Can Work Be Fun? Improving Task Motivation and Help-Seeking Through Game Mechanics

Abstract

Gamification has become an increasingly important design paradigm for information systems, impacting both research and practice. Effective gamification requires designers to tap into intrinsic motivations by framing tasks in ways that evoke positive attitudes through challenge and friendly competition. These positive attitudes can lead to greater engagement and encourage help-seeking behavior, a key goal of developing motivated learners. The objective of this paper is to understand the conditions and types of mechanisms that that encourage participants to become engaged in a task and seek help to improve. Based on the literature on the game element hierarchy and goal orientation, we propose a theoretical model to explain how different types of learners will respond to different game mechanisms. We outline the design an experiment to test our hypotheses