Gilad Ravid

Gamification in education is being used as a way to increase the student's
engagement and learning. While carrying a big promise, little is known about
the influence of game elements and mechanics on different personalities,
specifically extrovert and introverts, knowledge that is essential to ensure
implementations that will not disengage part of the students. In a study
performed in an academic course, students (n=102) were faced with several
feedback related game mechanics. Immediate feedback mechanics such as
points, rewards, badges and comparative feedback mechanics such
leaderboards, and progress were used to examines the relations between these
elements and the way they increase the perceived playfulness of a semester
long project. A Partial Least Squares (PLS) analysis of the results based on
personality trait of extroversion was performed to examine how extroverts
and introverts perceive a specific implementation. Our results show there are
significant differences in how these two types of personalities achieve the
playfulness of the system and specifically the lack of playfulness of
leaderboards. These results are significant for educators who plan to include
game elements in their courses.