Abstract
Effective educational interventions require sufficient learner engagement, which can be difficult to achieve if the learner is inadequately motivated. Games have been shown to possess powerful motivators that fuel a person's desire to engage in unattractive activities, such as learning theoretical material. However, to design an educational game that is capable of providing motivated engagement is a challenging task. Previous research has proposed various game motivators and game design principles to alleviate this, but a comprehensive synthesis has yet to appear. In this article, we conducted a systematic literature review that yielded two major contributions: 1) a taxonomy of 56 game motivators in 14 classes; and 2) a taxonomy of 54 educational game design principles in 13 classes, with linkages to the identified game motivators. As a minor contribution, we have also presented a classification of gamification-related terms and proposed different strategies for applying gamification. The results of this article are available for educational game designers and researchers to use as a practical toolkit for the creation and evaluation of motivating educational games that keep players engaged. Moreover, this article is the first step toward the creation of a unified gamification framework.
Highlights
E DUCATION is facing such tremendous global challenges that the United Nations has included quality education in the Sustainable Development Goals [1] in the hope that researchers, businesses, and other organizations would help increase accessibility to quality education through development of new educational technologies, methods, and tools
We seek to answer the research questions: First, what are the motivators that contribute to engaging educational games? and second, what are the game design principles (DPs) that contribute to engaging educational games? To answer these research questions, we applied the systematic literature review method [30]
The DPs that we proposed can help educational game designers to implement these strategies in order to ensure learner engagement at least through extrinsic, but hopefully through intrinsic, motivation
Summary
E DUCATION is facing such tremendous global challenges that the United Nations has included quality education in the Sustainable Development Goals [1] in the hope that researchers, businesses, and other organizations would help increase accessibility to quality education through development of new educational technologies, methods, and tools. The popular definition of gamification—“the use of game design elements in nongame contexts”—was published by Deterding et al [18], who provided an account of the history and meaning of gamification as a phenomenon. Following this definition, entertainment and sports are examples of game contexts, whereas education, health care, and marketing exemplify nongame contexts. Entertainment and sports are examples of game contexts, whereas education, health care, and marketing exemplify nongame contexts We extend this definition by proposing that game design elements can be applied through different strategies in the gamification process. Gamification of education automatically guarantees neither motivation nor positive learning outcomes [19]
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