literature review on gamification

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• v.6; 2016 Nov

Gamification for health and wellbeing: A systematic review of the literature

Daniel johnson.

a Queensland University of Technology (QUT), GPO Box 2434, Brisbane, QLD 4001, Australia

Sebastian Deterding

b Digital Creativity Labs, University of York, York YO10 5GE, United Kingdom

Kerri-Ann Kuhn

Aleksandra staneva, stoyan stoyanov, leanne hides.

Compared to traditional persuasive technology and health games, gamification is posited to offer several advantages for motivating behaviour change for health and well-being, and increasingly used. Yet little is known about its effectiveness.

We aimed to assess the amount and quality of empirical support for the advantages and effectiveness of gamification applied to health and well-being.

We identified seven potential advantages of gamification from existing research and conducted a systematic literature review of empirical studies on gamification for health and well-being, assessing quality of evidence, effect type, and application domain.

We identified 19 papers that report empirical evidence on the effect of gamification on health and well-being. 59% reported positive, 41% mixed effects, with mostly moderate or lower quality of evidence provided. Results were clear for health-related behaviours, but mixed for cognitive outcomes.

Conclusions

The current state of evidence supports that gamification can have a positive impact in health and wellbeing, particularly for health behaviours. However several studies report mixed or neutral effect. Findings need to be interpreted with caution due to the relatively small number of studies and methodological limitations of many studies (e.g., a lack of comparison of gamified interventions to non-gamified versions of the intervention).

• • A systematic review is conducted to assess the empirical effectiveness of gamification in the health and wellbeing domain.
• • Twenty-one papers are identified that report empirical evidence on the effectiveness of gamification in health and wellbeing.
• • Overall the evidence suggests gamification can have a positive impact for health and wellbeing related interventions.
• • The evidence is strongest for the use of gamification to target behavioural outcomes, particularly physical activity.
• • Further research that isolates the impacts of gamification is needed.

1. Introduction

1.1. background.

The major health challenges facing the world today are shifting from traditional, pre-modern risks like malnutrition, poor water quality and indoor air pollution to challenges generated by the modern world itself. Today, the leading global risks for mortality and chronic diseases – high blood pressure, tobacco use, high blood glucose, physical inactivity, obesity, high cholesterol – are immediately linked to a modern lifestyle characterized by sedentary living, chronic stress, and high intake of energy-dense foods and recreational drugs ( Stevens et al., 2009 ). In addition, following calls from the World Health Organization's (2015/(1946) inclusive conception of health, researchers, civil society, and politicians have been pushing to extend policy goals from preventing and reducing disease towards promoting people's holistic physical, mental, and social well-being ( Carlisle and Hanlon, 2008 , Hanratty and Farmer, 2012 , Huppert and So, 2013 , Marks and Shah, 2004 , Schulte et al., 2015 ).

Practically all modern lifestyle health risks (and resulting diseases) are directly affected by people's individual health behaviours — be it physical activity, diet, recreational drug use, medication adherence, or preventive and rehabilitative exercises ( Glanz et al., 2008 , Schroeder, 2007 ). By one estimate, three quarters of all health care costs in the US are attributable to chronic diseases caused by poor health behaviours ( Woolf, 2008 ), the effective management of which again requires patients to change their behaviours ( Sola et al., 2015 ). Similarly, research indicates that well-being can be significantly improved through small individual behaviours ( Lyubomirsky and Layous, 2013 , Seligman, 2011 ). Behaviour change has therefore become one of the most important and frequently targeted levers for reducing the burden of preventable disease and death and increasing well-being ( Glanz, K., Rimer, B. K., & Viswanath, K, 2008, p. xiii ).

A main factor driving behaviour change is the individual's motivation. Even if different theories contain different motivational constructs, “the processes that direct and energize behaviour” ( Reeve, 2014, p. 8 ) feature prominently across health behaviour change theories ( Glanz and Bishop, 2010 , Michie et al., 2011b ). Motives are a core target of a wide range of established behaviour change techniques ( Michie et al., 2011a,b ).

However, following self-determination theory (SDT), a well-established motivation theory, not all forms of motivation are equal ( Deci and Ryan, 2012 ). A crucial consideration is whether behaviour is intrinsically or extrinsically motivated. Intrinsic motivation describes activities done ‘for their own sake,’ which satisfy basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness, giving rise to the experience of volition, willingness, and enjoyment. Extrinsically motivated activity is done for an outcome separable from the activity itself, like rewards or punishments, which thwarts autonomy need satisfaction and gives rise to experiences of unwillingness, tension, and coercion ( Deci and Ryan, 2012 ). In recent years, SDT has become a key framework for health behaviour interventions and studies. A large number of studies have demonstrated advantages of intrinsic over extrinsic motivation with regard to health behaviours ( Fortier et al., 2012 , Ng et al., 2012 , Patrick and Williams, 2012 , Teixeira et al., 2012b ). Not only is intrinsically motivated behaviour change more sustainable than extrinsically motivated change ( Teixeira, Silva, Mata, Palmeira, & Markland, 2012 ): satisfying the psychological needs that intrinsically motivate behaviour also directly contributes to mental and social well-being ( Ryan, Huta, & Deci, 2008 ; Ryan, Patrick, Deci, & William, 2008 ).

In short, in our modern life world, health and well-being strongly depend on the individual's health behaviours, motivation is a major factor of health behaviour change, and intrinsically motivated behaviour change is desirable as it is both sustained and directly contributes to well-being. This raises the immediate question what kind of interventions are best positioned to intrinsically motivate health behaviour change.

1.2. Computing technology for health behaviour change and well-being

The last two decades have seen the rapid ascent of computing technology for health behaviour change and well-being ( Glanz, K., Rimer, B. K., & Viswanath, K, 2008, pp. 8–9 ), with common labels like persuasive technology ( Fogg, 2003 ) or positive computing ( Calvo and Peters, 2014 ). This includes a broad range of consumer applications for monitoring and managing one's own health and well-being ( Knight et al., 2015 , Martínez-Pérez et al., 2013 , Middelweerd et al., 2014 ), such as the recent slew of “quantified self” ( Wolf, 2009 ) or “personal informatics” tools for collecting and reflecting on information about the self ( Li et al., 2010 ).

One important sector is serious games for health ( Wattanasoontorn et al., 2013 ), games used to drive health-related outcomes. The majority of these are “health behaviour change games” ( Baranowski et al., 2008 ) or “health games” ( Kharrazi et al., 2012 ) affecting the health behaviours of health care receivers (and not e.g. training health care providers) ( Wattanasoontorn et al., 2013 ). Applications and research have mainly targeted physical activity, nutrition, and stroke rehabilitation, with an about equal share of (a) “exergames” or “active video games” directly requiring physical activity as input, (b) behavioural games focusing specific behaviours, (c) rehabilitation games guiding rehabilitative movements, and (d) educational games targeting belief and attitude change as a precondition to behaviour change ( Kharrazi et al., 2012 ). Like serious games in general, health games have seen rapid growth ( Kharrazi et al., 2012 ), with numerous systematic reviews assessing their effectiveness ( DeSmet et al., 2014 , DeSmet et al., 2015 , Gao et al., 2015 , LeBlanc et al., 2013 , Lu et al., 2013 , Papastergiou, 2009 , Primack et al., 2012 , Theng et al., 2015 ).

A main rationale for using games for serious purposes like health is their ability to motivate: Games are systems purpose-built for enjoyment and engagement ( Deterding, 2015b ). Research has confirmed that well-designed games are enjoyable and engaging because playing them provides basic need satisfaction ( Mekler et al., 2014 , Przybylski et al., 2010 , Tamborini et al., 2011 ). Turning health communication or health behaviour change programs into games might thus be a good way to intrinsically motivate users to expose themselves to and continually engage with these programs ( Baranowski et al., 2008 ; though see Wouters et al., 2013 ).

However, the broad adoption of health games has faced major hurdles. One is their high cost of production and design complexity: Health games are typically bespoke interventions for a small target health behaviour and population, and game development is a cost- and time-intensive process, especially if one desires to compete with the degree of “polish” of professional, big studio entertainment games. Thus, there is no developed market and business model for health games, wherefore the entertainment game and the health industries have by and large not moved into the space ( Parker, n.d , Sawyer, 2014 ).

A second adoption hurdle is that most health games are delivered through a dedicated device like a game console, and require users to create committed spaces and times in their life for gameplay. This demand often clashes with people's varied access to technology, their daily routines and rituals, as well as busy and constantly shifting schedules ( Munson et al., 2015 ).

1.3. Gamification: a new model?

One possible way of overcoming these hurdles is presented by gamification, which is defined as “the use of game design elements in non-game contexts” ( Deterding et al., 2011 ; see Seaborn and Fels, 2015 for a review). The underlying idea of gamification is to use the specific design features or “motivational affordances” ( Deterding, 2011 , Zhang, 2008 ) of entertainment games in other systems to make engagement with these more motivating. 1 Appealing to established theories of intrinsic motivation, gamified systems commonly employ motivational features like immediate success feedback, continuous progress feedback, or goal-setting through interface elements like point scores, badges, levels, or challenges and competitions; relatedness support, social feedback, recognition, and comparison through leaderboards, teams, or communication functions; and autonomy support through customizable avatars and environments, user choice in goals and activities, or narratives providing emotional and value-based rationales for an activity (cf. Ryan and Rigby, 2011 , Seaborn and Fels, 2015 ).

Since its emergence around 2010, gamification has seen a groundswell of interest in industry and academia, easily outstripping persuasive technology in publication volume ( Hamari, Koivisto, & Pakkanen, 2014 ). By one estimate, the gamification market is poised to reach 2.8 billion US dollars by 2016 ( Meloni and Gruener, 2012 ). It is little wonder, then, that several scholars have pointed to health gamification as a promising new approach to health behaviour change ( Cugelman, 2013 , King et al., 2013 , Munson et al., 2015 , Pereira et al., 2014 , Sola et al., 2015 ). Popular examples are Nike+ 2 , a system of activity trackers and applications that translate measured physical exertion into so-called “NikeFuel points” which then become enrolled in competitions with friends, the unlocking of achievements, or social sharing; Zombies , Run! 3 , a mobile application that motivates running through wrapping runs into an audio-delivered story of surviving a Zombie apocalypse; or SuperBetter 4 , a web platform that helps people achieve their health goals by building psychological resilience, breaking goals into smaller achievable tasks and wrapping these into layers of narrative and social support.

