A Systematic Review of The Use of Gamification in Flipped Learning
A Systematic Review of The Use of Gamification in Flipped Learning
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Abstract
The landscape of education is experiencing a shift towards active learning approaches as the
need for independent, lifelong learning increases. Traditional lecture-based teaching
methodologies are not as effective at keeping students motivated enough to engage with content
on a deep level. Therefore, approaches such as student-centred learning, self-directed learning,
and flipped classrooms are becoming more popular as educators begin to embrace the idea of
giving students more autonomy in the classroom. The popularity of gamification and games in
education has led to them being used in conjunction with these active learning methods,
however this area lacks a high-level view of present and future work. This study aims to bring
clarity to this area of education by presenting a systematic review of the use of games and
gamification in flipped classrooms. In general, the results show that current implementations
have had positive outcomes, especially in terms of academic performance. The data also shows
that the in-class component of flipped classrooms is more commonly gamified compared to the
out-of-class component, and that achievement affordances and Kahoot! are popular
motivational affordances to use. Further research is proposed concerning social affordances and
increased reliance on theoretical foundations.
Keywords1
Gamification, game-based learning, flipped classroom, autonomous education, systematic
review
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process is shifted from the teacher to the student, Therefore, in the interest of understanding the
thus giving the learner more control and intersection between games and gamification in
responsibility [5,6]. Finally, the flipped classroom autonomous learning contexts, a systematic
model involves moving the traditional teaching literature review was conducted. It focused on
activities which are more passive to outside the student-centred learning, self-directed learning,
classroom so that class time can be used for more and flipped classrooms, and the ways in which
active learning methods [7]. All three of these games and gamification have been used in
approaches involve a move away from traditional conjunction with these teaching methodologies.
lecture-based teaching practices towards active This article presents the results of a subsection of
learning methods. In the process, the learner articles analysed in the review, focusing
becomes more autonomous, which can result in specifically on the use of games and gamification
improved lifelong learning skills [8]. These types in flipped classrooms in order to describe the
of educational approaches have grown in current state of this specific area of education.
popularity, and the COVID-19 pandemic has When framed as an approach to active
served to increase educators’ reliance on non- learning, the flipped classroom model is
traditional methods [9]. concerned with making better use of the time that
While these approaches all have the potential students spend in contact with one another and
to improve learning outcomes, it remains difficult with the teacher. This requires moving
to motivate learners to take more responsibility information-transmission teaching out of the
for their learning since this requires more effort class. This can serve to increase the autonomy of
and it challenges their ideas of how teaching students by giving them more control over their
should work (that the teacher should be in charge) own learning [21]. The flipped classroom can also
[10]. Games have been shown to be capable of be viewed as a means of democratising the
motivating players effectively, according to self- classroom by making students contributors to the
determination theory [11]. As an offshoot of this, learning process [22]. From this critical pedagogy
gamification and game-based learning (GBL) perspective, it is about more than simply creating
have been explored as a means by which the independent learners, but about challenging the
motivation of learners in educational contexts traditional view of educational settings in which
might be improved [12,13]. an expert assumes complete ignorance in their
In order to position this study within the field student audience and takes it upon themself to
of gamification, it is necessary to clarify our remedy this [23]. As a result of doing away with
perspective with regards to the distinction passive teaching, the progressive teaching
between gamification and game-based learning. principles espoused by Dewey [24] can be
Within the literature, the difference is usually adopted, thus creating the opportunity for students
described in terms of parts or whole. In other to become open-minded, flexible, and valuable
words, game-based learning is considered a full contributors of society.
game while gamification consists only of parts of The flipped classroom model’s success relies
a game [14]. However, we hold to the definition upon students being motivated enough to spend
of gamification provided by [15] which describes significant amounts of time on out-of-class work
the term as an umbrella concept encompassing [21,25]. Gamification has been used in both the
any technology or practice which gives rise to in-class and out-of-class components of a flipped
experiences akin to games. Therefore, we will classroom, whether as a means of motivating
refer to both concepts as being part of the category students to prepare for class [20] or as a way of
of gamification for the remainder of this paper. actively engaging them during class [26].
