Gamification and open learner model: An experimental study on the effects on self-regulatory learning characteristics

Self-regulation helps students develop various cognitive, metacognitive, and affective strategies to regulate their learning process and maximize learning gains. However, self-regulation demands i) an encouraging environment and ii) student motivation. First, adding Open Learner Models (OLM) to learning environments encourages self-regulation by providing clear feedback on which skills students need to prioritize. Second, gamifying these environments holds the potential to maximize student motivation. Nevertheless, empirical evidence on whether gamification improves learning self-regulation in OLM-based applications is lacking to our best knowledge. Therefore, we conducted a one-factor (gamification: yes or no) experimental study (n = 39) to test if gamification improves the self-regulation and performance of learners who used an OLM-based Intelligent Tutoring System to complete multiple-choice questions. Surprisingly, we found no significant differences in self-regulation and performance when comparing the gamified and non-gamified groups. Considering prior research did not investigate gamification in similar settings, the fact that gamification’s effect varies depending on the context and learning outcome likely explains our findings. Thus, practitioners must be cautious in using gamification amid the lack of empirical evidence on its effectiveness in a given context/learning outcome. Researchers need to understand how gamification affects different learning outcomes in varied contexts. Accordingly, future research must investigate and ground how self-regulation, OLM, and gamification work together.