Gamification in education primarily aims at increasing learners’ motivation to engage in given learning activities and thereby promote desired learning behaviors. Despite its potential and the increasing number of gamified systems their success is still limited due to the fact that gamifying learning is a challenging process. Part of the challenge stems from an insufficient understanding of the motivational mechanisms of gamification on learners’ experience and from the insufficient attention to factors contributing to gameful experiences and promoting sustainable engagement. In addition, there is limited empirical evidence on motivational influences driving students to participate in gamified learning activities. Another factor slowing down the progress of successfully gamified applications is the scarcity of tools that would enable instructors to design and implement gamified activities as part of their instructional strategy. In an attempt to address these challenges, the present paper examines the difficulties inherent in the gamification of educational activities and how the OneUp gamification platform can support instructors in overcoming them with the mechanisms it provides for affording gameful experiences and sustainable engagement. To add to the understanding of the motivational influences towards gamified learning activities, the paper presents a preliminary study of student motivation to use OneUp for out-of-class practicing in a gamified Data Structures course. The outcomes of this study are based on data collected through a focus group, survey data, and system logs.

中文翻译：

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探索学习者游戏化实践的经验：学习还是娱乐？

游戏中的游戏化主要旨在提高学习者参与特定学习活动的动机，从而促进所需的学习行为。尽管游戏化的潜力和不断增长的游戏化系统数量，但由于游戏化学习是一个具有挑战性的过程，因此其成功仍然受到限制。挑战的部分原因在于对游戏化的动机机制对学习者体验的了解不足，以及对导致游戏体验和促进可持续参与的因素的关注不足。此外，关于激励因素驱使学生参加游戏化学习活动的经验证据有限。阻碍成功游戏化应用程序进展的另一个因素是工具的稀缺性，无法使教师设计和实施游戏化活动作为其教学策略的一部分。为了应对这些挑战，本文研究了教育活动的游戏化所固有的困难，以及OneUp游戏化平台如何通过提供游戏体验和可持续参与的机制来支持教师克服他们。为了加深对游戏化学习活动的动机影响的理解，本文对学生使用OneUp在游戏化数据结构课程中进行课堂外练习的动机进行了初步研究。这项研究的结果基于通过焦点小组收集的数据，