Given the broad definition of gamification, its To the best of our knowledge, one other review
potential to positively impact learning outcomes on gamification in flipped classrooms exists [27].
and motivation is a common area of research [17, Our review seeks to expand upon this contribution
18, 19]. However, there is a dearth of studies that by also investigating the use of full games in
document the use of these approaches in flipped classrooms as well as conducting the
conjunction with methods such as flipped search two years later. In addition, we aim to
classrooms or for making a course more student- investigate the component of the flipped
centred [20]. As a result, it is not yet clear how classroom which was gamified (in- or out-of-
GBL and gamification are being used in these class) and the types of study designs which were
areas and what the outcomes of these applications used.
are.
34
The remainder of this paper is structured as TITLE-ABS-KEY (game* OR gamif*)
follows: section 2 describes the methodology AND
followed for the review; section 3 presents the (((flipped* OR inverted*) AND (class* OR
results; section 4 provides a discussion of the learning OR education OR instruction OR
applicability of these results; and section 5 teaching))
concludes the paper by outlining future work. OR
({self-directed learning} OR {self-directed
2. Review process instruction} OR {self-directed education} OR
{self-directed teaching} OR {self-managed
learning} OR {self-managed instruction} OR
The review was conducted according to the
{self-managed education} OR {self-managed
guidelines for an effective review [28]. The
teaching} OR {independent learning} OR
following section describes the steps that were
{independent instruction} OR {self-initiated
followed during the review process, which is
learning} OR {self-initiated education} OR {self-
shown in Figure 1.
initiated instruction})
OR
("student centered" OR "student centred" OR
"learner centered" OR "learner centred")).
35
(informal adult education and studies 3.1. Demographic details
involving students outside of a formal
course were excluded) (58 papers
The popularity of using games and
excluded).
gamification in flipped classrooms has been
2. They were concerned with situations
steadily increasing since 2016, as shown in Figure
where students created their own games to
2. In 2020, the last full year that was reviewed in
learn (10 papers excluded)
this study, the number of publications almost
3. They were studies about students’
opinions about teaching methods without
any actual changes to a course/classroom
(6 papers excluded).
36
Table 1 3.3. Experimental studies,
Mapping of studies according to field and level of
education.
affordances, and outcomes
Level of education 23 studies (38.3%) were classified as
Field K12 Tertiary Total experimental studies according to the following
Computing 1 18 19 criteria:
Economics 3 3 1. Clearly defined hypothesis or research
Engineering 1 1 2 question.
Medical 7 7 2. The use of a control group or pre-post-test
Physical education 1 1 design
Science 5 6 11 3. The use of inferential statistics.
Social science 6 5 11
Pre-service teaching 6 6 Figure 3 shows the mapping of these
experimental studies according to the
Total 14 46 60
motivational outcomes used and the outcome of
the study. Positive results imply that the applied
3.2. Motivational affordances and motivational affordances resulted in
study designs improvements to the specific measured outcomes.
Mixed results were mapped according to whether
the majority of tests had yielded positive or
Table 2 also shows the motivational negative results (negative meaning that the
affordances used (according to the mapping by applied affordances had no significant measurable
[29]). The most used achievement affordances effect on the outcomes). Most of the studies
were points (18 studies; 30%), badges (15 studies; reported positive results, i.e., the applied
25%), and leaderboards (13 studies; 21.6%). This motivational affordances resulted in
also reflected other reviews of the use of improvements to the specific measured outcomes,
gamification in education [17,30]. Social with achievement affordances and miscellaneous
affordances included teamwork (9 studies; 15%) elements being the most popular affordances
and competition (9 studies; 15%), while the most implemented. Most of the miscellaneous
common immersion affordances were the use of affordances used in experimental studies (8
narrative (8 studies; 13.3%) and role play (6 studies out of 11) were full games.
studies; 10%). The most common non-digital In terms of the specific types of outcomes that
elements were physical dice (6 studies; 10%) and were measured, across all 60 studies the highest
physical playboards and/or tokens (5 studies; measured outcomes were psychological states (25
8.3%). These were often employed together in the studies; 41.6%), such as motivation and attitude
form of boardgames. Finally, miscellaneous towards the course content; and performance
affordances included full commercial games or outcomes (38 studies, 63.3%), such as the level of
systems (such as Kahoot!, Socrative or word academic performance, quality of work and level
games). 27 studies (45%) used such games, with of participation in the course. Figure 4 shows the
14 (23%) of those using Kahoot! results of experimental studies organized
The class component item in Table 2 describes according to outcome type. The popularity of
which part of the flipped classroom was modified psychological and performance outcomes is also
to include the motivational affordances. It tended visible here, and educational performance
to be more common to modify the in-class outcomes showed primarily positive results.
component of the course. This could be because Furthermore, there are some cases where studies
motivational affordances could more easily be reported no positive changes where games and
included in these settings, whereas out-of-class gamification were added to a flipped classroom.
settings would require a digital system to keep
track of student activity and provide access to the
gameful components.
