A Playful Affordances Approach to the Design of Gameful Learning.

Typical applications of gamification in education use either game mechanics to encourage positive engagement behaviors or full games to deliver educational content; however, both approaches raise some concerns. Game mechanics can distract from the intrinsic enjoyment of activities while full games construct learning contexts that may be significantly different from the real-world contexts of the targeted subject matter. This paper aims to highlight issues of behavioral conditioning and knowledge transfer in instructional design th a t uses gamification by examining foundational theories and recent studies. Wc propose a design approach called "gameful learning" that focuses on integrating intrinsically rewarding, playful aspects of game-like experiences into authentic learning activities. Authentic learning activities relate real-world contexts to classroom learning while the desired motivational outcomes of playful experiences are shown to be more fulfilling than extrinsic rewards. We then investigate playful experiences in a game-based learning activity integrated into a business English class at a Japanese technical college. In the activity, mixed teams of Japanese and Singaporean students (N = 47) competed at negotiating for resources required to establish businesses within the specified time limits. The results of our analysis show the experiences of arousal, contest, and discovery were the most prevalent in the game. Levels of arousal and thrill showed the strongest positive correlations to enjoyment, implying the students had approached the activity with a playful attitude rather than a serious one. The Japanese students' reported levels of engagement in the contest and experiences of achievement correlated strongly with their sense of challenge. These results and their implications for the development of a playful affordances model as a tool for the design of gamification and gamebased learning activities are the focus of this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]