Gamification design has benefited from data-driven approaches to creating
strategies based on students characteristics. However, these strategies need
further validation to verify their effectiveness in e-learning environments.
The exploratory study presented in this paper thus aims at verifying how
data-driven gamified strategies are perceived by the students, i.e., the users
of e-learning environments. In this study, we conducted a survey presenting 25
predefined strategies, based on a previous study, to students and analysed each
strategys perceived relevance, instanced in an e-learning environment. Our
results show that students perceive Acknowledgement, Objective and Progression
as important elements in a gamified e-learning environment. We also provide new
insights about existing elements and design recommendations for domain
specialists