Conceptually, health gamification sits at the intersection of persuasive technology, serious games, and personal informatics ( Cugelman, 2013 , Munson et al., 2015 ): Like persuasive technology, it revolves around the application of specific design principles or features that drive targeted behaviours and experiences. Several authors have in fact suggested that many game design elements can be mapped to established behaviour change techniques ( Cheek et al., 2015 , Cugelman, 2013 , King et al., 2013 ). Like serious games, gamification aims to drive these behaviours through the intrinsically motivating qualities of well-designed games. Like personal informatics, gamification usually revolves around the tracking of individual behaviours, only that these are then not only displayed to the user, but enrolled in some form of goal-setting and progress feedback. Indeed, many applications commonly classified as gamification are also labelled personal informatics, and gamification is seen as a way to sustain engagement with personal informatics applications (e.g., Morschheuser et al., 2014 ).

1.4. Promises of gamification for health and well-being

The reasons why gamification is potentially relevant to health behaviour change today, and the shortcomings of other digital health and well-being interventions include:

• 1 Intrinsic motivation. Like games, gamified systems can intrinsically motivate the initiation and continued performance of health and well-being behaviours ( Deterding, 2015b for similar arguments regarding gamification in general; King et al., 2013 , Munson et al., 2015 , Pereira et al., 2014 ; cf. Seaborn and Fels, 2015 , Sola et al., 2015 ). In contrast, personal informatics can lack sustained appeal, and persuasive technologies often employ extrinsic motivators like social pressure or overt rewards ( Oinas-Kukkonen and Harjumaa, 2009 ).
• 2 Broad accessibility through mobile technology and ubiquitous sensors. Activity trackers and mobile phones, equipped with powerful sensing, processing, storage, and display capacities, are excellent and widely available platforms to extend a game layer to everyday health behaviours, making gamified applications potentially more accessible than health games which rely on bespoke gaming devices ( King et al., 2013 , Lister et al., 2014 , Sawyer, 2014 ).
• 3 Broad appeal . As wider and wider audiences play games, games and game design elements become approachable and appealing to wider populations ( King et al., 2013 ).
• 4 Broad applicability . Current health gamification domains cover all major chronic health risks: physical activity, diet and weight management, medication adherence, rehabilitation, mental well-being, drug use, patient activation around chronic diseases like Diabetes, cancer, or asthma ( Munson et al., 2015 , Pereira et al., 2014 , Sola et al., 2015 ).
• 5 Cost-benefit efficiency . Retro-fitting existing health systems and enhancing new ones with an engaging “game layer” may be faster, most cost-benefit efficient, and more scalable than the development of full-fledged health games ( Munson et al., 2015 , Sawyer, 2014 ).
• 6 Everyday life fit . Gamified systems using mobile phones or activity trackers can encompass practically all trackable everyday activity, unlike health games requiring people to add dedicated time and space to their life ( Munson et al., 2015 ). Whereas standard health games typically try to fit another additional activity into people's schedules, gamification aims to reorganise already-ongoing everyday conduct in a more well-being conducive manner ( Deterding, 2015b ; see Hassenzahl and Laschke, 2015 ).
• 7 Supporting well-being . Beyond motivating health behaviours, engaging with gamified applications can directly contribute to well-being by generating positive experiences of basic psychological need satisfaction as well as other elements of well-being like positive emotions, engagement, relationships, meaning, and accomplishment (cf. Johnson et al., 2013 for a review on well-being effects on video game play; McGonigal, 2011 , Pereira et al., 2014 ).

In short, gamification may realize what games for health doyen Ben Sawyer (2014) dubbed the “new model for health” games should pursue: sensor-based, data-driven, “seductive, ubiquitous, lifelong health interfaces” for well-being self-care.

Promising as gamification for health and well-being may be, the essential question remains whether gamified interventions are effective in driving behaviour change, health, and well-being, and more specifically, whether they manage to do so via intrinsic motivation. These questions are especially relevant as (a) general-purpose literature reviews on gamification have flagged the lack of high-quality effect studies on gamification ( Hamari et al., 2014b ; cf. Seaborn and Fels, 2015 ), and (b) critics have objected that gamification often effectively entails standard behavioural reinforcement techniques and reward systems that are extrinsically motivating, not emulating the intrinsically motivating features of well-designed games ( Juul, 2011 , Walz and Deterding, 2015 ).

1.5. Research goal and questions

To our knowledge, there is no systematic review on the effectiveness and quality of health and well-being gamification applications available. Existing reviews include a survey spanning several application domains which identified four health-related papers (cf. Seaborn and Fels, 2015 ), a review of gamification features in commercially available health and fitness applications ( Lister et al., 2014 ), a topical review on the use of games, gamification, and virtual environments for diabetes self-management, which identified three studies on gamified applications ( Theng et al., 2015 ), a review focused specifically on the use of (extrinsic) reward systems in health-related gamified applications ( Lewis et al., 2016 ) and a review on the persuasion context of gamified health behaviour support systems ( Alahäivälä and Oinas-Kukkonen, 2016 ). While these reviews offer important and valuable insights, none have examined gamification for both health and well-being nor the effectiveness of gamification. Additionally, existing reviews do not directly consider and evaluate the quality of evidence underlying the conclusions drawn. We therefore conducted a systematic literature review of peer-reviewed papers examining the effectiveness of gamified applications for health and well-being, assessing the quality of evidence provided by studies.

We developed four guiding research questions:

• o What is the number and quality of available effect studies? This follows the observation that gamification research is lacking high-quality effect studies.
• o What effects are reported? This follows the question whether health gamification is indeed effective.
• o What game design elements are used and tested? These questions follow whether health gamification drives outcomes through the same processes of intrinsic motivation that make games engaging, and whether directly supporting well-being through positive experiences.
• o What delivery platforms are used and tested? This probes whether current health gamification does make good on the promise of greater accessibility, pervasiveness, and everyday life fit through mobile phones or multiple platforms.
• o Which theories of motivation ( e.g. , Self-Determination Theory) are used and tested? This explores to what extent health gamification explicitly draws on motivational theory and to whether design incorporating these theories leads to better outcomes.
• o Is gamification shown to be more effective with gaming affinitive audiences? This assesses whether the benefits of gamification are limited to audience already familiar with or drawn to game elements as engaging and motivating.
• o Have the benefits of health gamification been shown to extend to audiences that are not already intrinsically motivated? This explores whether there is evidence of gamification working when users are not already intrinsically motivated to perform the target activity (e.g., users who voluntarily engage with a fitness app can be assumed to already be intrinsically motivated to exercise).
• • RQ4. What health and well-being domains are targeted? Beyond a general scoping of the field, this tests whether the claimed broad applicability of gamification indeed holds.

The protocol for the review was developed and agreed by the authors prior to commencement. It followed all aspects recommended in the reporting of systematic reviews, namely the PRISMA Checklist and MOOSE Guidelines ( Moher et al., 2010 ). All studies that explored the association between gamification and health were considered for this review. “Gamification” was defined and operationalised as “the use of game design elements in non-game contexts” ( Deterding et al., 2011 ). “Health” and “well-being” were collectively defined and operationalised using the World Health Organization's’s’s’s (1946) inclusive definition of health as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity”.

2.1. Data collection

The electronic databases in this review were searched on November 19th, 2015 and included those identified as relevant to information technology, social science, psychology and health: Ebscohost (PsychInfo, Medline, CINAHL) ( n  = 33); ProQuest ( n  = 10); Association for Computing Machinery, ACM ( n  = 81); IEEE Xplore ( n  = 36); Web of Science ( n  = 44); Scopus ( n  = 108); Science Direct ( n  = 12) and PubMed ( n  = 39). Three additional studies were identified with a manual search of the reference lists of key studies, including existing gamification reviews, identified during the database search process.

2.2. Search terms

Based on prior practice in systematic reviews on gamification and health and well-being ( Alahäivälä and Oinas-Kukkonen, 2016 , Lewis et al., 2016 , Seaborn and Fels, 2015 ), we used full and truncated search terms capturing gamification, health outcomes, and well-being in the following search string:

Gamif* AND (health OR mental OR anxi* OR depres* OR wellbeing OR well-being).

Mental health related search terms (“mental”, “anxi*” and “depres*”) were added as initial searches failed to capture some expected results.

2.3. Inclusion/exclusion criteria

2.3.1. inclusion criteria.

Our review focused on high quality scholarly work reporting original research on the impact and effectiveness of gamification for health and wellbeing. From this focus, we developed the following inclusion criteria:

• 1 Peer-reviewed (incl. peer-reviewed conference papers)
• 2 Full papers (incl. full conference papers)
• 3 Empirical research (qualitative and quantitative)
• 4 Explained research methods
• 5 Explicitly state and described gamification as research subject
• 6 Clearly described gamification elements (type of game design elements)
• 7 Effect reported in terms of:
• a. Impact (affect, behaviour, cognition), and/or
• b. User experience — any subjective measure of experience while using the gamified or non-gamified version of the intervention
• 8 Clearly described outcomes related to health and well-being

Criteria 1–4 were chosen to ensure focus on high-quality work reporting original research. Criteria 3, 4, and 7 were also included to enable assessment of quality of evidence. Criteria 5–6 ensured the paper reported on gamification, not serious games or persuasive technology mislabeled as gamification (a common issue, cf. Seaborn and Fels, 2015 ). Criteria 7–8 were chosen to assess reported health and well-being outcomes and potential mediators, with user experience included given its prevalence as an outcome measure in gamification research (see Table 1 ).

Full paper details and quality of evidence ratings.

2.3.2. Exclusion criteria

Our exclusion criteria mirror the focus on high quality scholarly work that reports the impact and effectiveness of gamification for health and well-being. They were particularly framed to exclude duplicate reporting of earlier versions of studies fully reported later. We excluded papers with the following features:

• 1 Extended abstracts or ‘work-in-progress’ papers
• 2 Study protocols
• 3 Covers complete games (serious games) not gamification
• 4 Gamification is mentioned but not evaluated

Criteria 1–2 exclude peer-reviewed yet early and incomplete versions of studies. Criteria 3–4 exclude studies that mislabel serious games as gamification (see above) or fail to report the concrete intervention in sufficient detail to assess whether it constituted gamification.

