Gamification on Senior Citizen’s Information Technology Learning: The Mediator Role of Intrinsic Motivation

Abstract

Gamification refers to the use of game elements in a non-game context so as to increase users’ engagement and improve their experience. In recent years, gamification has been promoted by both practitioners and scholars as a superior alternative to traditional training methods in terms of improving students’ learning process and performance. In this paper, we attempted to verify the effectiveness of gamified training in a unique context, i.e., to help senior users learn new information technology. We proposed a theoretical model to explain why gamification can positively affect senior users’ learning experiences and outcomes. Through a laboratory experiment and a pilot study of 9 senior participants, we investigated whether or not gamification can really help improve senior people’s learning process and performance. This paper not only extends gamification studies to the context of senior citizen education, its empirical results can also help practitioners design better gamified applications for senior users.