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While the motivational effect of educational gamification is largely recognized, the impact of the gamification element virtual currency (VC) is underexplored, especially in an educational setting. To address this gap, the goal of the presented multi-case empirical study was to systematically explore the impact of virtual currency on learners’ engagement, motivation, and academic performance across different contexts and to uncover potentially generalizable results. Accordingly, this paper presents the outcomes of a multi-perspective analysis of students’ experiences in out-of-class practicing in a learning environment gamified with VC and the effect of this game element. The work builds on previous case studies with analogical goals, which the authors have conducted in different contexts, including the university type, student population, subject area, etc. The provided comprehensive cross-case analysis integrates and extends the previous results tracing the path to generalizable knowledge about the potential of VC. While the results of this multi-case study demonstrate a significant increase in student engagement in out-of-class practicing gamified with virtual currency, they fail to show a significant increase in students’ intrinsic motivation and students’ final course grades. This study is a step forward in enhancing our understanding of the multifaceted effect of virtual currency on learners’ experience. 

Gamification, the use of game design elements in non-game contexts, has become a promising strategy for enhancing learners’ motivation, engagement, and performance. However, our understanding of how the motivational affordances of gamification interact with the motivational drivers engendered by a learning activity is still limited. In most of the studies the focus is on the role of the incorporated gamification elements, disregarding motivational factors associated with the learning activity, such as perceived utility, expectancy of success, and needed effort to complete it. Expectancy-Value model offers a practical method for estimating the level and quality of learners’ motivation towards a particular task as it accounts for both intrinsic and extrinsic motivators. Employing this model can shed a new light on the motivational potential of educational gamification. Accordingly, in this paper we present experiments with Expectancy-Value-Cost scale (EVC) as an instrument for estimating the level of students’ motivation towards a gamified learning activity. We studied empirically how the motivational factors measured by EVC relate to the level of learners’ engagement in gamified practicing and assessed their predictive qualities. 

As a gamification element, virtual currency (VC) stands for rewards that can be exchanged for virtual or real goods. While some forms of reward-based gamification have been studied extensively, the exploration of the impact of VC on learners is relatively scarce. In particular, there is a lack of studies investigating its effects in different learning contexts. Since VC can evoke perception of benefits with positive impact on course outcomes, it may be experienced as an extrinsic incentive. On the other hand, VC can promote internalized motivation when awarded for accomplishment of certain challenges. To bridge this gap we are conducting a longitudinal study on the impact of VC on student motivation and engagement in different contexts and with different types of learners. The goal of this paper is to empirically investigate whether and how VC can improve the engagement in out-of-class practicing of a certain population of learners in a gamified Discrete Structures course. The study demonstrated a strong positive impact of VC on learners’ engagement however VC exhibited no significant impact on students’ academic performance and intrinsic motivation. 

There has been an increasing effort to make activities that are not inherently interesting for all learners more attractive through gamification. Although the research on the effectiveness of educational gamification has been growing, the effects of some gamification elements on learners’ motivation and engagement are not well understood. In response to this gap, in this paper we describe an experience of gamifying out-of-class practicing with Virtual Currency (VC) in a Computer Networking course. The results of our study show that the VC-based gamification (without interactions with any other gamification elements) had a positive impact on student engagement compared to non-gamified online practicing. The learners’ VC earning and spending behaviors indicate also that Virtual Currency brings additional objectives for students to strive for, besides grades. 

Effective gamification can only be based on understanding the relationship between learner motivation and the game elements which are used to gamify learning activities. Although frequently mentioned, Virtual Currency (VC) remains underused and scarcely studied in educational gamification. As a motivational affordance, VC can be thought of as supporting different types of motivation, but currently, there is a lack of empirical studies which investigate this. Recognizing this gap, the purpose of our study was to empirically investigate whether and how gamifying learning activities with virtual currency can engender motivation for out-of-class practicing and what type of motivation. In the limited research others have conducted, VC has been studied largely in combination with other game elements, which does not allow reaching reliable conclusions about the impact of the individual elements. For this reason, we studied the effects of VC in a gamified Discrete Math course isolated from other game elements. The study showed that using VC to gamify practicing increased students’ practicing activity, which resulted in improved academic performance. The study also revealed that while gamified practicing did not increase students’ intrinsic motivation, it supported internalization of motivation towards this learning activity. 

Abstract The majority of user models in gamification are based on user’s gamer personality. However, the motivations driving individuals’ learning behavior differ from their motivations when playing. There is no evidence that learners’ experiences in gamified activities are described by these models. Thus, an alternative model capturing learners’ motivational experiences and relating them to the motivational mechanisms of gamification design is needed. To fill this gap we propose a context-specific typology which groups learners based on their type of motivation and perceived ability associated with a learning activity. The purpose of this proposal is to provide a framework for connecting each learner’s type to a set of motivational affordances to which that type is susceptible. Facilitating the task of selecting motivational affordances matching learner’s type aids the design of customized gamified learning.