Gamification design: A comparison of four m-learning courses

ABSTRACT

Gamification can enhance learners’ autonomous motivation and enable them to feel enthusiastic during the cognitive absorption process. Therefore, this study explores developing a productive mobile learning (m-learning) atmosphere that enables focused immersion students to learn, enhancing their gratification and decreasing their cognitive load, to improve learning performance. A quasi-experimental approach was used to investigate the performance of university-level students with homogenous backgrounds and coursework by employing heterogeneous pedagogies, including text-based, video, collaboration and gamification. Data collected from 228 students provided strong support for the research model. Moreover, the differences among the four pedagogies were significant, and the gamification pedagogy enabled students to achieve optimal learning performance. It is expected that m-learning service providers can benefit from the insights of this study and implement more effective learning strategies.

KEYWORDS:

• Mobile learning
• gamification
• uses and gratifications theory
• cognitive load theory
• pedagogic issues

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Wen-Ting Wang for his help during the data collection process.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.