Learning to be better at the game: Performance vs. completion contingent reward for game-based learning

The difficulty of designing intrinsically integrated game-based learning systems has led to alternative design strategies based on extrinsic integration. This study extends prior work on extrinsic integration design by examining the effectiveness of alternative reward structures in integrating learning and game. Specifically, a performance-contingent reward is proposed as a new integration mechanism and its effects on learning, motivation, engagement, and system perception are assessed, vis-a-vis a completion-contingent reward. A group of university students (N = 64) were involved in an empirical experiment designed to determine the effectiveness of the new reward structure in the context of English vocabulary learning and arrow-shooting gaming. The results from the experiment show that the proposed reward structure produces a statistically significant increase in the level of learning, motivation, and engagement. The results are highly encouraging for game-based learning research as the proposed approach is easily extendable, with design implications that are widely applicable.