Gamifying Experiential Learning Theory.

Motivating student learning and enhancing student learning performance can be done by gamifying existing learning systems via adding gaming elements to the systems, or by developing dedicated games for learning purposes. However, it is both costly and challenging to develop such systems, since it requires to fill the gap in cognition and knowledge between educators and game designers before they can properly transfer learning theories to game mechanics and elements for gamification or serious game implementation. This paper proposes to gamify experiential learning theory by mapping it to the positive and negative feedback mechanisms of the internal economy of game machinations. Hence, developing serious games becomes easier, since the effort of getting mutual understanding between educators and game designers can be effectively reduced. Our study assesses the proposed model by obtaining the experts’ (game designers/educators) perceptions of the model mapping, and its usefulness and usability, via an online questionnaire. A total of 23 participants answered the questionnaire by stating that our model was useful and could suitably mapped the learning theory to game design. We also present a field-based learning game as an application of our proposed model.