# Planning Gamification Strategies based on User Characteristics and DM: A Gender-based Case Study

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1905.09146 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.09146/

## Key facts

- Cited by 2 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 22 May 2019.

## Built on by (most cited first, 2 of 2)

- [Automating Gamification Personalization: To the User and Beyond](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2101.05718/) (2021)
- [Gamified and Self-Adaptive Applications for the Common Good: Research Challenges Ahead](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.15559/) (2021)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Gamification frameworks can aid in gamification planning for education. Most frameworks, however, do not provide ways to select, relate or recommend how to use game elements, to gamify a certain educational task. Instead, most provide a "one-size-fits-all" approach covering all learners, without considering different user characteristics, such as gender. Therefore, this work aims to adopt a data-driven approach to provide a set of game element recommendations, based on user preferences, that could be used by teachers and instructors to gamify learning activities. We analysed data from a novel survey of 733 people (male=569 and female=164), collecting information about user preferences regarding game elements. Our results suggest that the most important rules were based on four (out of nineteen) types of game elements: Objectives, Levels, Progress and Choice. From the perspective of user gender, for the female sample, the most interesting rule associated Objectives with Progress, Badges and Information (confidence=0.97), whilst the most interesting rule for the male sample associated also Objectives with Progress, Renovation and Choice (confidence=0.94). These rules and our descriptive analysis provides recommendations on how game elements can be used in educational scenarios.