Abstract:

Research on gamification effects on students’ engagement and learning, shows that this should be tailored to its users taking personal characteristics, needs and preferences into account (Barata, 2015; Bockle et al, 2017, Mekler et al., 2017, Hallifax, et al., 2019) rather than applying the standard “one size fits all” design (Böckle et al, 2017) to maximize its effects.

Despite a growing body of literature in this area, with the use of machine learning algorithm-based automatization to create personalized designs (Knutas, et al., 2019), Böckle et al. (2017) show that there is little systematic analysis and understanding of what makes up effective approaches to gamification, and the need to explore more complex adaptivity methods.

While generally positive, the impact of gamified interventions on student participation varies depending on whether the student is motivated intrinsically or extrinsically (Buckley & Boyle, 2014) and self-regulated learning skills may help increase intrinsic motivation.

Self-regulated learning strategies of time management, metacognition, critical thinking, and effort regulation were found to have significant positive correlations with academic success in online settings (Broadbent & Poon, 2015) and to improve students’ satisfaction and learning persistence (Joo, Joung & Kim, 2012). These strategies can be taught to students or promoted by learning environments.

In this paper, we present the results of a Systematic Literature Review of scientific papers with empirical evidence from adaptive and personalized learning systems for Higher Education. The aim of the review was to understand how adaptive and personalized gamified learning systems can help higher education students develop self-regulated learning strategies. This was achieved by classifying them on a theoretical framework of dimensions and strategies that can promote self-regulated learning as competence to be developed by learners (Zimmerman, 2011; Kizilcec et al., 2017). This review followed the PRISMA guidelines for systematic reviews.

Our analysis focused especially on the role of internal feedback, acquired from tasks, and external feedback aimed at learning processes as an important element on the educational outcomes from the interactions between learners and adaptive learning systems.

Keywords:

Adaptive gamification, personalized learning, self-regulated learning.