2.4. Quality assessment tool

We used the quality assessment method presented by Connolly et al. (2012) . The tool was explicitly developed to assess the strength of evidence of a total body of work relative to a particular review question. Connolly et al. (2012) used the tool to assess the overall weight of empirical evidence for positive impact and outcomes of games. We applied the tool to our more focused interest in the empirical evidence for the effectiveness of gamification in the health and wellbeing domain. Each final paper included in the review was read and given a score of 1–3 (where 3 denotes high, 2 denotes medium and 1 denotes low on that criterion) across the following five criteria:

• 1 How appropriate is the research design for addressing the research questions of this review (higher weighting for inclusion of a control group)
• a. High — 3 RCT
• b. Medium — 2, quasi-experimental controlled study
• c. Low — 1, case study, single subject-experimental, pre-test/post-test design
• 2 How appropriate are the methods and analysis?
• 3 How generalizable are the findings of this study to the target population with respect to the size and representativeness of the sample? To what extent would the findings be relevant across age groups, gender, ethnicity, etc.
• 4 How relevant is the particular focus of the study (incl. Conceptual focus, context, sample and measure) for addressing the question of this review?
• 5 To what extent can the study findings be trusted in answering the study question?

The total weight of evidence for each paper is calculated by adding the scores of all five dimensions, with a range from 5 to 15. Connolly et al.'s (2012 p. 665) analysis of the empirical evidence regarding games and serious games found a mean rating of 8.56 and a mode of 9, which gave us a baseline to evaluate gamification studies against. Connolly et al. (ibid.) found 70 of 129 or 54% of studies to be above the mode, constituting “stronger evidence”. We elected to categorise in slightly more detail, with papers with a rating 8 or below categorised as “weaker evidence”, papers with a rating above 8 to 12 as “moderate evidence”, and papers with a rating above 12 as “stronger evidence”.

2.5. Modalities and game design elements

Based on an initial survey, we categorised delivery modalities as mobile (phone), website, social network application, analog, or bespoke device. Given the lack of consensus in the literature regarding definitions and categorizations, game design elements were coded using an adaptation of the systemisation provided by Hamari, Koivisto and Sarsa (2014) . Hamari and colleagues identified the following typology: points, leaderboards, achievements/badges, levels, story/theme, clear goals, feedback, rewards, progress and challenge. In the current review, we elected to combine points and badges with other digital rewards (e.g., virtual roses, coins, digital in-app equipment) into a single category labelled ‘rewards’. Additionally, we also coded for the inclusion of an ‘avatar’ or ‘social interaction,’ as these were found to be commonly employed game design elements in the reviewed papers.

2.6. Effects

We categorised health and well-being effects as relating to affect (mood), behaviour (i.e., involving real world actions), or cognition (e.g., sense of empowerment, motivation, stress, knowledge of domain). These categories were chosen based on the three-component model of attitudes ( Breckler, 1984 , Vaughan and Hogg, 1995 ) with the primary adaptation being the inclusion of knowledge of the target domain as part of the cognition category (knowledge was only assessed in one study ( Allam et al., 2015 ). In addition, multiple studies also assessed user experience (e.g. attitudes towards the gamified intervention itself), which we coded separately. Furthermore, we coded effects as positive, negative, or mixed/neutral, the latter meaning that results were inconclusive or positive for one group and negative for another. If a study assessed health and well-being impacts for multiple dimensions, these were counted separately. For example, a study that finds positive effects on stress and life satisfaction would be counted as two positive impacts on cognition. In contrast, a study that finds a positive impact on life satisfaction for one group of users and negative impact for another would be coded as one neutral/mixed impact on cognition.

2.7. Inter-rater reliability

All studies were independently coded by a second reviewer. Inter-rater reliability was determined by the intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) ( Shrout and Fleiss, 1979 ). This statistic allows for the appropriate calculation of weighted values of rater agreement and accounts for proximity, rather than equality of ratings. A two-way mixed effects, average measures model with absolute agreement was utilized. Independent ratings demonstrated an excellent level of inter-rater reliability (2-way mixed ICC = 0.91; 95% CI 0.77–0.96).

Our search identified 365 papers. After removing duplicates 221 papers remained. Of these 191 were removed based on screening of title and abstract. The remaining 30 articles were considered and assessed as full texts. Of them eleven did not pass the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Nineteen final eligible studies remained and were individually assessed for this review. The study selection process is reported as recommended by the PRISMA group ( Moher et al., 2010 ) in Fig. 1 .

Flow diagram.

The final 19 articles eligible for review were then rated for quality of evidence (in relation to the current papers review question, see Table 1 ). Following Connolly et al. (2012) we calculated the mean (10.3) and mode (10.5) as a means of determining which papers provided relatively weaker or stronger evidence. However, we departed from the approach taken by Connolly and colleagues who assigned papers to two categories (weaker and stronger quality of evidence) and instead categorised papers into three categories (weaker, moderate and stronger evidence). This decision was made as an equal number of papers fell above and below the mode of 10.5 (also the median), which in turn meant that classifying papers with the modal/median score as either weaker or stronger evidence arbitrarily resulted in that category appearing as a majority. Based on this, 8 papers (42%) were categorised as providing weaker evidence, 3 papers (16%) were categorised as providing moderate evidence and 8 papers (42%) were categorised as providing stronger evidence. See Fig. 2 for a histogram displaying quality of evidence ratings.

Histogram of quality of evidence ratings.

A closer look into methodologies helps unpack these ratings. The majority ( n  = 11) of studies collected data at multiple timepoints (two or more) from multiple groups or conditions; 6 studies collected data from a single group at multiple timepoints, two from a single group at a single time point. Notably, more than half ( n  = 10) of the studies did not compare gamified and non-gamified versions of the interventions studied. Sample sizes ranged from 5 to 251, sampling methods included both convenient and systematic.

Chief modalities employed were mobile applications ( n  = 7) and websites ( n  = 6), with several studies offering an intervention across both. Two studies each used analog techniques, social networking sites, or bespoke devices, namely a modified fork and a Wii console and Wii Fit board. Game design elements included avatars, challenges, feedback, leaderboards, levels, progress indicators, rewards and story/theme and social interaction (see Table 2 ). A total of 46 instances of implemented gamification elements were found across the 19 papers. The most commonly employed elements were rewards ( n  = 16), leaderboards ( n  = 6) and avatars ( n  = 6).

Frequency of user of game design elements.

There was a broad variety without discernible patterns in outcome measures (including surveys/questionnaires, interviews, diary entries, videos, log files and equipment readings such as blood glucose readings), target audiences, or contexts, including medical settings, home recovery, self-assessment, health monitoring, stress management, improving eating behaviours, and increasing physical activity.

Overall (see Table 3 ), positive effects of gamified interventions were reported in the majority of cases ( n  = 22, 59%), with a significant proportion of neutral or mixed effects ( n  = 15, 41%) and no purely negative effects reported. The majority of assessed outcomes were behavioural ( n  = 19, 51%) or cognitive ( n  = 17, 46%). Affect was rarely assessed ( n  = 1, 3%).

Positive, mixed/neutral and negative health and well-being impacts of gamification.

Beyond health and well-being impacts, 12 studies assessed user experience impacts, with 5 (42%) reporting positive, 5 (42%) reporting mixed and 2 (16%) reporting negative impacts.

4. Discussion

For the most part, gamification has been well received; it has been shown to foster positive impacts on affect, behaviour, cognition and user experience. The majority of studies reported gamification had a positive influence on health and well-being. In those cases where gamification had mixed or negative effects, the primary issues seemed to be: 1) the context in which gamification was used (e.g., mindfulness), 2) the manner in which gamification was applied (e.g., exaggerated feedback), or 3) a mismatch between the gamification techniques used and the target audience (e.g., non-beginners feeling that gamification interfered with access to the target activities).

4.1. RQ1. What evidence is there for the effectiveness of gamification applied to health and wellbeing?

We assessed evidence based on the number, quality and the reported effects of available studies. We identified a total of 19 studies assessing the effects of gamified health and wellbeing interventions published since 2012 (avg. 5 studies/year). The most comparable serious games for health meta-analysis in terms of inclusion and exclusion criteria is DeSmet et al. (2014) , which found 53 studies published between 1989 and 2013 (avg. 2 studies/year). This provides evidence that health gamification research like gamification research in general is progressing at a fast pace (cf. Hamari et al., 2014a,b ).

Quality of evidence ratings of existing research conducted by two raters, indicated an equal number of papers were of weak ( n  = 8) or strong ( n  = 8) quality, and the remainder ( n  = 3) were of moderate quality. This suggests that health and wellbeing research is approximately in line with the low evidence quality of gamification research in general (cf. Hamari et al., 2014a , Hamari et al., 2014b ) or perhaps slightly better. It is also consistent with the quality of research found in (serious) game research in general: our study found a mean quality rating of 10.3 (with 42% of papers below the mean and classified as providing weaker evidence). In comparison, Connolly et al. (2012 p. 665) reported a mean rating of 8.56 (with 46% of papers classified as providing weaker evidence). While the number of studies included in the current review precludes any firm conclusions, the slightly higher mean quality score found in the current study could indicate the quality of evidence for empirical effectiveness is slightly higher in gamification in health and wellbeing than the broader serious games literature. More broadly, it is worth noting that the small number and low quality ratings of studies included in this review reflect the relative infancy of the gamification field and the formative nature of research conducted to date.

It should also be noted that this analysis of quality of evidence is not intended as a critique of the peer review the selected papers underwent. The papers were categorised as providing lower, moderate or stronger evidence solely with respect to the weight of empirical evidence for health and well-being effects; studies may well be considered differently based on other aims and criteria.

The impact of gamified interventions on health and well-being was found to be predominantly positive (59%). However, a significant portion (41%) of studies reported mixed or neutral effects. More specifically, findings were largely positive for behavioural impacts (13 positive, 6 mixed or neutral), whereas the evidence for cognitive outcomes is less clear-cut, with an approximately equal number of reported positive ( n  = 8) and mixed/neutral ( n  = 9) impacts. Notably, no direct negative impacts on health and wellbeing were reported, although 2 of 12 studies that additionally assessed user experience reported negative impacts on the latter. This picture is more positive than comparable general gamification reviews (cf. Hamari et al., 2014a , Seaborn and Fels, 2015 ). Current results suggest gamification of health and wellbeing interventions can lead to positive impacts, particularly for behaviours, and is unlikely to produce negative impacts. That being said, gamification should be used with caution when the user experience is critical, e.g. where users can voluntarily opt in and out of the intervention. For example, Spillers and Asimakopoulos (2014) documented user complaints about the poor usability of gamified running apps, which resulted in individual users ceasing to use them. Boendermaker et al. (2015) similarly suggest that gamification may detract from usability and user experience by adding task demands to the interface.

