Abstract
Motivation is a crucial factor for students’ learning behavior and plays a key role in the concept of gamification to foster students’ motivation through specific gamification mechanics and elements. User types for gamification and associated gamification mechanics can classify students’ interests and learning preferences and provide explanations for their motivational learning behavior. This study investigated how five gamification user types may relate to six mainly used online learning activities in a distance online bachelor’s and master’s class in educational science through the use of a systematic approach. A total of 86 students participated in the questionnaire in a cross-sectional study. The findings showed average agreement shares for all five gamification user types. The correlations revealed that the six online learning activities were at least significantly connected to one of the five gamification user types, and both person-centered and environment-centered perspectives were displayed. Finally, the results were discussed, and implications were derived for a motivational design.
Highlights
In educational settings, students’ motivation is always a crucial factor that must be addressed
The aim of this study was first to explore what kind of gamification user types (Marczewski 2015) and associated gamification mechanics could be revealed in this context
The average agreement with the items for gamification mechanics associated with the five gamification user types (Marczewski 2015) showed that the largest share was for the user type Achiever (26%), followed by Philanthropist (23%) Free Spirit (21%) and Socializer (16%)
Summary
Students’ motivation is always a crucial factor that must be addressed It is especially recognized in online and distance learning (Hartnett, 2016, 2019; Kim & Frick 2011), as dropout rates are high compared to the rates in traditional face-to-face learning (Glass, 2014; Simpson 2013; Vogel et al 2018). It is important to consider the needs, interests, experiences or preferences of the student “audience” (Kahan, Soffer & Nachmias 2017; Park & Choi 2009). This is a substantial aspect especially when looking at a heterogeneous group of distance learners to be able to support them with suitable motivational strategies in online learning platforms
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