Table 4.

Characterization of included articles [N = 40].

Nr.	Authors [Year]	Sample size	Education Level	Type of Study	Motivation Instruments		Gameful design		Gamification effects on Motivation
1	Aguiar et al., [2022]	69	Higher [Economic]	Longitudinal	Markov Model [Aguiar et al., 2022] based on Self-Determination Theory [SDT; Deci & Ryan, 1985, 2000; Ryan & Deci, 2000]		Points-based rewards and badges		Gamification fosters extrinsic motivation; however, extrinsic motivation can be internalized by students over time.
2	Aguilar, Holman, and Fishman [2018]	683	Higher [Undergraduate courses]	Longitudinal	Patterns of Adaptive Learning Scales [Midgley et al., 2000]		Points, badges, cooperation, and competition		Autonomy and competence increased in students that felt in control over the gamification grading system.
3	Al- Malki and Meccawy [2022]	60	High [Secondary school]	Longitudinal With control group	Instructional Materials Motivation Survey [Keller, 1987]		Points and levels		There is a positive effect of gamified learning activities in increasing students' motivation scores. The experimental group revealed higher levels when compared to the control group, where traditional methods were used.
4	Alabassi [2017]	47	Higher [Technology]	Cross-sectional	Positive, Cognitive, Psychological, and instant feedback effects of gamification [Alabassi, 2017]		Badges, points, leaderboards, and competition		Student's motivation, engagement and satisfaction were high after a gamified learning intervention. Instant feedback had an impact on learning motivation, participation, and academic achievement.
5	Asiksoy[2017]	61	Higher [Physics]	Longitudinal with control group	Physics Motivation Questionnaire [Glynn et al., 2009]		Points, badges, leaderboard, and competition		Student's motivation in the experimental group [gamification] was higher compared to the control group [flipped course].
6	Buckley and Doyle [2016]	156	Higher [Several graduation courses]	Longitudinal	Academic Motivation Survey [Vallerand et al., 1992]		Coins, trading, competition, and cooperation		Intrinsic motivation was found to be high within students using a gamification strategy. Extrinsic motivation was associated with a positive participation in the gamification tasks.
7	Cabot et al., [2020]	27	Higher [Master of Science]	Cross-sectional with control group	Gamified Social Platform [Engagement; motivation; involvement] [Cabot, 2020]		Badges, points, leaderboards, competition, and cooperation		Students felt the gamified platform was more motivating and an easy tool to learn, when compared to the control group. The social features of gamification [e.g., cooperation, participation in forums] were an important influence in the higher motivational levels.
8	Campillo-Ferrer et al., [2020]	101	Higher [Teaching Social Sciences]	Longitudinal	Motivation in Kahoot! [Ferrer et al., 2020]		Points, leaderboards, and competition		Student's motivational level increased after an exposure to Kahoot! competition system.
9	Cao et al., [2022]	156	Higher [Several graduation courses]	Cross-sectional	Reduced Instructional Materials Motivation Survey [RIMMS] [Loorbach et al., 2015] Goal Orientation Questionnaire [Xu et al., 2000]		Points, leaderboards, and competition		Students are more motivated when tasks are easier. Also, learning-oriented students reveal higher motivational levels than performance-oriented students.
10	Chen and Liang [2022]	187	Higher [Marketing]	Cross-sectional	Self-efficacy Speier and Frese [1997]		Not specified		There is a positive influence of gamification in student's self-efficacy to learn.
11	Chen and Zhao [2022]	272	Higher [STEM]	Cross-sectional	Perceived Locus of Causality [PLOC] [Ryan & Connell, 1989]		Competitions, study groups, coin/badge collections and rankings		Gamification fosters autonomous motivation which positively affects perceived usefulness and ease of use. Therefore, students feel comfortable and autonomy to use gamification apps.
12	Ding [2019]	70	Higher [Politician Education]	Cross-sectional with control group	Intrinsic Motivation Inventory [Ryan, 1982]		Badges and points		Students aware of gamification felt a higher sense of community, participation, and cognitive thinking.
13	Durrani et al., [2022]	105	Higher [Several graduation courses]	Cross-sectional with control group	Learning Motivation [Alavi, 1994; Leidner & Fuller, 1997]		Points, leaderboards, and competition		Students in the traditional group revealed higher motivational levels to learn than the gamified group.
14	Erümit and Yilmaz [2022]	52	Higher [Information and Communication Technology]	Longitudinal	Motivation and Engagement Scale-MES [Fredricks et al., 2005; Skinner et al., 2008]		Leaderboards, points, competition, levels, and prizes		Student's motivation was higher after the gamified intervention. Students described the gamified activities as an entertaining way of learning.