.
37
Figure 3: The results of experimental studies according to motivational affordances used (N = 23, but
total affordances exceed that because some studies used affordances from multiple categories)
38
Table 2
Motivational affordances used based on study design and the component of the flipped classroom that was modified by the affordance.
Study design Class component N Achievement Social affordances Immersion Non-digital Miscellaneous
modified affordances affordances elements elements
vs In-class 2 1 1
traditional 2 1 1
In-class 7 5 2 2 2 4
vs
Out-of-class 9 9 2 3 1
flipped
16 14 4 5 2 5
In- and out-of-class 2 2
Game /
In-class 11 5 3 2 3 9
gamif +
only Out-of-class 6 4 2 2
flipped
Not specified 3 1 1 1 1 3
22 10 4 5 4 16
In- and out-of-class 1 1 1 1
In-class 9 2 2 1 1 7
+ other*
Not specified 4 1 1 3
14 4 3 1 2 11
In-class 2 1 1
Out-of-class 3 2 1 2
Other designs**
Not specified 1 1 1
6 3 1 1 4
60 31 12 12 9 37
Note: total affordances equal more than 60 because some studies employed affordances from more than one category
* Other includes teaching approaches such as collaboration, teamwork, seminars, and project-based learning
** Other designs are: game/gamif + flip vs game/gamif + independant vs game/gamif + traditional;
game/gamif + flipped vs game/gamif;
game/gamif + flipped + other vs game/gamif + flipped + lecture vs traditional;
game/gamif + flipped + other vs flipped vs traditional;
game/gamif + flipped vs gamif other + flipped vs flipped
39
Figure 4: The results of experimental studies according to the types of outcomes measured (N = 23
but total outcomes exceed that because some studies measured outcomes from multiple categories).
A literature review by [35] reports that of the known negative effects of gamification
Kahoot! can have a positive effect on learning [32]. [40] found that the students only interacted
when compared to other approaches. It also with the gamified elements due to the competition
embraces the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) they created, not because they associated it with
model which is already popular in education, improved learning. It is because of cases like these
especially at a tertiary level [36]. The studies that that it is important that the motivational
employed Kahoot! in the classroom used it mainly affordances be intrinsically tied to the learning
as a type of formative assessment to consolidate content to prevent students from bypassing the
knowledge that students would have gained from learning content while engaging with the game
engaging with the out-of-class material [37,38]. elements [16,41].
In general, the in-class component received Finally, in terms of methodological
more attention in terms of the use of games and approaches, the sample analysed contained no
gamification. Since the flipped classroom model studies which attempted to isolate individual
only works if students prepare adequately for affordances to test their effectiveness. Within the
class, the use of motivational affordances to field of gamification, calls have been made for
encourage this behaviour is an interesting line of these kinds of studies in order to understand how
inquiry which requires additional investigation gamification works [29,42], and testing the effects
[20]. of individual affordances is one of the main ways
The studies analysed reported few negative to achieve this. In addition, the current reliance on
effects from the gamified interventions, although academic achievement as an outcome measure,
[39] reported that some students gamed the while being the simplest way to determine
system in order to earn more badges. This is one whether an intervention has been effective, misses
40
a deeper understanding of exactly how it has tested. There is much room for variety in these
resulted in improved performance. A focus on areas.
measures such as psychological outcomes These results contribute to the current
(motivation, attitude towards the content, self- understanding of the state of the field. Future
regulation, engagement, confidence etc.) work includes reporting on the full set of studies
combined with engagement outcomes, such as that were returned in the search query to gain a
time spent interacting with the motivational broader perspective on the use of games and
affordances, could shed light on the specific ways gamification for autonomous learning.
in which these affordances function to bring about
improved performance from students. 7. References
The studies included also showed very little
reliance on underlying theoretical work, such as
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