Query: gamification

title: From game design elements to gamefulness: defining "gamification"
abstract: Recent years have seen a rapid proliferation of mass market consumer software that takes inspiration from video games. Usually summarized as "gamification" this trend connects to a sizeable body of existing concepts and research in human computer interaction and game studies, such as serious games, pervasive games, alternate reality games, or playful design. However, it is not clear how "gamification" relates to these, whether it denotes a novel phenomenon, and how to define it. Thus, in this paper we investigate "gamification" and the historical origins of the term in relation to precursors and similar concepts. It is suggested that "gamified" applications provide insight into novel, gameful phenomena complementary to playful phenomena. Based on our research, we propose a definition of "gamification" as the use of game design elements in non game contexts.

title: The rise of motivational information systems: A review of gamification research
abstract: Today, our reality and lives are increasingly game like, not only because games have become a pervasive part of our lives, but also because activities, systems and services are increasingly gamified. Gamification refers to designing information systems to afford similar experiences and motivations as games do, and consequently, attempting to affect user behavior. In recent years, popularity of gamification has skyrocketed and manifested in growing numbers of gamified applications, as well as a rapidly increasing amount of research. However, this vein of research has mainly advanced without an agenda, theoretical guidance or a clear picture of the field. To make the picture more coherent, we provide a comprehensive review of the gamification research (N 819 studies) and analyze the research models and results in empirical studies on gamification. While the results in general lean towards positive findings about the effectiveness of gamification, the amount of mixed results is remarkable. Furthermore, education, health and crowdsourcing as well as points, badges and leaderboards persist as the most common contexts and ways of implementing gamification. Concurrently, gamification research still lacks coherence in research models, and a consistency in the variables and theoretical foundations. As a final contribution of the review, we provide a comprehensive discussion, consisting of 15 future research trajectories, on future agenda for the growing vein of literature on gamification and gameful systems within the information system science field.

title: Does gamification satisfy needs? A study on the relationship between gamification features and intrinsic need satisfaction
abstract: Gamification is increasingly used as an essential part of today's services, software and systems to engage and motivate users, as well as to spark further behaviors. A core assumption is that gamification should be able to increase the ability of a system or a service to satisfy intrinsic needs, and thereby the autotelicy of use as well as consequent change in beneficial behaviors. However, beyond these optimistic expectations, there is a dearth of empirical evidence on how different gamification features satisfy different dimensions intrinsic needs. Therefore, in this study we investigate the relationships between the user (N 824) interactions with gamification features (immersion, achievement and social related features) and intrinsic need satisfaction (autonomy, competence and relatedness needs) in Xiaomi and Huawei online gamified communities that represent two large technology product related online brand communities in China through a survey based study. The results indicate that immersion related gamification features were only positively associated with autonomy need satisfaction. Achievement related features were not only positively associated with all kinds of need satisfaction, but also the strongest predictor of both autonomy and competence need satisfaction. Social related gamification features, were positively associated with autonomy, competence and relatedness need satisfaction. The results imply that gamification can have a substantially positive effect on intrinsic need satisfaction for services users.

title: Does Gamification Work? A Literature Review of Empirical Studies on Gamification
abstract: This paper reviews peer reviewed empirical studies on gamification. We create a framework for examining the effects of gamification by drawing from the definitions of gamification and the discussion on motivational affordances. The literature review covers results, independent variables (examined motivational affordances) dependent variables (examined psychological/behavioral outcomes from gamification) the contexts of gamification, and types of studies performed on the gamified systems. The paper examines the state of current research on the topic and points out gaps in existing literature. The review indicates that gamification provides positive effects, however, the effects are greatly dependent on the context in which the gamification is being implemented, as well as on the users using it. The findings of the review provide insight for further studies as well as for the design of gamified systems.

title: Gamification: A key determinant of massive open online course (MOOC) success
abstract: Massive open online courses (MOOCs) contribute significantly to individual empowerment because they can help people learn about a wide range of topics. To realize the full potential of MOOCs, we need to understand their factors of success, here defined as the use, user satisfaction, along the individual and organizational performance resulting from the user involvement. We propose a theoretical framework to identify the determinants of successful MOOCs, and empirically measure these factors in a real MOOC context. We put forward the role of gamification and suggest that, together with information system (IS) theory, gamification proved to play a crucial role in the success of MOOCs.

title: Adaptive Gamification for Learning Environments
abstract: In spite of their effectiveness, learning environments often fail to engage users and end up under used. Many studies show that gamification of learning environments can enhance learners' motivation to use learning environments. However, learners react differently to specific game mechanics and little is known about how to adapt gaming features to learners' profiles. In this paper, we propose a process for adapting gaming features based on a player model. This model is inspired from existing player typologies and types of gamification elements. Our approach is implemented in a learning environment with five different gaming features, and evaluated with 266 participants. The main results of this study show that, amongst the most engaged learners (i.e. learners who use the environment the longest) those with adapted gaming features spend significantly more time in the learning environment. Furthermore, learners with features that are not adapted have a higher level of amotivation. These results support the relevance of adapting gaming features to enhance learners' engagement, and provide cues on means to implement adaptation mechanisms.

