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Interest in the practice of gamification has grown rapidly in the field of education and training. Organisations implement gamification in various areas to boost employee motivation, including professional training. The present study comprises a systematic literature review on gamified professional training among employees. It was guided by the Preferred Reporting Items Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) 2020 checklist. The articles reviewed were obtained from three large academic databases – Scopus, Web of Science, and PubMed, with Google Scholar as a supporting database. The analysis revealed that most studies did not discuss gamified professional training from theoretical perspectives. Three main strategies for gamifying professional training were identified – gamified professional training platform, blended gamified professional training, and face-to-face gamified professional training. It was found that achievement game elements were common in gamified professional training. The most frequent digital game elements were points/levels, leaderboards, challenges, and badges. Real-world rewards were also highly popular. Practical applications and research directions for researchers, instructional designers, and programme developers were then suggested to implement future gamified professional training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study evaluates the effect of game mechanics by employing serious games and gamification for improving learning outcomes. This is done by considering the performances of the students in terms of the test scores. In the quasi-experimental set-up, which consists of 108 students in their intact three classes attended a series of lessons on sexual health course that was delivered using serious games, gamification, and conventional training elements. The test scores were analysed and compared based on the defined methodology of this paper using SPSS statistical tool version 24. This study found that the students learning outcomes improved after the interventions as the results indicated that there was a statistically significant increase in the test scores from pre-test (M = 24.65, SD = 6.38) to post-test (M = 74.96, SD = 15.89), t(107) = 32.48, p <.001 (2-tailed). Also, there were statically significant differences in the mean scores across the three classes of game mechanics in the post-test F(2,105), 71.86, p <.001, of which serious game and gamification outperformed conventional training students. Moreover, the overall results demonstrated that there were no substantial statistical significance differences among boys and girls who participated in the serious game and gamification for all tests (p >.05). Thus, this study suggests that employing a combination of game elements such as leaderboard, points system, competition, badges, levels, and immediate feedback can serve as a recipe for interactive learning, hence, improves learning outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]