Gamification is increasingly employed in learning environments as a way to increase student motivation and consequent learning outcomes. However, while the research on the effectiveness of gamification in the context of education has been growing, there are blind spots regarding which types of gamification may be suitable for different educational contexts. This study investigates the effects of the challenge-based gamification on learning in the area of statistics education. We developed a gamification approach, called Horses for Courses, which is composed of main game design patterns related to the challenge-based gamification; points, levels, challenges and a leaderboard. Having conducted a 2 (read: yes vs. no) x 2 (gamification: yes vs. no) between-subject experiment, we present a quantitative analysis of the performance of 365 students from two different academic majors: Electrical and Computer Engineering (n=279), and Business Administration (n=86). The results of our experiments show that the challenge-based gamification had a positive impact on student learning compared to traditional teaching methods (compared to having no treatment and treatment involving reading exercises). The effect was larger for females or for students at the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

游戏化越来越多地用于学习环境中，以此来增强学生的学习动机和随之而来的学习成果。但是，尽管在教育背景下进行游戏化的有效性的研究在不断增长，但对于哪些游戏类型可能适合于不同的教育背景却存在盲点。本研究调查了基于挑战的游戏化对统计教育领域学习的影响。我们开发了一种游戏化方法，称为“课程用马”，由与基于挑战的游戏化相关的主要游戏设计模式组成；点，级别，挑战和排行榜。在进行了2次（阅读：是vs.否）x 2（游戏化：是vs.否）主题间实验后，我们对来自两个不同专业的365名学生的表现进行了定量分析：电气与计算机工程（n = 279）和工商管理（n = 86）。我们的实验结果表明，与传统的教学方法相比，基于挑战的游戏化对学生的学习产生了积极的影响（相比之下，不进行任何治疗和涉及阅读练习的治疗）。对于女性或电气与计算机工程学院的学生来说，影响更大。