermore, in the context of gamification, the Competition element 1 is one of the most used in gamified environments and it is recommended for males [Klock et al 2020]. Motivation is often considered the psychological outcome sought by gamification [van Roy and Zaman 2017] and context has been discussed as a moderator of gamification's success [Liu et al 2017], with activities/tasks being a central part of the context 1 As discussed by [Toda et al 2019b], we consider Competition a game element that might be represented by, for instance, a leaderboard or player-to-player conflict.…”

Gamifikáció hatásának vizsgálata vállalati és oktatási közegben

“…Kuriózum: Gyűjteményként vagy korlátozott készletként is ismert, ám nem feltétlenül köthető csak tárgyhoz. Különlegessége a külső hatás által kontrollált ritkaságában rejlik (Toda, et al, 2019), kivételes képesség vagy szerencse szükséges az eléréséhez. , mindemellett növelik a belső motiváció mértékét (Mekler, et al, 2013).…”