Gamifying behaviour that leads to learning

Abstract

Many courses require self-study to succeed. This is especially true of online courses. However, self-study activities, such as reading the textbook and completing the associated workbook, are not motivating and do not contribute directly to grades. As a result many students do not complete these activities and this may lead to a lower understanding of the material and a lower overall grade in the class. In this paper we present the prototype of a casual game, Reading Garden, which encourages self-study through casual gameplay.