The State of Research on Effects of Gamification in the Context of Learning

Gamification has been promoted as a major aim in the context of learning and education. According to MarketsAndMarkets Research, the game-based learning market size is expected to grow from USD 11.0 billion in 2020 to USD 29.7 billion by 2026. This increase is attributed to the following reasons: lockdowns caused by COVID-19 pandemic, new product launches with the incorporation of Artificial Intelligence, and the continuously rising mobile internet user penetration [16]. Therefore, the potency of gamification in the current learning process is of high interest. This article systematically synthesises and brings into focus the state of research on gamification that affects behavioural learning outcomes in the higher education setting compared with conventional instructional methods. The primary research questions are: what are the learning outcomes of using game elements, what are the challenges of gamification, and what are the future research directions in this field? This literature review covered peer-reviewed empirical studies published between 2021 and 2022. Publications were required to include one crucial condition in which gamification is defined as the use of game elements in non-game contexts. The study presents the benefits of implementing gamified learning as well as the drawbacks, and highlights the various types of research gaps and state-of-the- art unresolved issues in the field of game-based learning.