4.2. RQ2. How is gamification being applied to health and wellbeing applications?

The majority of papers ( n  = 7) explored mobile devices or websites as the delivery platform ( n  = 6). Positive effects were also found outside the digital domain including a gamified physical display in the classroom ( Jones et al., 2014b , Jones et al., 2014a ) and a sensor-equipped fork designed to influence children's eating habits ( Kadomura et al., 2014 ). This is in line with the identified promises of everyday life fit and broad accessibility of gamification through mobile and ubiquitous sensor technology. That being said, there are few studies directly testing the differences and effects of everyday life fit and accessibility in mobile/ubiquitous versus PC/bespoke device-based interventions. Boendermaker et al. (2015) found no difference in effectiveness between a web-based and mobile gamified cognitive bias modification training for alcohol use, but did not explicitly design and control for everyday life fit and accessibility as independent variables.

Although the assessed studies included a broad range of game design elements, there was a clear focus on rewards , constituting 16 of a total of 46 instantiations of game design elements across studies (35%), followed by leaderboards and avatars (6 instantiations or 13% each). A notable 84% of all individual studies involved rewards in some form (16 out of 19 studies). Not a single included study captured effects of game design elements on intrinsic motivation as a direct outcome (e.g. motivation to exercise) or mediator for other health and wellbeing outcomes. Taken together with the fact that the majority of studies focused purely behavioural outcomes (see above), this indicates that the dominant theoretical and practical logic of the studied health and wellbeing gamification interventions is positive reinforcement ( Deterding, 2015a, pp. 43–45 ). In other words, the promise of intrinsically motivating health behaviour by taking learnings from game design is currently neither explored nor tested.

Eighteen of the 19 included studies implemented multiple game elements, and no study tested for the independent effects of individual elements. This makes it difficult to attribute effects clearly to individual game elements, and again underlines the need for more rigorously designed studies. With this caveat, the strongest evidence available does support that rewards 5 drive health behaviours: Hamari and Koivisto (2015) found rewards in the form of points and achievements to be associated with improvements in desire to exercise. Thorsteinsen et al. (2014) saw points (in combination with leaderboards) to contribute significantly to increased physical activity. Chen and Pu (2014) similarly found that rewards (badges and points) and leaderboards led to an increase in physical activity among dyads working cooperatively (or working in a hybrid cooperative/competitive mode), but not among dyads working competitively. Allam et al. (2015) found that rewards (points, badges and medals in combination with leaderboards) were associated with increased physical activity and sense of empowerment as well as decreased health care utilization among Rheumatoid Arthritis patients. Cafazzo et al. (2012) saw rewards (in the form of points that could be redeemed for prizes) to contribute to the frequency of blood glucose measurement among individuals with type 1 diabetes. Riva et al. (2014) similarly found a positive impact of points (with leaderboards) on outcomes related to chronic back pain, including reduced medication misuse, lowered pain burden, and increased exercise. With a group of highly trait-anxious participants, Dennis and O'Toole (2014) found rewards (in the form of points) associated with reduced subjective anxiety and stress reactivity.

In contrast to these positive outcomes, Maher et al. (2015) report mixed results: rewards (in combination with leaderboards) led to a short-term (8 week follow-up) increase in moderate to vigorous physical activity, but no long-term effects (20 week follow-up). Similarly, they found no impact of gamification on self-reported general or mental quality of life. Studying a mobile application designed to increase routine walking, Zuckerman and Gal-Oz (2014) similarly found no differences between gamified (points and leaderboards) and non-gamified versions. Relatedly, in a qualitative study of gamified mobile running applications, Spillers and Asimakopoulos (2014) observed poor usability of gamified applications leading to users stopping to use them.

Avatars are commonly employed as a gamification technique to represent the user in the application context. Again, the majority of studies found avatars were associated with positive outcomes. Kuramoto et al. (2013) developed an application with an avatar that ‘grew stronger’ the longer users were standing instead of sitting on public transport. They found evidence for increased motivation to stand. Dennis and O'Toole (2014) compared a gamified mobile attention-bias modification training for anxiety using virtual characters with a placebo training and found it to significantly reduce subjective anxiety and stress reactivity. In a series of two studies, Jones et al., 2014a , Jones et al., 2014b found that avatars (in combination with rewards, levels and narrative) led to increased fruit and vegetable consumption among children. Assessing the effectiveness of a gamified (avatar and backstory) application designed to moderate alcohol use, Boendermaker et al. (2015) observed a positive impact on motivation to train; however, participants reported greater task demand associated with the gamified version of the application.

Social Interaction was also commonly employed as a means to engage users and was found to increase user experiences of fun and motivation in the context of moderating alcohol consumption ( Boendermaker et al., 2015 ), to have a positive influence on physical activity (Juho Hamari and Koivisto, 2015 , Maher et al., 2015 , Spillers and Asimakopoulos, 2014 ) and flourishing mental health ( Hall et al., 2013 ). Less commonly employed gamed design elements across studies included levels ( Cafazzo et al., 2012 ; Juho Hamari and Koivisto, 2015 , Kuramoto et al., 2013 , Ludden et al., 2014 ), progress ( Ahtinen et al., 2013 , Ludden et al., 2014 , Spillers and Asimakopoulos, 2014 ), story/theme ( Boendermaker et al., 2015 , Jones et al., 2014b , Jones et al., 2014a ), challenges ( Ludden et al., 2014 , Spillers and Asimakopoulos, 2014 ) and feedback ( Kadomura et al., 2014 ).

With respect to theories of motivation, very few studies provide insight regarding the extent to which gamification that draws on relevant theory is more effective. Only a minority of studies ( n  = 8) explicitly discuss motivational theory and very few studies ( n  = 3) are conducted in a manner that assesses whether a motivational construct is associated with positive outcomes. Most commonly, self-determination theory and intrinsic/extrinsic motivation were the theories discussed in relation to health gamification ( Hall et al., 2013 ; Juho Hamari and Koivisto, 2015 , Riva et al., 2014 , Spillers and Asimakopoulos, 2014 , Zuckerman and Gal-Oz, 2014 ). Other theories (relevant to motivation) that were considered include design strategies to reduce attrition and guides for behaviour change ( Ahtinen et al., 2013 ), empowerment ( Allam et al., 2015 , Riva et al., 2014 ) and the transtheoretical model of behaviour change ( Reynolds et al., 2013 ).

As discussed above, most studies considered multiple gamification elements simultaneously making it difficult to isolate the effects of individual elements. In some cases, this also makes it more difficult to consider the impact of specific theories of motivation. Hamari and Koivisto (2015) found a positive impact of social norms and recognition providing support for self-determination theory in terms of relatedness of social influence. Similarly, although mixed evidence was found for the impact of the gamification elements used, Zuckerman and Gal-Oz (2014) interpret their results as confirming the value of Nicholson's (2012) concept of ‘meaningful’ gamification and the self-determination driven ideas of informational feedback and customizable elements. Further affirming the notion of ‘meaningful’ gamification, Ahtinen et al. (2013) discuss how their findings highlight the importance of meaningful experiences rather than rewards.

4.3. RQ3. What audiences are targeted? What effect differences between audiences are observed?

A broad range of audiences were targeted throughout the research reviewed. While some studies focussed on younger participants (ranging from Kindergarten age ( Jones et al., 2014b , Kadomura et al., 2014 ) to adolescents ( Cafazzo et al., 2012 ), the majority of studies were conducted with adults. Regardless, positive outcomes have been found for children ( Jones et al., 2014a , Kadomura et al., 2014 ), adolescents ( Cafazzo et al., 2012 ) and young adults ( Kuramoto et al., 2013 , Zuckerman and Gal-Oz, 2014 ).A small number of studies focussed on specific audiences, such primary school teachers ( Ludden et al., 2014 ), participants with specific health issues like chronic back pain Riva et al., 2014 , rheumatoid arthritis ( Allam et al., 2015 ), or high levels of trait anxiety ( Dennis and O'Toole, 2014 ). It is not immediately clear from the reviewed studies what relationship exists between existing gaming affinity or expertise and the effectiveness of gamification as previous experience with digital games is not commonly reported.

Beyond demographics, factors relevant to the potential effectiveness of gamification seem to include the users' personality ( Hall et al., 2013 ), as well as their level of knowledge, expertise, abilities, and basic motivation to engage in the target activity initially. In a study where 15 first-time Wii Fit users were asked to use a Wii balance board to increase their fitness, findings about the effectiveness of gamification were mixed. Only beginners responded positively to gamified elements incorporated into the exercise activities, while these same features had a negative effect on experienced fitness users, leading them to abandon the system as a fitness tool ( Reynolds et al., 2013 ). Non-beginners reported that gamified features slowed down the pace of the exercise, leading to their disengagement, and feedback was disliked, as praising was considered exaggerated.

Importantly, the studies reviewed suggest that the benefits of health gamification extend beyond audiences who have pre-existing motivations to engage in the target activity. Although many ( n  = 11) of the studies involved participants who were likely to have pre-existing motivation, of the studies conducted with participants without existing motivations ( n  = 8), the majority ( n  = 7) showed some positive results. Positive impacts of gamification were found with young children around eating behaviours ( Jones et al., 2014a , Jones et al., 2014b , Kadomura et al., 2014 ); university students regarding alcohol consumption ( Boendermaker et al., 2015 ); commuters with respect to standing Kuramoto et al., 2013 and teachers in relation to positive psychology training. Furthermore, when comparing beginners and experts, Reynolds and colleagues found positive impacts of gamification on exercise behaviour only for the beginners (who are presumably less intrinsically motivated than experts).

4.4. RQ4. What health and well-being domains are targeted?

Across fields, the most popular and successful context for the application of gamification is physical health ( n  = 13) and more specifically, its use for motivating individuals to increase their physical activity, or to engage in self-monitoring of fitness levels ( n  = 10). Notably, a positive impact of gamification on physical activity related outcomes are observed in 8 of the 10 studies with mixed effects observed by Maher et al. (2015) and Spillers and Asimakopoulos (2014) .

Motivation to exercise is increased largely through “fun” activities, through cooperating, competing, and sharing a common goal with peers or exercise buddies (e.g., Chen and Pu, 2014 ), or through various other social incentives (e.g., Spillers and Asimakopoulos, 2014 ). There is evidence that gamification features may be more motivating than exercise alone ( Chen and Pu, 2014 ). Some elements can stimulate increased exercise and reduce physical fatigue ( Kuramoto et al., 2013 . Gamifying fitness is a way to attract users, encourage participation and motivate behaviour change ( Reynolds et al., 2013 ). There is also evidence to suggest that social influence may play a key role in the influence of gamification on willingness to exercise (Juho Hamari and Koivisto, 2015 ). While gamified elements can provide motivation to maintain or increase physical activity, such outcomes may not be sustained over time ( Thorsteinsen et al., 2014 ); these responses are not necessarily consistent for all types of users ( Reynolds et al., 2013 ); and not all types of elements help users achieve their fitness goals or positively impact user adoption ( Spillers and Asimakopoulos, 2014 ). Nevertheless, these studies combined lend support to the use of gamification as a viable intervention strategy in fitness contexts. Outside of activity, within the domain of physical health a positive influence of gamification was also found in three studies of nutrition ( Jones et al., 2014b , Jones et al., 2014a , Kadomura et al., 2014 ).

