Attitudes of Neurodiverse Students towards Gamification in Higher Education

As part of my MSc Clinical Psychology supervision, we designed a qualitative project investigating the opinions and attitudes of neurodiverse students about gamification. Students were asked about the perceived positives and negatives of several approaches to gamification (leader-boards, badges, narratives and rewards/consequences). The results of this thematic analysis will be reviewed and written for publication soon.

Gamification is the use of game-like elements to increase engagement and motivation to learn. Whilst a wealth of research finds gamification to be beneficial to Higher Education students, and to children at school, there is a gap regarding what neurodiverse students in Higher Education think about these methods. Neurodiversity is an umbrella term for a variety of processing differences and developmental differences, such as Autism, ADHD, and/or dyslexia, amongst other diagnoses. To address this gap, we sent an anonymous survey asking students their opinions on the positives and negatives of using gamification at university. The results are still being reviewed and written up.

Whilst gamification is considered fun and engaging, it can also lead to unhealthy competition, decreased intrinsic motivation for learning, and issues around fairness and equality if designed poorly.