More challenging or more achievable? The impacts of difficulty and dominant goal orientation in leaderboards within educational gamification.

Background: As one of the gamification elements, leaderboard, especially absolute leaderboard, is widely used in educational gamification systems. However, empirical studies on the optimal use condition of the leaderboard and underlying influence mechanisms are deficient. Objectives: This study expl...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Publicado en:Journal of Computer Assisted Learning Vol. 38; no. 3; pp. 845 - 861
Autores principales: Cao, Yang, Gong, Shao‐Ying, Wang, Zhen, Cheng, Yang, Wang, Yan‐Qing
Formato: research tables/charts Journal Article
Publicado: Wiley-Blackwell Jun2022
Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
fields @attributes:
  recordID: 1
pdfLink:
plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=156451516&site=ehost-live
header:
  @attributes:
    shortDbName: ccm
    uiTerm: 156451516
    longDbName: CINAHL Complete
    uiTag: AN
  controlInfo:
    bkinfo:
    dissinfo:
    jinfo:
      jid:
        02664909
        6M1
      jtl: Journal of Computer Assisted Learning
      issn: 02664909
      maglogo: Y
    pubinfo:
      dt: Jun2022
      vid: 38
      iid: 3
      pid: 480
      pub: Wiley-Blackwell
      place: Malden, Massachusetts
    artinfo:
      ui:
        156451516
        155199765
        156451516
        156451516
        10.1111/jcal.12652
        156451516
      ppf: 845
      ppct: 16
      formats:
      tig:
        atl: More challenging or more achievable? The impacts of difficulty and dominant goal orientation in leaderboards within educational gamification.
      aug:
        au:
          Cao, Yang
          Gong, Shao‐Ying
          Wang, Zhen
          Cheng, Yang
          Wang, Yan‐Qing
        affil: Key Laboratory of Adolescent Cyberpsychology and Behavior (CCNU), Ministry of Education, Wuhan, China
      sug:
        subj:
          Gamification
          Goals and Objectives
          Learning
          Human
          Male
          Female
          Young Adult
          Motivation
          Goal-Setting
          Emotions
          Vocabulary
          Questionnaires
          Students, College
          Male
          Female
      ab: Background: As one of the gamification elements, leaderboard, especially absolute leaderboard, is widely used in educational gamification systems. However, empirical studies on the optimal use condition of the leaderboard and underlying influence mechanisms are deficient. Objectives: This study explored which difficulty was more conducive to learning performance in leaderboard context, and when and how it played a role. Methods: To address these questions, this study conducted a 2 (dominant goal orientation: learning/performance) × 2 (difficulty: high/low) between‐subjects design. Seventy‐eight dominant learning‐oriented and 78 dominant performance‐oriented participants were recruited and randomly assigned to the high or low difficulty group respectively. Results and Conclusions: Participants in the low difficulty group experienced more positive emotions, less negative emotions, and higher learning motivation than those in the high difficulty group, but the effect of difficulty on performance was not significant. Moreover, goal orientation did not moderate the effects of difficulty, dominant learning‐oriented and performance‐oriented learners were equally affected by difficulty. Further mediating analysis showed that negative emotions and learning motivation rather than positive emotions mediated the relationship between difficulty and learning performance. Implications: These results confirmed the positive effect of low difficulty in leaderboard context, as well as the mediating roles of emotions and motivation involved in the relationship between difficulty and learning performance. These findings enlighten us that it is necessary to equip leaderboards in educational gamification with achievable difficulty. Lay Description: What is already known about this topic: As one of the gamification elements, leaderboard was widely used in educational gamification.The effect of the leaderboard was not always consistent among various educational situations.Empirical studies on the optimal use condition of the leaderboard were deficient.The mechanisms by difficulty within leaderboards affected the learning performance were not clear. What this paper adds: Lower difficulty within leaderboards could induce more positive emotions, less negative emotions and higher learning motivation.Difficulty within leaderboards did not directly affect learning performance.Negative emotions and learning motivation mediated the relationship between difficulty and performance.Dominant goal orientation did not moderate the effect of difficulty on learning. The implications of study findings for practitioners: We could improve learners' emotional and motivational states by reducing difficulty within leaderboards.We could promote learning performance through appropriate emotional and motivational designs using gamification.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype:
        research
        tables/charts
        Journal Article
      ougenre: Article
    language: English
    refInfo:
    holdings:
      @attributes:
        islocal: N