The remaining studies exploring the impact of gamification within the domain of physical health examined illness related issues. Gamification was found to have a positive influence on healthcare utilization ( Allam et al., 2015 ), the reduction of medication misuse ( Allam et al., 2015 , Riva et al., 2014 ) and blood glucose monitoring ( Cafazzo et al., 2012 ). In two studies these changes were also associated with a positive influence on patient empowerment ( Allam et al., 2015 , Riva et al., 2014 ).

In the domain of mental health, gamification has been shown to have positive effects on wellbeing, personal growth and flourishing ( Hall et al., 2013 , Ludden et al., 2014 ) as well as stress and anxiety ( Dennis and O'Toole, 2014 ). This supports the identified promise of gamification to directly support wellbeing . More mixed results were found with respect to substance use, with evidence of an increased motivation to train with a gamified version of a tool (designed to alter positive associations with alcohol in memory), alongside evidence of lowered ease of use. However, in a study of mental wellness training, which involved concentration, relaxation and other techniques to encourage changes in thoughts and negative beliefs, gamification was received with skepticism by just over half of the users ( Ahtinen et al., 2013 ). Participants suggested that points, rewards and achievements were a poor fit in the context of mental wellness and mindfulness. However, it is not clear to what extent this point of view is related to the specific types of gamification used in the study and whether the finding would extend to a broader sample.

4.5. Limitations

As noted throughout the discussion, the small number and wide variability in the design, quality and health behaviour targets of the gamification studies included in this review limits the conclusions which can be made. There is a need for more well-designed studies comparing gamified and non-gamified interventions: we need randomized controlled trials and double-blind experiments that tease out the effect of individual game design elements on mediators like user experience or motivation and health and wellbeing outcomes, with adequately powered sample sizes, control groups and long-term follow up assessments of outcomes. The studies included in this review typically conflated the assessment of multiple game design elements at once, often involved small sample sizes, did not feature control groups, or only focused on user experience outcomes. Additionally, very few studies have explored the long-term or sustained effects of gamified products, which means that current support for gamification may in part reflect its novelty.

Finally, the heuristic used (positive, negative, neutral) in the current review to evaluate impact, was considered appropriate given the heterogeneity of included studies. However, once more studies on individual gaming elements are completed, future reviews should consider using a more complex heuristic to evaluate impact.

5. Conclusions

As the main contributors to health and wellbeing have shifted towards personal health behaviours, policymakers and health care providers are increasingly looking for interventions that motivate positive health behaviour change, particularly interventions leveraging the capabilities of computing technology. Compared to existing approaches like serious games for health or persuasive technology, gamification has been framed as a promising new alternative that embodies a “new model for health”: “seductive, ubiquitous, lifelong health interfaces” for well-being self-care ( Sawyer, 2014 ). More specifically, proponents of gamification for health and wellbeing have highlighted seven potential advantages of gamification: (1) supporting intrinsic motivation (as games have been shown to motivate intrinsically), (2) broad accessibility through mobile technology and ubiquitous sensors, (3) broad appeal across audiences (as gaming has become mainstream), (4) broad applicability across health and wellbeing risks and factors, (5) cost-benefit efficiency of enhancing existing systems (versus building bespoke games), (6) everyday life fit (reorganising existing activity rather than adding additional demands to people's lives), (7) direct wellbeing support (by providing positive experiences).

That being said, little is known whether and how effectively gamification can drive positive health and wellbeing outcomes, let alone deliver on these promises. In response, we conducted a systematic literature review, identifying 19 papers that report empirical evidence on the effect of gamification on health and wellbeing. Just over half (59%) of the studies reported positive effects, whereas 41% reported mixed or neutral effects. This suggests that gamification could have a positive effect on health and wellbeing, especially when applied in a skilled way. The evidence is strongest for the use of gamification to target behavioural outcomes, particularly physical activity, and weakest for its impact on cognitions. There is also initial support for gamification as a tool to support other physical health related outcomes including nutrition and medication use as well as mental health outcomes including wellbeing, personal growth, flourishing, stress and anxiety. However, evidence for the impact of gamification on the user experience, was mixed. Further research that isolates the impacts of gamification (e.g., randomized controlled trials) is needed to determine its effectiveness in the health and wellbeing domain.

In terms of the highlighted promises, little can be said conclusively. No intervention examined intrinsic motivation support (1), as the majority of studies subscribed to a behaviorist reinforcement paradigm. Most studies did employ mobile and/or ubiquitous technology (2), yet no study directly assessed whether they differed in accessibility compared to stationary delivery modes. The range of participant samples employed across studies suggests likely broad appeal across audiences (3) and the wide range of health and wellbeing issues addressed across studies does support broad applicability (4) in principle. None of the studies included assessed cost-benefit efficiency (5) or everyday life fit (6). On a positive note, multiple studies found evidence that gamified interventions did directly support participants' wellbeing (7).

Acknowledgements

Funding for this project was provided by the Young and Well Cooperative Research Centre, the Digital Creativity Labs (digitalcreativity.ac.uk), jointly funded by EPSRC/AHRC/InnovateUK under grant no EP/M023265/1, and the Movember Foundation (via the Mindmax project).

1 Authors like Deterding et al. (2011) caution to not delimit gamification to a specific design goal like motivation, but grant that motivating behaviours is indeed the overwhelming use case for gamification, as borne out by systematic reviews.

2 https://secure-nikeplus.nike.com/plus/

3 https://zombiesrungame.com

4 http://superbetter.com

5 Because leaderboards were only ever found implemented in conjunction with rewards, we report jointly on both here.

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• Open access
• Published: 31 January 2023

Gamification of e-learning in higher education: a systematic literature review

• Amina Khaldi   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-4935-1840 1 ,
• Rokia Bouzidi 1 &
• Fahima Nader 1  

Smart Learning Environments volume  10 , Article number:  10 ( 2023 ) Cite this article

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In recent years, university teaching methods have evolved and almost all higher education institutions use e-learning platforms to deliver courses and learning activities. However, these digital learning environments present significant dropout and low completion rates. This is primarily due to the lack of student motivation and engagement. Gamification which can be defined as the application of game design elements in non-game activities has been used to address the issue of learner distraction and stimulate students’ involvement in the course. However, choosing the right combination of game elements remains a challenge for gamification designers and practitioners due to the lack of proven design approaches, and there is no one-size-fits-all approach that works regardless of the gamification context. Therefore, our study focused on providing a comprehensive overview of the current state of gamification in online learning in higher education that can serve as a resource for gamification practitioners when designing gamified systems. In this paper, we aimed to systematically explore the different game elements and gamification theory that have been used in empirical studies; establish different ways in which these game elements have been combined and provide a review of the state-of-the-art of approaches proposed in the literature for gamifying e-learning systems in higher education. A systematic search of databases was conducted to select articles related to gamification in digital higher education for this review, namely, Scopus and Google Scholar databases. We included studies that consider the definition of gamification as the application of game design elements in non-game activities, designed for online higher education. We excluded papers that use the term of gamification to refer to game-based learning, serious games, games, video games, and those that consider face-to-face learning environments. We found that PBL elements (points, badges, and leaderboards), levels, and feedback and are the most commonly used elements for gamifying e-learning systems in higher education. We also observed the increasing use of deeper elements like challenges and storytelling. Furthermore, we noticed that of 39 primary studies, only nine studies were underpinned by motivational theories, and only two other studies used theoretical gamification frameworks proposed in the literature to build their e-learning systems. Finally, our classification of gamification approaches reveals the trend towards customization and personalization in gamification and highlights the lack of studies on content gamification compared to structural gamification.

Introduction

In recent years, most universities use e-learning platforms to deliver courses. Teaching in the form of e-learning is a modern supplement, and sometimes even an alternative to traditional education (Górska, 2016 ). Especially since the last few years, with the spread of the Covid-19 crisis, higher education institutions had to shift from traditional teaching to online teaching as an alternative to resume learners' learning (Sofiadin & Azuddin, 2021 ). However, over time, these digital environments brought several challenges. On one hand, student motivation decreases, resulting in a lack of engagement and participation in courses. On the other hand, instructors struggle to maintain learners’ attention, leading to the eventual abandonment of online education systems. To solve this problem and create engaging e-learning platforms, the gamification technique was proposed.

Game technologies create opportunities for higher education institutions to redesign and innovate their e-learning models to support learning experiences among learners (Alhammad & Moreno, 2018 ). The introduction and growing expansion of gamification in education and learning contexts promotes critical reflection on the development of projects that transform students’ learning experiences (Garone & Nesteriuk, 2019 ). However, is it that simple to create effective gamified e-learning systems especially in the context of higher education?

Early applied work on gamification of educational settings suggested positive-learning, but mixed results have been obtained (Seaborn & Fels, 2015 ). While gamification in general learning systems is known to have a positive impact on student motivation, evidence on its effectiveness in higher education settings is mixed and still uncertain due to the complicated environment in the higher education context. First, the level of difficulty of study is higher at the university than at lower levels of education, and students are more aware of the importance of education they have chosen (Urh et al., 2015 ). Moreover, tertiary education is characterized by the variety of students’ profiles, needs and learning methods; thereby, each game element and even each combination of game elements affects each student differently. Given this diversity of features in the higher education context and the increasing number of inter- and multidisciplinary programs, the process of applying gamification is becoming more complex.

The purpose of this systematic review was to provide a comprehensive overview of the current state of gamification in e-learning in higher education. We focused on identifying how designers currently deal with gamification in the digital higher education context, what game elements they use, how these elements are combined, and what gamification theories are used. In addition, this study sought to find data on existing gamification approaches in the literature, especially those suggested to be applied in digital higher education. Our study differs from previous studies in several ways. In our study, we first wanted to compare our results with previous research’s results that addressed the same research questions in terms of trends in the use of game elements, i.e. whether designers who develop gamified e-learning systems still use classic game elements such as points, badges, and leaderboards, or whether they expand the list of game elements used to include deeper game elements like challenges, storytelling, and so on. We then focused on the underpinning gamification theories used in empirical work, and specifically we sought to understand whether empirical research is beginning to use the various gamification frameworks available in the literature, or whether it is still relying on theories and methods that are highly theoretical and do not provide clear guidance to designers when choosing the right set of game elements (Toda et al., 2020 ). Also, in our study, we sought to find out how game elements are combined in gamified learning systems in higher education. Previous studies have not fully explored this point, with the exception of the study (Dichev & Dicheva, 2017 ). Finally, we proposed a classification of gamification approaches proposed in the context of e-learning in higher education based on several relevant criteria.

