Identifying Motivational Styles in Educational Gamification

Little work has been done to understand the motivational impact of specific game elements and how they combine to form student motivational styles in educational gamification. In this exploratory study we evaluate the level of motivation reported for a variety of game elements by 184 students. Using this data we generated a principle components analysis to identify the underlying factor structure that govern students’ motivational styles. Four motivational styles were identified: (1) Personal Progress – being motivated by gamified elements that show one’s individual progress in a course; (2) Competition and Praise – being motivated by game elements that show one’s progress compared to their peers and provide social reinforcing feedback; (3) Individual Assignments – being motivated by completing traditional assignments and exams; and (4) Group Work – being motivated by social assignments like group work and peer review.