Enhancing motivation in workplace training with casual games: a twelve month field study of retail employees
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Enhancing motivation in workplace training with casual games: a twelve month field study of retail employees Karl M. Kapp1 · Deltcho Valtchanov2 · Ray Pastore3
© Association for Educational Communications and Technology 2020
Abstract This study focused on the use of casual games to motivate learners in a corporate retail settings to engage in a online learning platform. The study analyzed two populations of learners who were using the learning platform. One group of learners was in a game condition. In this condition, the learners were provided the option to play a casual game (lasting no more than five minutes) every time they logged into the software. The second group of learners was in a non-game condition. They did not have the option of playing games at any time on the platform. Over a 12 month period of time, the study compared the level of engagement of the two groups as measured by the number of times learners returned to the platform and the proportion of time the learner spent browsing non-required areas of the platform. The results provided evidence that playing a casual game produced significant levels of engagement with the learning platform. It was found that learners in the game condition logged in significantly more often than those in the non-game condition. The evidence supports the conclusion that adult learners are more motivated to come back and engage with the learning platform when they can play a casual game first. In terms of learning, it was found learners in the game condition answered significantly more questions correctly and had significantly longer correct answer streaks than learners in the nongame condition. Keywords Casual games · Games · Learning · Motivation · Engagement · Gamification
* Karl M. Kapp [email protected] Deltcho Valtchanov [email protected] Ray Pastore [email protected] 1
Department of Instructional Technology, Bloomsburg University, 203 Sutliff Hall, Bloomsburg, PA 17815, USA
2
Games Institute, University of Waterloo, 200 University Ave W, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada
3
Department of Instructional Technology, Foundations, and Secondary Education, Watson School of Education, University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW), 601 S. College Rd, Wilmington, NC 28403, USA
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K. M. Kapp et al.
Introduction There has long been support for a relationship among games, learning, motivation and engagement (Eseryel et al. 2014; Gee 2007; Greenfield 2010; Malone 1981; Malone and Lepper 1987: Rebetez and Betrancourt 2007; Possler et al. 2019). Several theories support the idea of serious games positively influencing motivation (Garris et al. 2002; Ryan and Deci 2000; Ryan et al. 2006) and “games are valued for their motivational power” (Westera 2019. p. 62). With games, players seem willing to invest more time and energy in gameplay because they find the games themselves a reward (i.e., fun to play). As Dicheva et al, (2015) state “games have remarkable motivational power; [because] they utilize a number of mechanisms to enc
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