Abstract
Gamification has created great expectations for education and has become a trend in education. It is not an easy process to integrate gamification into educational environments. The design and development phases of gamification are very important. Therefore, it is necessary to follow a model that will guide the process in gamification designs. Individual differences among students are an important factor affecting their learning performance. In this context, considering student characteristics will increase the effect of gamification in education. Personalized gamification designs that meet the needs and expectations of students will be more effective than one-size-fits-all designs. It can benefit from player/user types in gamification designs to identify individual differences. This chapter aims to discuss player/user types in relation to gamification in the context of education.
TopIntroduction
Gamification refers to the “use of game design elements within non-game context” (Deterding et al., 2011a). At the same time, “human-oriented design” and “motivational design” is emphasized for gamification (Berber, 2018; Chou, 2016). In gamification designs, the game mindset must be properly adapted to the context in which it is used (Kapp, 2012). Therefore, it would be beneficial to use a design model to guide the process (Kumar & Herger, 2013). Especially in the context of education, this becomes even more important. Because learning should not happen unplanned. A planned and sequenced process should be followed for instructional design (Seels & Glasgow, 1998). In addition, individual differences of students are an important variable that affects the success of education (Thorndike, 1918). They express various personal characteristics. Ability, learning style, perception and motivation of each person are different. It is not correct to assume that all students have the same characteristics. For a more effective learning, the individual differences of the students should be known, furthermore these differences should be considered in instructional design. So, gamification designs should not be made by “one size fits all” approach. As the interests and expectations of each person may differ, gamification design should be carried out considering the characteristics of the target audience (Sezgin, 2020). Individual differences are an important factor affecting the efficiency of gamification (Barata et al., 2017; Mekler et al., 2017). Therefore, the significance of personalized gamification designs has increased (Santos et al., 2021). In gamification design, user preferences should be at the center of the process (Burke, 2014; Marczewski, 2015; Werbach & Hunter, 2015). In this context, player/user types can be used in gamification designs to explain individual differences. This chapter aims to discuss player/user types in relation to gamification in the context of education.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Player/User Types: Classifications that group users according to their characteristics, such as their behavior, motivation, attitude, or emotions.
Personalized Gamification: Gamification customized to users' personal characteristics.
Gamification Design Model: Steps to guide the gamification design process.
Gamification Design: To produce solutions through gamification within a plan.