The remainder of this manuscript has the following structure. " Related works " section, briefly reviews some of the most relevant review papers. " Systematic literature review methodology " section, systematic literature review methodology, presents the approach we followed in conducting our paper retrieval. " Results of the search " section, results of the research, presents responses to our defined research questions. " Discussion and limitations " section is dedicated for discussion of the results; and finally, we conclude.

Related works

Prior reviews.

This section briefly reviews some of the relevant literature reviews on gamification in higher education related to the topic of our systematic review. The objective is to be able to compare our findings later in the results section to prior reviews’ findings and to shed a more realistic light on any advances in gamification in e-learning in the context of higher education.

Dichev and Dicheva ( 2017 ) critically reviewed the advancement of educational gamification. This review paper was the only one to address the issue of combining game elements in gamified learning systems. The authors found that in all reviewed works, no justification is given for the selection of particular game elements. The study concluded that there is a need for further studies to improve our understanding of how individual game elements are associated with behavioral and motivational outcomes and how they function in an educational context.

Ozdamli ( 2018 ) examined 313 studies on gamification in education. It used content analysis to determine trends in gamification research. The study sought to determine the distribution of empirical research based on a variety of criteria, namely: distribution of studies based on years, number of authors, type of publication, paradigms, research sample, environments, theory/model/strategy, learning area and distribution of game components, mechanics and dynamics. The author found that motivational theories are the most frequently used approach in gamification studies and that the most frequently used game components are goals, rewards and progression sticks.

Khalil et al. ( 2018 ) reviewed the state of the art on gamification in MOOCs (Massive Open Online Course) by answering eight research questions. One of these questions sought to identify elements of gamification that have been implemented or proposed for implementation in MOOCs. The study found that the most commonly used elements in the application of gamification in MOOCs are badges, leaderboards, progress, and challenges. According to the study, progress and challenges are used more frequently in MOOCs than points.

The paper (Alhammad & Moreno, 2018 ) studied gamification in the context of software engineering (SE) education. The study sought to understand how gamification was applied in the SE curriculum and what game elements were used. The study identified four gamification approaches from the primary studies analyzed: papers that implemented gamification by following an existing gamification approach in the literature, papers that adapted psychological and educational theories as gamification approaches, papers that designed and followed their own gamification approach, and finally, papers that did not follow any specific gamification approach. In addition, leaderboards, points and levels were found to be the most frequently used gaming components. Similarly, challenges, feedback, and rewards were the most commonly used mechanics, and progression was the most commonly used dynamic.

Majuri et al. ( 2018 ) reviewed 128 empirical research papers in the literature on gamification in education and learning. It was found that points, challenges, badges and leaderboards are the most commonly used gamification affordances in education which are affordances that refer to achievement and progression while social and immersion-oriented affordances are much less common.

In the paper (Zainuddin et al., 2020 ), the authors addressed a research question related to our research area, namely the underlying theoretical models used in gamification research. It was found that in the studies that implicitly mention their theoretical underpinnings, self-determination theory is the most commonly used, followed by flow theory and goal-setting, while the other studies do not provide any theoretical content.

More recently, van Gaalen et al. ( 2021 ) reviewed 44 research studies in the health professions education literature. The study addressed the question of what game attributes are used in gamified environments, and sought to understand the use of theory throughout the gamification process. The study used Landers ( 2014 )’s framework to categorize the identified game elements into game attributes and revealed that in most reviewed studies the game attributes ‘assessment’ and/or ‘conflict/challenge’ were embedded in the learning environment. Regarding the use of theory in gamification processes, most of the identified studies on gamification in health professions education were not theory-based, or theoretical considerations were not included or not yet developed.

Finally, the authors of the paper (Kalogiannakis et al., 2021 ) performed a systematic literature review on gamification in science education by reviewing 24 empirical research papers. A research question related to our field of study was addressed in this review, namely, what learning theory is used, and what game elements are incorporated into gaming apps. The findings of the studyshowed that most articles did not provide details about the theoretical content or the theory on which they were based. The few articles that used theoretical frameworks were based on self-determination theory SDT, flow theory, goal-setting theory, cognitive theory of multimedia learning and motivation theory. In addition, the study found that the most common game elements and mechanics used in gamified science education environments were competitive setup, leaderboards, points and levels.

Systematic literature review methodology

In this paper of systematic review, we followed a methodology to identify how gamification technique has been used in digital learning environments, specifically in higher education. We sought to identify the game elements that have been used the most, the way they have been combined, and the different frameworks proposed in the literature for gamification of e-learning systems in higher education. A systematic literature review is a means of identifying, evaluating and interpreting all available research relevant to a particular research question, or topic area, or phenomenon of interest (Kitchenham, 2004 ). Kitchenham ( 2004 ) summarizes the stages of a systematic review in three main phases: Planning the Review, Conducting the Review, and Reporting the Review. The first phase ‘Planning the Review’ includes the formulation of research questions, identification of key concepts and constructing the search queries. The second phase ‘Conducting the Review’ consists on study selection based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. Finally, the third phase ‘Reporting the Review’ relates to data extraction and responding to research questions. In the following, we detail the main steps of each phase.

Search strategy

We started by identifying the main goal of this systematic literature review by clearly formulating the following research questions:

Which game elements and gamification theories are used in gamified learning systems?

How these game elements are combined?

Which gamification design approaches are available in the literature?

Then, we constructed a list of key concepts that are: gamification, e-learning and higher education. After that, we identified the alternative terms for each of the key concepts as some authors may refer to the same concept using a different term. For the concept of gamification, we identified this list of free text terms: gamify, game elements, game dynamics, game mechanics, game components, game aesthetics and gameful. For the two other concepts of e-learning and higher education, we identified these terms: education, educational, learning, teaching, course, syllabus, syllabi, curriculum, and curricula.

We formulated two search queries based on the terms identified previously:

For research questions 1and 2:

(gamif* OR gameful OR “game elements” OR “game mechanics” OR “game dynamics” OR “game components” OR “game aesthetics”) AND (education OR educational OR learning OR teaching OR course OR syllabus OR syllabi OR curriculum OR curricula).

For research question 3:

(gamif* OR gameful OR “game elements” OR “game mechanics” OR “game dynamics” OR “game components” OR “game aesthetics”) AND (education OR educational OR learning OR teaching OR course OR syllabus OR syllabi OR curriculum OR curricula) AND (framework OR method OR design OR model OR approach OR theory OR strategy).

We conducted our research by searching the databases using the search query formulated previously. We performed our search in the Scopus and Google Scholar databases as the first is one of the most professional indexing databases and the second is the most popular, so it helps to identify further eligible studies. The search was performed in December 2021. Although the Scopus database indexed the publication abstracts, most of the articles were not available through Scopus, and the articles were retrieved from the following publishers:

SEMANTIC SCHOLAR,

(Hallifax et al. ) SAGE,

Science Direct.

The exception was some articles that could not be accessed. We also performed a backward snowballing search to identify further relevant studies by scanning and searching the references of papers marked as potentially relevant (Dichev & Dicheva, 2017 ; Mora et al., 2017 ; Gari & Radermacher, 2018 ; Khalil et al., 2018 ; Ozdamli, 2018 ; Subhash & Cudney, 2018 ; da Silva et al., 2019 ; Hallifax et al., 2019a , 2019b ; Legaki & Hamari, 2020 ; Zainuddin et al., 2020 ; Saleem et al., 2021 ; Swacha, 2021 ; van Gaalen et al., 2021 ) in search of other relevant studies.

Inclusion and exclusion criteria

In the following table, we summarized the inclusion and exclusion criteria that we considered when we screened full text articles (Table 1 ).

Study selection

To select the relevant studies for this systematic review, a manual screening was performed. First, we reviewed the titles and abstracts of different records that were retrieved. Then, citations were imported to Endnote and duplicate records were removed. After that, we read the full text of all retained articles for inclusion and exclusion based on the eligibility criteria. In case of uncertainty, discussion was organized with the research team to reach consensus about the articles in question.

Data extraction

We developed a data extraction form that was refined and discussed until consensus was obtained. The extraction form was then used by the review author to extract data from all included studies. In this part of this paper, we have considered two types of papers: papers representing case studies to extract the game elements used in the developed e-learning systems, the underpinning theories behind the gamification process and the way game elements were combined with each other. The second type of retrieved papers is about framework proposals, from which we could identify models, approaches, and design processes proposed in the literature for gamifying digital learning environments in tertiary education level.

Results of the search

General results.

In this literature review, we reported the most extensive overview of the empirical research literature on gamification of e-learning in higher education to date. The selection process of relevant studies is shown in Fig.  1 . We analyzed a total of 90 papers to respond to the three research questions formulated previously. First, we retrieved 39 papers in the form of empirical studies carried out at university level and analyzed them to identify what game elements are used, what gamification theories are used to guide the gamification process, and how these game elements are combined. We then identified a variety of 51 papers of type theoretical proposals intended to guide the gamification process. Since higher education is part of general learning systems, we included in this review papers that propose gamification approaches for general contexts and general learning systems. Indeed, we identified 16 papers for general application of gamification, 18 papers for gamifying general learning systems and 17 approaches intended to be applied to e-learning systems in higher education.

Flow diagram of the articles selection process

Answering research questions

In following, we will answer the three research questions formulated at the beginning of this article:

Education applications of gamification refer to using game elements for scholastic development in formal and informal settings (Seaborn & Fels, 2015 ). In our case, we were interested in collecting relevant experimental studies on gamification of e-learning systems in higher education. In the following table (Table 2 ), we list and examine 39 experimental studies that have implemented a digital learning system at the higher education level to answer RQ1 . For each study, we analyzed the game elements that were incorporated and the gamification approaches that were followed during the gamification process. For ease of reference, the game elements that were used in e-learning systems to improve student engagement and the underpinning theories are summarized in Table 2 . More detailed descriptions of the 39 empirical studies are presented in “Appendix”.

By analyzing the game elements listed in Table 2 , we noticed that PBL elements (points, badges, and leaderboards), levels, and feedback are the most commonly used elements for gamifying e-learning systems in higher education. This is in line with other reviews’ findings, e.g. (Dichev & Dicheva, 2017 ).

