Fostering Intrinsic Motivation for a specific task through the use of the game design elements

Abstract

Intrinsic motivation of teachers proved to be of high importance for their own work, development and wellbeing. Self-determination Theory mentions three basic psychological needs of teachers for them to be intrinsically motivated: autonomy, competence and relatedness. Meeting these three needs within gamification has proven to have a positive after effect on players. Using an exploratory design, this qualitative research investigates whether the use of the specific game elements of having a timer, points, a personal preferred order and the option to share information and own achievements, can foster the basic psychological needs of a player for a specific work task. Participants played a game in which these elements were added. Results show that the game elements appear to be less effective than literature suggests. Firstly because the effect of the game elements in most cases seems limited, secondly because various game elements can influence more than one need and lastly because game elements can counteract each other. More research should be done to see how the findings of this research can be generalized to other gamified environments, target audiences and tasks.