Does gamification matter?

Abstract

Gamification is a technique that reuses game design and elements in others contexts, such as in e-commerces systems and virtual learning environments. When applied in the educational area, the gamification purpose is to promote a better user experience by improving students' motivation and engagement. There are already several studies applying gamification in the educational systems, and many ways to evaluate its effects on students. Thus, the aim of this work is to investigate how these studies evaluate gamification and compare its usage in educational environments through a systematic mapping. From the 832 studies returned by the search engines, only 20 of them met the defined selection criteria. As a result, these studies compared and evaluated gamification through students' interaction, performance, and user experience, based on their activities and answers in satisfaction surveys and tests.