So, Why Do Students Perform Better in Gamified Courses? Understanding Motivational Styles in Educational Gamification

Research on gamification’s effects in educational environments has been a growing domain in recent years. As research has demonstrated the power of gamified systems to effectively motivate learners in educational settings, it has also become clear that not all individuals are motivated in the same way, or to the same extent, by the same gamified system. Patterns in individuals’ attitudes and behaviors in online gaming are commonly known as player types. Nearly all player-type models were developed in online gaming settings, though they are sometimes applied to educational environments. Because online gaming and educational gamification are different in important ways, player-type models developed in online gaming are not optimal tools for describing the individuals’ motivations in education or prescribing best practices for educational gamification design. In this paper we address this gap by presenting a motivational-style model developed in a gamified educational setting. Using principal component analysis on motivational data taken from gamified Organizational Behavior courses, we define a two-factor space including the following motivational dimensions: (1) social versus individual motivators and (2) utility versus accomplishment motivators. Within this space, we describe four motivational profiles: Citizen—being motivated by social assignments like group work and peer review; Pragmatist—being motivated by completing traditional assignments and exams; Gamer—being motivated by game elements that show one’s progress compared to their peers and provide social reinforcing feedback; and Achiever—being motivated by improving one’s individual progress in a course. We also suggest best practices for designing educational gamification experiences optimized for students from each motivational type.