Abstract:

In an ever-changing world lifelong learning is more crucial than ever, as even the most established experts need to refresh their skills from time to time. Despite its importance, however, lifelong learning is oftentimes being overlooked, in part because of its conceptual complexity. In this study we examine how gamification could be used to promote study motivation and lifelong learning on a new online platform based on the phenomenon.

The term gamification is multi-faceted and thus possibly deceptive. In this study, gamification is seen as a broad collection of different approaches used to make mundane, ordinary tasks more intuitive, engaging, and motivating to participants. The objective of the study is to clarify how gamification could be used to motivate already experienced professionals to challenge themselves and develop their skills even further in the spirit of lifelong learning.

This study is part of an ongoing project to develop an all new, gamification-based study platform, Edukamu, targeted at education institutes and companies alike. The theoretical approach is based on Deci and Ryan's self-determination theory and Csikszentmihalyi's findings on flow, while earlier gamification study, especially Landers' view of gamified learning as a causal methodology to make learning more efficient, is also taken into account. The study is based on semi-structured interviews of professionals across different fields of expertise.

The goal of this study is to build on the existing research and gain more specific understanding of the effectiveness of gamification in promoting lifelong learning. Thematic analysis is used as the analytical foundation for this study.

Findings from the interviews show that gamification is seen as a significant source of motivation, although only to a certain extent. The interviewees find the idea of gamification as a means of tracking self-progress highly encouraging but prefer not to compete against each other directly.

Competition between different student groups was, however, conceived as a source of motivation by most of the interviewees. Many also perceived intergroup rivalry as a social building block that encourages the students to push each other further. In this respect, the findings concerning gamification as a means of motivation are promising.

The results also show that gamification is not the answer to all pitfalls around lifelong learning. All the interviewees state, for instance, that the content and one’s own motivation are more crucial than the study platform in hand. Gamification can thus highly accelerate the motivation process, but not initiate it entirely on its own.

Building on the findings, we discuss how gamification could be used as a subset of a larger effort to promote lifelong learning and study motivation. We also consider harnessing the students’ personal traits, such as competitiveness, when developing a study platform based on gamification.

Gamification, despite its occasionally apparent definitional subjectivity and partly inadequate experimental design, can be a significant source of motivation and an instrument for making lifelong learning a reality across all fields. We end by summarizing and reflecting on the results of this ongoing project and suggesting areas and topics of further study.

Keywords:

Gamification, lifelong learning, continuous learning, online education, motivation.