15	Facey-Shaw et al., [2020]	360	Higher [Programming]	Longitudinal with control group	Intrinsic Motivation Inventory [Ryan, 1982]		Badges, points, leaderboards, and competition		Student's intrinsic motivation from the gamified group decreased after the exposure to badges. Some students claimed to be frustrated and demotivated trying to unlock badges. However, in the control group, student's intrinsic motivation did also decrease. Authors suggested an influence of programming tasks complexity.
16	Ferriz-Valero et al., [2020]	127	Higher [Sports]	Longitudinal	Motivation in Physical Education Classes [CMEF] [Sánchez-Oliva et al., 2012]		Avatar, storytelling, and points		Student's extrinsic motivation increased [external regulation] after an exposure to ClassCraft. The experimental group [gamification] performed academically better than the control group.
17	González et al., [2020]	60	High [Secondary school]	Longitudinal with control group	School Social Behavior Scale [SSBS] adaptation [Yüksel, 2009]		Not specified		A comparison between gamified learning and flipped learning showed that both techniques could increas' student's motivation and autonomy and decrease learning anxiety.
18	Hanus and Fox [2015]	80	Higher [Communication]	Longitudinal with control group	Intrinsic Motivation Inventory [Ryan, Koestner, & Deci, 1991]		Leaderboards, points, badges, competition, and coins		Student's motivation decreased after an exposure to gamification, due to the competitive features of gamification [e.g., rankings] and to the long exposure to gamification.
19	Hazan et al., [2018]	91	Higher [Psychologic Statistics]	Longitudinal with control group	Intrinsic Motivation Inventory [Ryan, 1982]		Leaderboards, points, badges, avatars, storytelling, instant feedback, cooperation, and competition		Gamified condition led students to higher intrinsic motivation [perceived competence, interest/enjoyment, effort/importance] than the traditional learning condition. Motivational levels of students in the gamified condition were higher after the gamification strategy.
20	Isabelle [2020]	279	Higher [Arts and Commerce]	Longitudinal	Online Venture Challenge questionnaire [Isabelle, 2020]		Badges, points, leaderboards, competition, and cooperation		The gamified course increased student's motivation and self-efficacy.
21	Jaskari and Syrjälä [2022]	31	Higher [Marketing]	Cross-sectional	Game-playing Motivations in General [Yee, 2006; Yee et al., 2012; Kahn et al., 2015]		Leaderboards, points, storytelling, cooperation, and competition		This study explore student's motivation based on gaming personality: Social completionists; Highly motivated Completionists; Independent Completionists; Pure Completionists. Highly motivated completionists are always motivated, independent completionist motivation reduces in social elements of gamification, social completionists are highly motivated in social game elements and pure completionists are the less motivated in general.
22	Jones, Blanton and Williams [2022]	50	Higher [Kineosiology]	Longitudinal with control group	Intrinsic Motivation Inventory [Ryan, 1982]		Points, levels, and badges		In long-term exposure, both gamified and non-gamified groups lost interest in academic tasks. However, gamified group students revealed better autonomy and perceived competence than the non-gamified group students.
23	Jurgelaitis et al., [2018]	132	Higher [Informatics]	Longitudinal with control group	Intrinsic Motivation Inventory [Ryan, 1982]		Badges, points, leaderboards, competition, cooperation, levels, coins and trading		The gamified group was more intrinsically motivated than the control group. Interest/Enjoyment subscale was the most positively influenced by gamification.
24	Kyewski and Krämer [2018]	159	Higher [Several graduate courses]	Longitudinal	Academic Self-regulation Questionnaire [Müller, Hanfstingl, & Andreit, 2007]		Badges		Student's motivation level decreased in the gamified group but also in the control group [non-gamified].
25	Lopez-Martinez et al., [2022]	119	Higher [Physical Activity and Sport Sciences; Technicians in Teaching and Socio-sports Animation]	Cross-sectional With control group	Intrinsic Motivation Inventory [Ryan, 1982] [Escartí & Gutiérrez, 2001]		Leaderboards, points and competition		Gamified student's group intrinsic motivation increased compared to the traditional method; interest-enjoyment and effort-importance dimensions were high. Student's tension-pressure reduced after the gamified learning.
26	Mese and Dursun [2019]	63	Higher [Information Technologies in Education]	Longitudinal	Motivation Scale–Course Interest Survey [Keller, 1987]		Badges, points, leaderboards, and competition		Results of motivational levels [a–tention - relevance; confidence – satisfaction] were good and similar in both gamified group and control group. Qualitative analysis revealed an increase of motivation in the gamified group through the gamified experience; however, some students reported negative feelings with the experience due to lower places in the leaderboard and failures in the system.
27	Ortiz‐Rojas et al., [2019]	89	Higher [Programming]	Longitudinal with control group	Intrinsic Motivation Inventory [Ryan, 1982]		Leaderboards, points and competition		Student's intrinsic motivation [interest/enjoyment] did not increase in the gamified and control group. There was no difference between groups, neither a significant increase nor reduction of motivational levels.
