Gamifying Electronic Negotiation Training—A Mixed Method Study of Students’ Motivation, Engagement and Learning

Rankings or Absolute Feedback? Investigating Two Feedback Alternatives for Negotiation Agreements in a Gamified Electronic Negotiation Training

“…The rankings provide constructive feedback on the quality of the settled agreement supporting the crucial reflections and are expected to incentivise participants to experiment with different negotiation strategies [44]. While interviews confirmed this assumption [43], the use of rankings is sometimes considered as problematic due to potentially negative effects such as social comparison [19], induced competition [40] and in consequence less motivation [16]. Furthermore, in e-negotiations a ranking only provides feedback relative to others and includes no information about possible improvements beyond the first place [43].…”

“…Such an enegotiation training follows Kolb's experiential learning methodology [22], where participants engage in negotiations (the experience) and have to reflect about this experience for effective learning to take place [23]. However, participants after a traditional enegotiation training still settle on inefficient agreements [14], and one reason might be insufficient motivation and engagement to practice and reflect about negotiations [43].…”

“…In a prior study, a NSS used in such a training has been enhanced with the game elements levels, badges, experience points and rankings [43]. These elements demonstrated their effectiveness to increase motivation and engagement of participants compared to traditional e-negotiation training [43].…”

“…In a prior study, a NSS used in such a training has been enhanced with the game elements levels, badges, experience points and rankings [43]. These elements demonstrated their effectiveness to increase motivation and engagement of participants compared to traditional e-negotiation training [43]. The rankings provide constructive feedback on the quality of the settled agreement supporting the crucial reflections and are expected to incentivise participants to experiment with different negotiation strategies [44].…”

“…While interviews confirmed this assumption [43], the use of rankings is sometimes considered as problematic due to potentially negative effects such as social comparison [19], induced competition [40] and in consequence less motivation [16]. Furthermore, in e-negotiations a ranking only provides feedback relative to others and includes no information about possible improvements beyond the first place [43].…”