title: Investigating the effects of gamification enhanced flipped learning on undergraduate students' behavioral and cognitive engagement
abstract: In recent years, flipped learning has attracted much attention around the world. This instructional approach is appealing because it can free up class time for knowledge application activities with help from the instructor and peers. However, its implementation can be fraught with challenges. Student disengagement in out of class activities, for example, is one of the major challenges of flipped learning. The purpose of this study is to examine whether gamification can enhance student engagement in a flipped course. A comparison study was conducted, involving two classes of undergraduate students in an Information Management course. The results indicated that students in the gamification enhanced flipped learning group (n 48) were more likely to complete the pre class and post class activities on time than those in the non gamified flipped learning group (n 48) Students in the gamification enhanced flipped learning group also produced higher quality artifacts than the non gamified flipped learning group in the pre class thinking activities. Moreover, students in the gamification enhanced flipped learning group scored significantly higher in the post course test than did their non gamified counterparts.

title: Serious Gaming and Gamification Education in Health Professions: Systematic Review
abstract: There is a worldwide shortage of health workers, and this issue requires innovative education solutions. Serious gaming and gamification education have the potential to provide a quality, cost effective, novel approach that is flexible, portable, and enjoyable and allow interaction with tutors and peers.  The aim of this systematic review was to evaluate the effectiveness of serious gaming/gamification for health professions education compared with traditional learning, other types of digital education, or other serious gaming/gamification interventions in terms of patient outcomes, knowledge, skills, professional attitudes, and satisfaction (primary outcomes) as well as economic outcomes of education and adverse events (secondary outcomes)  A comprehensive search of MEDLINE, EMBASE, Web of Knowledge, Educational Resources Information Centre, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, PsycINFO, and Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature was conducted from 1990 to August 2017. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and cluster RCTs were eligible for inclusion. Two reviewers independently searched, screened, and assessed the study quality and extracted data. A meta analysis was not deemed appropriate due to the heterogeneity of populations, interventions, comparisons, and outcomes. Therefore, a narrative synthesis is presented.  A total of 27 RCTs and 3 cluster RCTs with 3634 participants were included. Two studies evaluated gamification interventions, and the remaining evaluated serious gaming interventions. One study reported a small statistically significant difference between serious gaming and digital education of primary care physicians in the time to control blood pressure in a subgroup of their patients already taking antihypertensive medications. There was evidence of a moderate to large magnitude of effect from five studies evaluating individually delivered interventions for objectively measured knowledge compared with traditional learning. There was also evidence of a small to large magnitude of effect from 10 studies for improved skills compared with traditional learning. Two and four studies suggested equivalence between interventions and controls for knowledge and skills, respectively. Evidence suggested that serious gaming was at least as effective as other digital education modalities for these outcomes. There was insufficient evidence to conclude whether one type of serious gaming/gamification intervention is more effective than any other. There was limited evidence for the effects of serious gaming/gamification on professional attitudes. Serious gaming/gamification may improve satisfaction, but the evidence was limited. Evidence was of low or very low quality for all outcomes. Quality of evidence was downgraded due to the imprecision, inconsistency, and limitations of the study.  Serious gaming/gamification appears to be at least as effective as controls, and in many studies, more effective for improving knowledge, skills, and satisfaction. However, the available evidence is mostly of low quality and calls for further rigorous, theory driven research.

title: Cooperation or competition When do people contribute more? A field experiment on gamification of crowdsourcing
abstract: Information technology is being increasingly employed to harness under utilized resources via more effective coordination. This progress has manifested in different developments, for instance, crowdsourcing (e.g. Wikipedia, Amazon Mechanical Turk, and Waze) crowdfunding (e.g. Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and RocketHub) or the sharing economy (e.g. Uber, Airbnb, and Didi Chuxing) Since the sustainability of these IT enabled forms of resource coordination do not commonly rely merely on direct economic benefits of the participants, but also on other non monetary, intrinsic gratifications, such systems are increasingly gamified that is, designers use features of games to induce enjoyment and general autotelicy of the activity. However, a key problem in gamification design has been whether it is better to use competition based or cooperation based designs. We examine this question through a field experiment in a gamified crowdsourcing system, employing three versions of gamification: competitive, cooperative, and inter team competitive gamification. We study these gamified conditions' effects on users' perceived enjoyment and usefulness of the system as well as on their behaviors (system usage, crowdsourcing participation, engagement with the gamification feature, and willingness to recommend the crowdsourcing application) The results reveal that inter team competitions are most likely to lead to higher enjoyment and crowdsourcing participation, as well as to a higher willingness to recommending a system. Further, the findings indicate that designers should consider cooperative instead of competitive approaches to increase users' willingness to recommend crowdsourcing systems. These insights add relevant findings to the ongoing discourse on the roles of different types of competitions in gamification designs and suggest that crowdsourcing system designers and operators should implement gamification with competing teams instead of typically used competitions between individuals.

title: How motivational feedback increases user's benefits and continued use: A study on gamification, quantified self and social networking
abstract: With the increasing provenance of hedonic and social information systems, systems are observed to employ other forms of feedback and design than purely informational in order to increase user engagement and motivation. Three principle classes of motivational design pursuing user engagement have become increasingly established; gamification, quantified self and social networking. This study investigates how the perceived prominence of these three design classes in users' use of information system facilitate experiences of affective, informational and social feedback as well as user's perceived benefits from a system and their continued use intentions. We employ survey data (N 167) gathered from users of HeiaHeia; an exercise encouragement system that employs features belonging to the three design classes. The results indicate that gamification is positively associated with experiences of affective feedback, quantified self with experiences of both affective and informational feedback and social networking with experiences of social feedback. Experiences of affective feedback are further strongly associated with user perceived benefits and continued use intentions, whereas experiences of informational feedback are only associated with continued use intentions. Experiences of social feedback had no significant relationship with neither. The findings provide practical insights into how systems can be designed to facilitate different types of feedback that increases users' engagement, benefits and intentions to continue the use of a system.