The Effect of Gamification on Students with Different Achievement Goal Orientations

In this study, we examined gamification in relation to achievement goal orientation. Achievement goal orientation is a psychological conceptualization that characterizes students' preferences to different goals, outcomes and rewards. We added achievement badges to an online learning environment used in a Data Structures and Algorithms course (N=278), and examined the responses of students with different achievement goal orientation profiles. Furthermore, we analyzed how students who were most motivated by badges differ from others in terms of achievement goal orientation and behavior. We found no significant differences in the behavior of the different goal orientation groups regarding badges when analyzing the log data from the learning environment. However, their attitudes towards the badges varied. On the other hand, we found that students who reported high motivation towards badges had higher mastery-intrinsic, mastery-extrinsic and performance-approach orientation, and lower avoidance-orientation than others. All of them were already high-performing before the badges were introduced. However, not all high-performing students were motivated by the badges. We also identified a small avoidance-oriented group who reported very low motivation towards the badges. The results of this paper shed light on the reasons why students respond differently to gamification and on what underlying motivational aspects might contribute to a high or low motivation towards gamification.