Gamification with Purpose: What Learners Prefer to Motivate Their Learning

TL;DR

This paper explores learners' preferences for game design elements in educational gamification, emphasizing the importance of purpose-driven, learner-centered strategies that enhance intrinsic motivation and align with pedagogical goals.

Contribution

It identifies key preferred GDEs and motivational themes, proposing a framework for designing educational gamification that supports meaningful learning and intrinsic motivation.

Findings

Learners prefer progress bars, concept maps, and immediate feedback.

Visual progress and content relevance are key motivational drivers.

Purpose-aligned gamification enhances intrinsic motivation.

Abstract

This study investigates learners' preferences for game design elements (GDEs) in educational contexts to inform the development of purpose-driven gamification strategies. It emphasizes a learner-centered approach that aligns gamification design with pedagogical goals, while mitigating risks such as the erosion of intrinsic motivation. A systematic literature review was conducted to identify ten widely discussed GDEs. Visual prototypes representing each element were developed, and a best-worst scaling (BWS) survey with 125 participants was administered to elicit preference rankings. Qualitative feedback was also collected to uncover motivational drivers. Learners consistently preferred GDEs that support learning processes directly-most notably progress bars, concept maps, immediate feedback, and achievements. Qualitative analysis revealed six recurring motivational themes, including visible progress, content relevance, and constructive feedback. The findings suggest that learners value gamification elements that are meaningfully integrated with educational content and support intrinsic motivation. Purpose-aligned gamification should prioritize tools that visualize learning progress and provide actionable feedback, rather than relying solely on extrinsic incentives.