Towards the Social Gamification of e-Learning: A Practical Experiment

Gamification is the use of game mechanics and game design in non-game contexts to engage users and motivate action. Although gamification has a great potential in higher education, existing research focuses on competitive approaches and presents contrasting evidence. We present a social gamification approach and tool designed to address the situated motivational affordances of students (relatedness, competence and autonomy). An experiment (N = 374) is conducted to test it in an undergraduate course, comparing students' performance with a traditional blended-learning approach. Students' attitude towards the new tool is also analyzed. Results suggest that social gamification can be used to improve the overall academic performance in practical assignments and to promote social interaction. However, our findings also raise and important caveat. The creation of gamified experiences for higher education requires a deep knowledge of the motivational affordances of students and a careful design of the rewards that are introjected by students and that eventually stimulate participation.