Furthermore, in response to what (Dichev & Dicheva, 2017 ) stated about the fact that gamification with “deeper game elements” (Enders, 2013 ) by incorporating game design principles involving game mechanics and dynamics such as challenges, choice, low-risk failure, role-play or narrative is still scarce, we noted in our systematic literature review that recent studies explore new game elements. Indeed, among the 39 studies analyzed in Table 2 , there are 20 primary studies that used “deeper game elements” (Enders, 2013 ) like challenges and storytelling (narrative). Among these, challenges are the most popular ones.

In Seaborn and Fels ( 2015 ), the authors noted that till 2015, the majority of applied research on gamification was not grounded in theory and did not use gamification frameworks in the design of the system under study. Likewise, in this systematic review, by analyzing the 39 empirical studies listed in Table 2 , we noticed that most studies were not underpinned by gamification theories. This is in line with the findings of other recent studies, such as van Gaalen et al. ( 2021 ) and Kalogiannakis et al. ( 2021 ). Indeed, of the 39 primary studies analyzed in our systematic review, only nine papers (Smith, 2017 ; Kyewski & Krämer, 2018 ; Pilkington, 2018 ; Tsay et al., 2018 ; van Roy & Zaman, 2019 ; De-Marcos et al., 2020 ; Facey-Shaw et al., 2020 ; Sanchez et al., 2020 ; Dikcius et al., 2021 ) adapted theoretical approaches and used them as gamification approaches. These are a set of social and motivational theories resumed in a variety of six different theories, namely: self-determination theory-SDT, Social comparison theory, social exchange theory-SET, cognitive evaluation theory-CET, situated motivational affordance theory, theory of gamified learning (Landers, 2014 ) and user-centered design (Nicholson, 2012 ). Self-determination theory is considerably the most popular one. These findings are correlated with other reviews’ findings such as Zainuddin et al. ( 2020 ) and Kalogiannakis et al. ( 2021 ). Only two other primary studies Marín et al. ( 2019 ) and Dias ( 2017 ) used existing theoretical gamification frameworks to build their gamified e-learning systems. For the remaining papers, some built their owngamification design based on guidelines from the literature whereas others did not cite any theory. Hence, we notice that this distribution is in line with (Alhammad & Moreno, 2018 )’s review findings regarding the use of four different categories of gamification approaches in primary studies, namely, papers that followed existing gamification frameworks, papers that adapted motivational theories to their needs, papers that built their own approach, and finally, those that didn’t follow any specific approach. We also noticed that motivational theories are the most frequently used approach, as noted in Ozdamli ( 2018 ).

For this research question, we sought to identify how game elements are combined in gamified learning systems in higher education. Previous studies have not fully explored this point except the paper (Dichev & Dicheva, 2017 ). By analyzing the different empirical studies involved in this systematic literature review (listed in Table 2 ), we noticed the lack of detailed information about how instructors and designers combined different game elements. Indeed, in all reviewed papers, the authors listed only the game elements employed to gamify their learning systems. In addition, no study provided any justification of the choice made about the sets of game elements to use, nor the way they combined them in the gamified learning systems.

In the reviewed collection, five studies employed one single game element (Coleman, 2018 ; Garnett & Button, 2018 ; Kyewski & Krämer, 2018 ; Facey-Shaw et al., 2020 ; Dikcius et al., 2021 ), three other studies gamified systems using two game elements (Fajiculay et al., 2017 ; Smith, 2017 ; Donnermann et al., 2021 ), five other studies used three game elements (Hisham & Sulaiman, 2017 ; Kasinathan et al., 2018 ; Romero-Rodriguez et al., 2019 ; Khaleel et al., 2020 ; Sanchez et al., 2020 ) while the remaining ones used more than three elements.

This happens due to the lack of studies that provide clear guidelines and justifications for the combination of game elements (Toda et al., 2020 ).

In this section, we will approach RQ3 . We first synthesize the current literature on gamification approaches in a general context. Then, we present a set of gamification approaches for general learning systems. Finally, we list a set of approaches proposed specifically for higher education within e-learning environments. We briefly described each approach in the table below (Table 3 ).

In the table above, we investigated a total of 51 gamification approaches in three different contexts. The first set of approaches (the first 16 rows of Table 3 ) was designed for general use, i.e., for all contexts such as learning, health, marketing and entrepreneurship. While the second set of approaches (the next 18 rows of Table 3 ) targeted general learning contexts, i.e., without any restriction on educational level. Finally, the third set of approaches (the last 17 rows of Table 3 ) was intended to be applied in a specific context, namely digital higher education.

Given our review’s main interest in e-learning in higher education, we will classify the last 17 approaches of Table 3 , which correspond to those designed for e-learning systems in higher education, into several classes based on different relevant criteria that we will detail below. The paper (Saggah et al., 2020 ) proposes categorizing gamification design frameworks into three categories: scenario-based, high-level approach, and Gamification elements guidance. Inspired by this categorization, we propose our categorization, which will be used to classify the different gamification approaches in e-learning in higher education. A description of each category is given in what follows, and our classification results are shown in Table 4 .

Level of detail

High-level approach This group categorizes papers that provide an overview of the design process that serves as a general high-level guideline containing the global phases without detailing which game elements to use and how to implement them.

Gamification elements guidance This group categorizes papers that provide a conceptualization of the gamification elements that can be used in educational environments. These studies can include implementation guidance.

Scenario based This group categorizes papers that provide a descriptive outline of the design process. In other words, these papers propose gamification approaches by describing their application through real empirical studies experimented in real learning environments.

Type from student perspective (adaptive gamification/one size fits all gamification) Adaptive gamification considers that users have different motivations, so it consists of personalizing learning experiences according to each learner profile. Whereas ‘one size fits all’ gamification uses the same gamified system (gamification elements, rules, etc.) for all learners. For ease of use, we will use ‘A’ character for adaptive approaches and x for ‘one size fits all’ ones.

Profundity from pedagogical perspective (structural gamification versus content gamification) structural gamification refers to the application of game design elements to motivate the learner through an instructional content without changing it (Garone & Nesteriuk, 2019 ). It can be made by using clear goals, rewards for achievements, progression system and status, challenge and feedback (Garone & Nesteriuk, 2019 ). Content gamification is the application of elements, mechanics and game thinking to make the content more game-like (Garone & Nesteriuk, 2019 ). It is a one-time structure created only for a specific content or learning objectives and hence cannot be reused for any content (Sanal, 2019 ). Garone and Nesteriuk ( 2019 ) states that elements that can be used in content gamification are story and narrative; challenge, curiosity and exploration; characters and avatars; interactivity, feedback and freedom to fail (Kapp, 2014 ). According to Kapp ( 2014 ), the combination of both structural and content gamification, is the most effective way to build high engaging and motivating environments. For ease of use, we will use ‘C’ character for content approaches and x for structural ones.

Validation This group categorizes papers that provided a validation of the proposed approach through empirical evidence showing its application to e-learning systems in higher education.

Table 4 represents the results of our classification of gamification approaches in the context of e-learning in higher education. Regarding the level of detail, we noticed that most of the analyzed approaches (with a number of 9 out of a total of 17) are of the type of gamification elements guidance (Urh et al., 2015 ; Huang & Hew, 2018 ; Alsubhi & Sahari, 2020 ; Kamunya et al., 2020 ; Winanti et al., 2020 ; Alsubhi et al., 2021 ; Júnior & Farias, 2021 ; Sofiadin & Azuddin, 2021 ; Yamani, 2021 ). This number is followed by a number of 5 approaches of type scenario based (Mi et al., 2018 ; Legaki et al., 2020 ; Al Ghawail et al., 2021 ; Bencsik et al., 2021 ; Fajri et al., 2021 ), and finally, only 2 approaches are categorized as high-level approaches (Carreño, 2018 ; de la Peña et al., 2021 ). It is worth saying that scenario-based approaches are, in most cases, the most difficult to reproduce in other educational environments, as they are very specific, and each environment has its own characteristics. In contrast, high-level approaches are more general and need to be tailored according to the context. Finally, gamification elements guidance approaches can strongly help implement gamified learning environments as they provide a handy catalog of elements that can be injected easily into learning environments.

Furthermore, Table 4 shows that most of the suggested design approaches in the literature are not empirically explored (for example, by using a control and comparing gamified and non-gamified systems). Indeed, of the 17 gamification approaches in the context of e-learning in higher education analyzed, only four approaches have been applied and evaluated by empirical evidence (Huang & Hew, 2018 ; Alsubhi et al., 2021 ; de la Peña et al., 2021 ; Júnior & Farias, 2021 ). Among those four studies, one work was validated with experts (Alsubhi et al., 2021 ).

Moreover, Table 4 shows that of the 17 gamification approaches proposed for application to online learning systems in the context of higher education, two approaches (Carreño, 2018 ; Kamunya et al., 2020 ) fall into the category of adaptive gamification. This shows the trendy nature of personalization in higher education. Finally, Table 4 shows that the 17 approaches that have been proposed to gamify online learning systems in higher education focus solely on structured gamification, neglecting the content side of online learning systems.

Discussion and limitations

Through this systematic review, we identified several papers on the gamification of e-learning in the higher education context. In recent years, the research on gamification in e-learning has been getting traction, and the number of research articles and systematic reviews of research articles is increasing. As a summary of the existing approaches of gamification in e-learning in higher education, we notice the following points:

Gamification of e-learning in higher education: a trending area of research

The systematic review showed that gamification of learning systems is nowadays a hot topic, and research in this field is growing rapidly as well as for e-learning in higher education context, as it is shown by Fig. 2 .

Number of publications per year

Gamification design gaps and tendencies

In general, gamification theory helps in training and shaping participant behavior, however, in our systematic literature review, we observed from RQ1 that the majority of applied research on gamification is not grounded in theory and did not use gamification frameworks in the design of the learning system under study. This highlights the fact that there is a real gap between theoretical and applied work on gamification. One reason may be that existing approaches are very theoretical and cannot strongly assist designers and practitioners when gamifying learning systems, as pointed out by Toda et al. ( 2020 ). This also explains our results to the second research question RQ2 regarding the lack of detail on the combination of game elements used in the experimental studies and the motivation behind choosing specific game elements over others.

To better understand this phenomenon and to find a rationale for this lack of using theory and, thus, the lack of logic behind the use of certain game elements over others and their random linking and combination in gamified learning systems, we addressed the research question RQ3. In the latter, we analyzed the gamification approaches available in the literature and classified them into different categories based on a variety of criteria. Our results revealed that the gamification elements guidance approaches that provide taxonomies of game elements that can be incorporated into learning systems constitute the majority of the approaches that have been proposed for application in online learning in higher education. Those did not provide the psychological and behavioral changes that correspond to each game element. Instead, the older gamification theory was based simply on the behavioral outcomes that come from using gamification and the motivational needs behind it and did not provide details on how to implement them or details on what elements to use.