28	Ozhan and Kocadere [2019]	40	Higher [Undergraduate courses]	Cross-sectional	Motivation Scale–Course Interest Survey [Keller, 1987]		Storytelling, levels, badges, leaderboards, competition, boss fights, and rewards		Authors explored the effects of flow and emotional engagement on motivation [ARCS model variables] through gamification. The results suggested an increase of motivation when students were more engaged and experienced flow.
29	Pinter et al., [2020]	282	Higher [Undergraduate]	Longitudinal with control group	Feedback answers [badges; leaderboards] [Pinter et al., 2020]		Leaderboards, points, badges, and competition		Students in the gamified group found badges and leaderboards to be motivating. The class attendance was higher in the experimental group [gamification] than in the control group. Leaderboard was motivating for most participants, but some students that were less competitive did not feel motivated.
30	Roy and Zaman [2018]	40	Higher [Master students]	Longitudinal	Academic Motivation Scale [Vallerand et al., 1992]		Points, badges, leaderboards, cooperation, and competition		Student's intrinsic motivation was negatively affected by gamification. In general, this study suggested that intrinsic motivation decreased over time in a gamified learning experience, and only the most extrinsic motivated [i.e., controlled motivation] remained stable over time.
31	Sailer and Sailer [2021]	214	Higher [Educational Social Sciences]	Cross-sectional	Short Scale Intrinsic Motivation [Wilde, Balz, Kovaleva, Urhahne, 2009] [82]		Points, team leaderboard, cooperation		Students revealed high levels of intrinsic motivation in this social-oriented gamified experience.
32	Sanchez et al., [2020]	60	High [Secondary Level]	Longitudinal	Not specified		Badges, levels, scores		Students exposed to the gamified experience were more motivated than the control group.
33	Santhanam et al., [2015]	182	Higher [Technology Mediated Training]	Cross-sectional	Self-Efficacy and Learning Outcomes [Santhanam et al., 2009]		Competition and levels		Student's self-efficacy beliefs, learning outcomes, engagement and enjoyment in the gamified activity were higher when they faced other students with the same level or lower level of comprehension/skills. In opposition, less competitive students, and students in competition against other students with higher abilities were less motivated.
34	Segura-Robles et al., [2020]	64	High [Secondary Level]	Longitudinal with control group	Basic Psychological Needs in Exercise Scale [Moreno et al., 2008], Sport Motivation Scale [Granero-Gallegos et al., 2014], and Sport Satisfaction Instrument [Baena-Extremera et al., 2012]		Storytelling and rewards		Intrinsic motivational levels increased in students from both groups [i.e., control with traditional learning and experimental group with gamified-flipped learning].
35	Stansbury and Earnest [2016]	93	Higher [Organizational Psychology]	Longitudinal with control group	Perceived experience [Stansbury & Earnest, 2016]		Points, roleplay, storytelling, competition, and cooperation		Students in the gamified group did not perform academically better than students in the control group [traditional learning]; however, students did engage and were more motivated and satisfied in the gamification condition. Individual preferences had an impact in gamification, some students were more motivated in competition.
36	Su [2015]	107	Higher [Software Engineering Education]	Longitudinal	Gamification Software Engineering Education Learning System [GSEELS; Su, 2015]		Points, roleplay, storytelling, and instant feedback		High degrees of gamification [deep gamification] improved student's motivation; however, gamification can increase student's cognitive load.
37	Tsay et al., [2018]	22	Higher [English Language Communication]	Cross-sectional	Intrinsic Motivation Inventory [Ryan, 1982]		Avatar, instant feedback, and storytelling		After one week of exposure to gamification, student's intrinsic motivation results were higher than average in enjoyment/interest and perceived choice [autonomy].
38	Valenzuela-Pascual et al., [2022]	60	Higher [physiotherapy]	Cross-sectional	Students' motivation and satisfaction [Escobar & Lobo, 2002]		Leaderboards, points, and competition		Most of the students were motivated after the gamification’ intervention and reported higher levels of motivation, when compared to the traditional educational approach.
39	Zabala-Vargas et al., [2021]	106	Higher [Engineering]	Longitudinal	Instructional Materials Motivation Survey [IMMS] [Loorbach, N., Peters, O., Karreman, J., & Steehouder, M., 2015]		Storytelling; avatars and status		Following the ARCS Model, students revealed high levels of motivation, however, in a long exposure to the gamified platform, student's motivational levels decreased [novelty effect].
40	Zainuddin [2018]	56	High [Science class]	Longitudinal with control group’Students' perceived levels of competence, autonomy, and relatedness in a gamified flipped class [Zainuddin, 2018]		Badges, points, leaderboards, and competition		Student's intrinsic motivation was higher in the experimental group [gamified] than in the control group. Competence, autonomy, and relatedness were fulfilled in the gamified experience, which led them to higher levels of intrinsic motivation and of participation in gamified activities; Students were motivated to unlock badges, gain points and to compete against each other.