GAMIFICATION SUPPORTING SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS? WORK-BASED LEARNING

Aim/Purpose This study attempts to apply gamification to support the training of small busi-ness owners in business web development from a work-based learning perspec-tive.Background Web design describes the process of creating a website and embodies many dif-ferent aspects, such as webpage layout, content production, and graphic design. However, there are many obstacles that small business owners face when devel-oping their websites, such as time and budget constraints, lacking technical skills, and difficulties with content creation.Methodology Based on the literature review, a gamified training program was developed for website development. The new website design and development training method was compared with the traditional lecture training method from small business owners' perspectives in the specific work-based learning context. Contribution This study contributes to the field of work-based learning by developing an in-novative gamified training program for small business owners in website devel-opment learning.Findings The results confirm that the gamified training program improved learning out-comes and satisfaction. The results of this study help advance the understanding of work-based training program design and provide insights to support small business owners in learning new technologies.Recommendations for Practitioners Recommendations for Researchers Results confirm that this new training system is superior to the traditional lec-ture training method. While much attention has been directed to website design and development learning or business activities of small business owners, this study emphasizes the need for work-based learning in such a context. This study also shows a potential way for future research by combining technol-ogy education and small business owners' needs. Impact on Society The results of this study show the advantages of gamified training programs. For their future training program selections, small business owners should pay more attention to gamified training and education systems in the market. Fur-thermore, gamified training and education systems not only help small busi-nesses but also could be adopted by mid-size or even large companies in their training programs.Future Research Future research should be conducted to investigate to what extent gamification improves work-based learning and how to design gamification to improve work -based learning.