# Assessing the Effects of Gamification on Enhancing Information Security Awareness Knowledge
## 2 Literature Review
### Gamification and Learning  
Gamification defines as integrating game elements into non-game environments [24]. Unlike a digital game, gamification practice integrates varying game mechanics, such as points, levels, leaderboards, and badges, into learning contexts or platforms to make learning more fun and motivating [25; 26; 27]. [PERSON] et al. [28] noted that serious games likely focus on learning content, while the objective of gamification mainly achieves learner's engagement and motivation. [PERSON] et al. [27] suggested that serious games aim to learn while having fun; gamification can be used to achieve performance and social dynamics and interactions. However, differentiating between gamification and serious games is complex [29]. Thus, given our research design, this study used 'gamification' as a term that encompasses a digital game and gamification elements simultaneously utilized in our study. The most popular game mechanics are points, badges, levels, and leaderboards [24; 28]. According to [PERSON] and [PERSON] [30], points are a numeric record of players' performance to date; badges are the visual representation of achievement; levels related to difficulty moderated based on player expertise, and leaderboards are used to allow the direct comparison of players' expertise. The purposes and uses of game elements vary. Points provide feedback; levels and leaderboards are utilized to set up clear goals [31]. Badges reward users' challenge and participation achievements and levels are employed to differentiate games, playing, or players for increasing challenges [24]. Therefore, the usage of game mechanics depends on the aims of curricula or game design. The previous studies have examined specific game elements influencing students' psychological states or meaningful learning. For example, [PERSON] [32] identified that badges used for goal and feedback purposes significantly increase behavioral consequences. [PERSON] et al. [33] noted that badges, leaderboards, and performance graphs positively affect competence need satisfaction and perceived task meaningfulness. [PERSON] and [PERSON] [34] considered time durations of the game experience and noted that points and levels were the best valued by students in the different time durations. In contrast, [PERSON] and [PERSON] [35] found that badges and leaderboards harm motivation because earning badges may become mandatory for those in the gamified class, decreasing intrinsic motivation. [PERSON] and [PERSON] [34] identified that badges were well perceived by students in the longest experience but were the worst-related elements in the two-week experience. Consequently, despite that game mechanics may promote users' positive outcomes, considerations such as participants' commitment and characteristics [32; 35], educational setting aspects such as curricula, activities, and instructors [35], or time duration of game usage [34] are emphasized for effective gamified education. Furthermore, the effectiveness of gamification in an educational context has been previously addressed [24; 28; 36; 37]. Gamification has been increasingly utilized to promote psychological and behavioral outcomes [26; 28; 33] and bridge the distinction between formal and informal learning for cognitive development [29]. The positive impacts include psychological need satisfaction such as competence, autonomy, and social relatedness [33], positive affective states [36], or performance achievement and knowledge acquisition [36; 38]. In contrast, certain research provides insignificant or mixed results [26; 39; 40]. In sum, given meta-analysis reviews on gamification in education, [PERSON] et al. [24] and [PERSON] and [PERSON] [37] concluded that the majority of researchers confirmed that gamification could improve learning if it is well designed and used correctly. According to [PERSON] et al. [8], cybersecurity has emerged as a new topic in games across different disciplines. Limited research focuses on IS gamification and its impact. Recently, [PERSON] et al.