An Exploratory Study on The Change of Students' Gamification User Types Over Time

An Exploratory Study on The Change of Students' Gamification User Types Over Time

An Exploratory Study on The Change of Students' Gamification User Types Over Time

By Osman Gazi Yildirim & Nesrin Özdener

Abstract

“Gamification has recently become popular in health, advertising, and education, and the number of scientific studies in this area has steadily grown. In recent years, individual differences in gamification have become a significant subject because research suggests that user profiles should be examined to get the most out of the beneficial impacts. On the other hand, gamification studies regarding interpersonal differences often focus on building a user type determination scale or determination of game elements suitable for user profiles in studies on the individualization of gamified learning settings. Research conducted to investigate whether user-profiles change over time is limited. This exploratory study examines whether students' gamification user types change over time. Two-step research was devised specifically for this purpose. Data were collected from 181 teacher candidates in a state University in Turkey through the Gamification User Types Hexad Scale in the first phase. The collected data were analyzed concerning the students' dominant user type and subscale average scores. The same scale was shared in the second phase with 181 students who participated in the initial study 16 months later. Sixty-six teacher candidates participated in the second phase. The acquired data was used to compare student player profile changes employing descriptive statistics (mean, percentage, frequency) and correlation analysis. According to the study results, most of the participants' dominant gamification user types experienced a change after 16 months. In addition, while Achievers and the Free Spirits presented the higher average score in the first study, the Achievers and Philanthropists presented the higher average score in the second study. The Disruptors demonstrated the lowest average score in both studies. The findings show that dominant user types of students change over time, implying that prevalent user types cannot be regarded as constant. Furthermore, it is revealed that it is vital to track the users' scores over time to tailor gamified educational environments effectively. For future studies, it is recommended to focus on the factors causing the change in the user's gamification profiles.”

Reference

Yildrium, O. G., & Özdener, N. (2021, December). An Exploratory Study on The Change of Students' Gamification User Types Over Time. Retrieved April 28, 2022, from https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Osman-Yildirim-2/publication/359137852_An_Exploratory_Study_on_The_Change_of_Students'_Gamification_User_Types_Over_Time/links/6229f6e19f7b3246341de1dc/An-Exploratory-Study-on-The-Change-of-Students-Gamification-User-Types-Over-Time.pdf

Keywords

Gamification, exploratory study, education, game elements, research