Motivational power of gamification: the effect of playful learning on psychological needs of self-determination theory

Gamification, i.e. the integration of game design elements into a non-gaming environment, aims to increase users’ engagement and motivation to achieve their goals regarding a given task. It is placed at the border between formal and informal learning approaches. Motivational difficulties are well known in educational settings, especially in Computer Science, where strict formal content meets very playful computer gamers. Hence, we followed the approach of gamification to raise the motivation of learners in the field of Business Process Management (BPM) lifecycle. We developed a board rallye game, based on 16 game design elements. The core of the rallye game is to convey knowledge in a playful way. In order to be able to determine the effects of the rallye game on several aspects, e.g. knowledge transfer and (learning) motivation, we carried out field experiments with 57 students at the Technische Hochschule Ingolstadt and at the Hochschule Augsburg. In this paper the perspective of self-determination theory (SDT), that has found general acceptance in motivational research, is used to understand and analyze the motivational power of gamification.