Table Of ContentTorsten Reiners · Lincoln C. Wood
Editors
Gamifi cation
in Education
and Business
Gamifi cation in Education and Business
Torsten Reiners • Lincoln C. Wood
Editors
Gamifi cation in Education
and Business
Editors
Torsten Reiners Lincoln C. Wood
School of Information Systems Department of Business Information Systems
Curtin University Auckland University of Technology
Bentley , WA , Australia Auckland , New Zealand
ISBN 978-3-319-10207-8 ISBN 978-3-319-10208-5 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-10208-5
Springer Cham Heidelberg New York Dordrecht London
Library of Congress Control Number: 2014953389
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Pref ace
We did not intend this book to be a manual or to provide a complete examination of all
elements of gamifi cation. Clearly, given the pace with which research has been
developing in this nascent area, a comprehensive overview within the confi nes of
publication schedules would be an ambitious and ultimately unachievable task.
Instead, we have elected to focus our attention on two areas (namely, business and
education) and provide an overview for the scientifi c and business community on
the work that has been conducted as well as providing direction for further research.
We included a small number of salient use cases for insight into practical use and
application of gamifi cation approaches.
While the world appears to be drifting towards hyper-competitiveness, we hear
of people feeling ‘trapped’ in many jobs from the high-powered through to the mun-
dane. Facing the ‘electronic whip’, we can see that many people are yearning for
greater meaning within their lives. In some cases, people just want to enjoy their
jobs more. They want to move away from their regular work processes (e.g. effi cien-
cies and effectiveness in meeting corporate goals) towards something more mean-
ingful and personal to them; something that will get them motivated, provide a
sense of accomplishment, and which will help them to smile at work each day.
M eanwhile, our educational philosophies have changed little over several thou-
sand years. Students are still treated as minds to be shaped, despite the overwhelm-
ing evidence that we should be encouraging them to seek and explore. What stops a
student from learning? While towering geniuses often speak fondly of their love for
learning, a love of learning is infrequently encouraged and we hear few students
express a desire to spend more time learning.
Gamifi cation has been positioned as one approach, tool, or set of techniques
which may change how various activities are undertaken so that those involved
begin to experience more fun, enjoyment, and pleasure in their tasks. The term
became popular in 2010 and dominates especially areas with human interaction and
focus on the quality of the experience since then. And the hype is still progressing today
as people continue to investigate how the appropriate theories can be implemented
v
vi Preface
and further developed. There are now many defi nitions of ‘gamifi cation’; yet, some
are concise (fun, play, passion) or too specifi c with strong reference to gaming
mechanisms. Thus, we propose a simple, comprehensive defi nition unrestricted in
its application, environment, or discipline:
Gamifi cation is a designed behaviour shift through playful experiences
Saying that, we should not get between you and your exploration of this book
and learning more about gamifi cation and its value for education and business.
Enjoy. And keep us informed about your thoughts about how you use gamifi cation
now and it will develop in the future.
Bentley, WA, Australia Torsten Reiners
Auckland, New Zealand Lincoln C. Wood
Acknowledgements
This book would not have been possible without the input of many friends and col-
leagues along the away. We have both been heavily infl uenced by our interactions
with a variety of our students that have suffered through our incessant experiments
and work to better engage, motivate, and teach our students. Furthermore, the on-
going support from our institutions Curtin University (Perth, Australia) and
Auckland University of Technology (Auckland, New Zealand) has been fundamen-
tal in allowing us the freedom and fl exibility to pursue these concepts and ideas
within the scope of our teaching and research. This book is a major step forward on
our pathway, but also opens up new exciting ideas and invaluable connections to be
explored in the near future. Join us on our travel and follow our reports on facebook
nDiVE Project or blog ndive - project.com .
W e further acknowledge the immense amount of work that the editorial team at
Springer has provided. Without the help of Matthew Amboy, Christine Crigler,
Mishra Manoranjan, and Rekha Udaiyar this book would not have been possible.
Thanks for your support, trust, and patience. We thank the authors of the included
manuscripts, the reviewers and all the colleagues who invested some of their
precious time to help us.
Finally and most importantly, we thank our long-suffering wives: Kirsten Reiners
and Penny Wood. From the very fi rst BBQ where the pair of us crept away to dis-
cuss, debate, and argue about the ideas that led to our projects and this book, our
wonderful wives have stood with us, helped, and supported us throughout the pro-
cess. Without them, we would certainly be lost and unable to complete this
project.
vii
viii Acknowledgements
Support for the production of this publication has been provided by the Australian
Government Offi ce for Learning and Teaching (Grant: Development of an authentic
training environment to support skill acquisition in logistics and supply chain man-
agement, ID: ID12-2498). The views expressed in this publication do not necessar-
ily refl ect the views of the Australian Government Offi ce for Learning and Teaching.
Book Ov erview
We have experienced a great deal of enjoyment while working towards bringing this
volume to print and we hope that this sense of pleasure has been shared by the con-
tributors to the work. It has been a time-consuming and arduous task from the fi rst
dissemination of the call for chapters to the fi nal selection of interesting chapters
demonstrating the infl uence and impact of gamifi cation within business and educa-
tion. We received lots of feedback and proposals for chapters, of which we had to
pick those of the highest quality but also best fi t to tell a story of interest for the
reader. The fi nal selection came from a widely dispersed group of international
authors—all experts with years of experience in research or practice—who discuss
the current state-of-the-art in their areas of expertise and how they anticipate the
development of gamifi cation over the ensuing years. Before we send you off to
immerse yourself in the book and enjoy your journey through the four parts (Theory,
Education, Business, and Use Cases), you should get some insight into what you
can expect. Warning: if you dislike spoilers, skip the chapter overviews presented
after the maps showing the current location of the authors. Some plain facts of
the book are:
• 58 Proposals received
• 41 Submitted chapters
• 34 Chapters accepted (58.6 % acceptance rate)
– 8 Theory-driven and empirical
– 13 Education
– 11 Business
– 2 Use case focus
• 66 Authors from 14 countries on 4 continents (see below)
• 764 pages
• 137 Figures, 99 in colour
ix
