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A Systematic Literature Review of Qualitative Gamification Studies in Higher Education

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Innovative Technologies and Learning (ICITL 2019)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNISA,volume 11937))

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  • The original version of this chapter was revised: corrections, which were not incorporated during the proofing stage due to a technical error, were incorporated. The correction to this chapter is available at https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-35343-8_90

Abstract

Gamification can heighten student motivation and make learning more engaging. Several literature reviews focus on the effects of gamification; however, no work to date has been done that exclusively examine qualitative studies in higher education. In this paper, we systematically review existing literature on gamification in Information Systems (IS) research to identify qualitative topics studied. We synthesise relevant studies with the concept of an information ecology to show how important sociocultural dimensions and participatory design are for sustainable and successful gamification in higher education. We deploy Hermeneutics as a theoretical lens. The hermeneutic circle, in particular, allows us to understand a complex ‘whole’ of a gamification information ecology from presuppositions about the sociocultural dimensions of its ‘parts’, and their interconnectedness. The paper furthermore argues for iterative methodologies to assist designers, practitioners and users to co-evolve towards a sustainable gamification solution. Iterative methodologies typically take highly participatory and cyclic approaches that allow stakeholders to systematically investigate and develop effective and sustainable solutions.

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Change history

  • 18 November 2019

    In Chapter “Visual Attention Analysis During Program Debugging Using Virtual Reality Eye Tracker”:

    The original version of this chapter was revised. The affiliation of the authors listed the incorrect country. It was corrected to “Taiwan, Republic of China.”

    In Chapter “A Systematic Literature Review of Qualitative Gamification Studies in Higher Education”:

    The original version of this chapter was revised. Corrections, which were not incorporated during the proofing stage due to a technical error, were incorporated. These corrections affected citations, references, and an author’s affiliation. Typographical errors were also corrected and the email addresses of all authors were added.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Computing, University of South Africa, Science Campus, Roodepoort, South Africa

    Arthur E. van der Poll & Jan H. Kroeze

  2. Faculty of Informatics and Design, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Cape Town, South Africa

    Izak J. van Zyl

Authors
  1. Arthur E. van der Poll
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  2. Izak J. van Zyl
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  3. Jan H. Kroeze
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Arthur E. van der Poll .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway

    Lisbet Rønningsbakk

  2. National Yunlin University of Science and Technology, Douliu, Taiwan

    Ting-Ting Wu

  3. Oslo Metropolitan University, Oslo, Norway

    Frode Eika Sandnes

  4. National Cheng Kung University, Tainan City, Taiwan

    Yueh-Min Huang

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van der Poll, A.E., van Zyl, I.J., Kroeze, J.H. (2019). A Systematic Literature Review of Qualitative Gamification Studies in Higher Education. In: Rønningsbakk, L., Wu, TT., Sandnes, F., Huang, YM. (eds) Innovative Technologies and Learning. ICITL 2019. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 11937. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-35343-8_52

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-35343-8_52

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-35342-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-35343-8

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