Gamification as a motivation strategy for higher education students in tourism face-to-face learning

The purpose of this research was to examine the aspects that motivate a student's intention to use a gamified app as a complementary learning strategy in face-to-face education. The research has an exploratory nature as it involves the design and pilot test of an application based on gamification known as HEgameApp in an undergraduate program in tourism in the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (Spain). This research study analyses whether students' intention to use this gamified app is determined by their perception of expected benefits (functional, hedonic and social), by the costs associated with the use of the application (loss of privacy and difficulty of use) or by their personal characteristics (attitude towards learning, attitude towards innovation and demographic profile). The results show that expected hedonic and social benefits influence a student's intention to use HEgameApp. Our findings also evidence that students' attitude towards learning as well as to innovation has a positive and significant role in a student's intention to use a gamified app. Finally, the results show that the loss of privacy exerts a moderator effect on the relationship between the intention to use the gamified app HEgameApp and expected functional benefits. Therefore, the empirical results demonstrate that educational community could do a great deal to enhance a student's intention to use gamification strategies leading to the greater application of innovative technological, educational tools in tourism face-to-face learning.