Using appropriate game elements can lead to higher levels of user motivation, whereas inappropriate game elements can demotivate users (Hallifax et al., 2019a , 2019b ). Thus, it is essential to choose the right combination of game elements that perfectly matches the desired behavior change. To do this, we must first explore the effect of each game element separately (Dichev & Dicheva, 2017 ). Thus, further studies are needed to improve our understanding of how individual game elements relate to behavioral and motivational outcomes so that we can identify their contribution in studies that mix multiple game elements (Dichev & Dicheva, 2017 ). An example of such study was provided in the health domain in the paper (Hervas et al., 2017 ). The latter proposed a taxonomy of gamification elements used in the domain of health by relating them to psychological fundamentals on behavioral changes, like Self-efficacy, Social influence, and Behavioral momentum. This work can facilitate researchers' empirical validation of gamification theory by building contexts and scenarios from ready-made taxonomies of gamification elements that target a specific behavioral outcome.

On the other hand, through our systematic literature review, we can see from RQ3 the recent emergence of data-driven approaches through machine learning techniques (Knutas et al., 2019 ; Duggal et al., 2021 ). These techniques help to create gamification designs suitable for the gamified context, especially when it comes to customizing the game elements to be incorporated into the final gamified system to the students' profiles.

In many learning environments, pedagogy assumes that all learners have homogeneous characteristics (Kamunya et al., 2020 ). However, Schöbel and Söllner ( 2016 ) argue that most gamification projects are not working because they are designed for a group of system users without considering the personal needs of each user. Hence the advantage of personalized training to the learner where all learners differ in preference, style and abilities with regard to the learning processes with or without technology mediation (Naik & Kamat, 2015 ). In this context, we noted the existence of two gamification approaches designed for online learning in higher education (Carreño, 2018 ; Kamunya et al., 2020 ). This is put into practice by tailoring the gamification elements to users' individual preferences. A recent related problem is the lack of adaptation of gamification to the content being gamified.

Another recent and relevant issue is the extreme lack of content gamification. Indeed, the motivational impact of certain game elements varies with the user activity or the domain of gamified systems (Hallifax et al., 2019a , 2019b ). Therefore, there is a great need for further exploration and experimentation in this immature area to provide a gamified design to satisfy users’ preferences as well as the task at hand. In other words, personalization in gamification should extend to content, as it does with user profiles, for example, by applying machine learning techniques to tailor the choice of game elements to gamified content.

Another common study design issue illuminated by our review is the lack of validation of the proposed gamification approaches through statistical analyses. In addition, most applied research on the gamification of online learning systems in higher education has not explored the gamification frameworks suggested in the literature.

Conclusion and future work

In this work, we conducted a review of the literature on gamification elements used in digital higher education, the way they are combined, and the different gamification approaches proposed in the literature to gamify learning systems. We analyzed a total of 90 papers to answer the three research questions formulated for this study.

This review identified points, badges, leaderboards, levels, feedback, and challenges as the most commonly used game elements in digital higher education. However, in terms of using gamification theory, our review found that the majority of applied gamification research is not theory-based and has not used gamification frameworks in the design of gamified learning systems. Although some experimental studies attempt to adapt psychological and educational theories available in the literature as gamification approaches, the resulting systems are not very clear, and there is no rationale for choosing certain game elements over others. Consequently, it can be concluded that these gamification approaches cannot strongly assist designers and practitioners in gamifying their learning systems. In addition, theoretical gamification approaches in e-learning in higher education should focus on understanding the effect of each single game design element and the behavioral changes that outcome from its use.

Moreover, based on the results of this review, we can observe the trend towards data-driven approaches through the use of machine learning techniques, especially in adaptive gamification approaches. This involves the adaptation of gamification elements to user profiles. On the other hand, although we have noticed the increasing use of gamification elements that are suitable for content gamification and make the content more game-like, such as storytelling and challenges, there is still a lack of gamification approaches that address content gamification. In fact, this is still an immature research area in gamification design in e-learning in higher education.  Future works should pay more attention to the pedagogical side of learning systems and the task under gamification. Apart from that, further research is required to compare theory-driven to data-driven gamification approaches, in terms of which one is the better or perhaps evaluate the effectiveness of a combination of the two, and go so far as to propose a hybrid gamification approach, which does not exist yet and might solve several gamification design issues.

Regarding future work, efforts should focus on building a holistic approach by considering all the aspects that constitute the environment. Among those,  personalization according to students’ profiles, gamified subject, educational context, learner’s culture, learner’s preferences, level, playing motivations and experience with games.

Finally, we have seen that most of the design approaches suggested in the literature are not empirically explored. Therefore, statistical analyses and comparative studies should be conducted to draw more robust and generalizable conclusions to validate the existing gamification approaches in the literature.

Availability of data and materials

All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article.

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Khaldi, A., Bouzidi, R. & Nader, F. Gamification of e-learning in higher education: a systematic literature review. Smart Learn. Environ. 10 , 10 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40561-023-00227-z

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A systematic literature review of gamification in/for cultural heritage: leveling up, going beyond.

1. Introduction

2. methodological considerations.

• What heritage is being gamified?
• Are the gamification projects more institution-oriented or tourist-oriented?
• What gamification design dimensions are present in the project?
• What technologies were used in the gamification project?
• What are the target publics of the gamification project?
• What future directions do the authors wish to see explored?

3. Findings and Discussion

3.1. q1. what heritage is being gamified, 3.2. q2. are the gamification projects more institution-oriented or tourism-oriented, 3.3. q3. what gamification design dimensions are present in the project.

• Intrinsic Motivation Heuristics 1.1. “Purpose and Meaning”, affordances aimed at helping users identify a meaningful goal that will be achieved through the system and can benefit the users themselves or other people; 1.2. “Challenge and Competence”, affordances aimed at helping users satisfy their intrinsic need of competence through accomplishing difficult challenges or goals; 1.3. “Completeness and Mastery”, affordances aimed at helping users satisfy their intrinsic need of competence by completing series of tasks or collecting virtual achievements; 1.4. “Autonomy and Creativity”, affordances aimed at helping users satisfy their intrinsic need of autonomy by offering meaningful choices and opportunities for self-expression; 1.5. “Relatedness”, affordances aimed at helping users satisfy their intrinsic need of relatedness through social interaction, usually with other users; 1.6. “Immersion”, affordances aimed at immersing users into the system to improve their aesthetic experience, usually by means of a theme, narrative or story, which can be real or fictional.
• Extrinsic Motivation Heuristics 2.1. “Ownership and Rewards” affordances aimed at motivating users through extrinsic rewards or possession of real or virtual goods. Ownership is different from competence when acquiring goods is perceived by the user as the reason for interacting with the system, instead of feeling competent; 2.2. “Scarcity”, affordances aimed at motivating users through feelings of status or exclusivity by means of acquisition of difficult or rare rewards, goods or achievements; 2.3. “Loss Avoidance”, affordances aimed at leading users to act with urgency, by creating situations in which they could loose acquired or potential rewards, goods or achievements if they do not act immediately.
• Context Dependent Heuristics 3.1. “Feedback”, affordances aimed at informing users of their progress and the next available actions or challenges; 3.2. “Unpredictability”, affordances aimed at surprising users with variable tasks, challenges, feedback or rewards; 3.3. “Change and Disruption”, affordances aimed at engaging users with disruptive tendencies by allowing them to help improve the system, in a positive rather than destructive way [ 96 ].

3.4. Q4. What Technologies Were Used in the Gamification Project?

3.5. q5. what are the target publics of the gamification project.

• “General public”, for everyone or unspecified;
• “Children”, students between 5 and 12 years old;
• “Teenagers”, students and adolescents between 13 and 17 years old;
• “Young Adults”, students and young workers between 18 and 25 years old;
• “Tourists or visitors”, specifically those not from that location but visiting in some capacity, regardless of age;
• “Residents”, specifically those living in that location, regardless of age.

3.6. Q6. What Future Directions Do the Authors Wish to See Explored?

• “Continue the work”, meaning that the project would remain ongoing following the publication of the text;
• “Expand the work”, meaning that the project would not just continue but increase its areas of applicability, scope or objects of interest;
• “Looking for new ideas”, meaning that the authors will (themselves) seek to engage in concrete debates in the future;
• “More reflection is needed”, meaning that the authors point to specific questions left unanswered or unearthed by their study, and leave it up for debate for the broader academic community;
• “Unspecified”, meaning no discernable mention of any future work or orientation.

4. Concluding Remarks

Author contributions, data availability statement, conflicts of interest.

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Marques, C.G.; Pedro, J.P.; Araújo, I. A Systematic Literature Review of Gamification in/for Cultural Heritage: Leveling up, Going Beyond. Heritage 2023 , 6 , 5935-5951. https://doi.org/10.3390/heritage6080312

Marques CG, Pedro JP, Araújo I. A Systematic Literature Review of Gamification in/for Cultural Heritage: Leveling up, Going Beyond. Heritage . 2023; 6(8):5935-5951. https://doi.org/10.3390/heritage6080312

Marques, Célio Gonçalo, João Paulo Pedro, and Inês Araújo. 2023. "A Systematic Literature Review of Gamification in/for Cultural Heritage: Leveling up, Going Beyond" Heritage 6, no. 8: 5935-5951. https://doi.org/10.3390/heritage6080312

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Gamification of Education: A Review of Literature

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• Fiona Fui-Hoon Nah 16 ,
• Qing Zeng 16 ,
• Venkata Rajasekhar Telaprolu 16 ,
• Abhishek Padmanabhuni Ayyappa 16 &
• Brenda Eschenbrenner 17  

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNISA,volume 8527))

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We synthesized the literature on gamification of education by conducting a review of the literature on gamification in the educational and learning context. Based on our review, we identified several game design elements that are used in education. These game design elements include points, levels/stages, badges, leaderboards, prizes, progress bars, storyline, and feedback. We provided examples from the literature to illustrate the application of gamification in the educational context.

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Adaptive Gamification in Education: A Literature Review of Current Trends and Developments

Critical Perspective on Gamification in Education

Gamifying education: what is known, what is believed and what remains uncertain: a critical review.

• Gamification
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Fiona Fui-Hoon Nah, Qing Zeng, Venkata Rajasekhar Telaprolu & Abhishek Padmanabhuni Ayyappa

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Nah, F.FH., Zeng, Q., Telaprolu, V.R., Ayyappa, A.P., Eschenbrenner, B. (2014). Gamification of Education: A Review of Literature. In: Nah, F.FH. (eds) HCI in Business. HCIB 2014. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 8527. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-07293-7_39

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