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The Gamified Learning Theory implies that gamification does not affect learning directly but stimulates a learning-related behavior in a mediating or moderating process. A learner-related behavior can, to some extent, be predicted based on the way learners tend to perceive, understand and utilize information. These different ways of learning are known as learning tendencies. This study investigates the moderator role of learning tendencies on gamification success concerning learners' academic participation, engagement, and experience. For this, Felder-Silverman Learning Style Model is used for the identification of learners' tendencies. In our study, 69 Computer Science students were randomly assigned to one control and two treatment groups. Students in the treatment groups were assigned two different gamified courses, while the control group attended a non-gamified course. This allowed us to analyze the individual effect of each gamification design and compare and see which gamification design was more appropriate for a learner with particular tendencies. Our results indicate that gamification design positively contributes to academic participation, affects learners' engagement in gamified environments, and that students' learning tendencies moderated students' engagement.

In this paper, we present the fundamental concepts, design, and preliminary findings of a personalized gamification project in the educational context. The project aims to create a balanced, gamified learning environment in which all learners are equally engaged and interested. However, finding the balance between heterogenic learners’ traits and the variety of gamification design elements is a challenging, multistep process. Therefore, this paper presents the first steps towards the design of a balanced gamified environment, in which we a) proposed the Personalized Gamification Design Model (PeGaM) to assist gamification designers in applying a learner-center approach to gamification; b) explored learners’ learning tendencies as personalization criteria and applied PeGaM in the e-learning course, and c) conducted the exploratory study with 124 students to investigate behavioral differences in and between students in the control and treatment group. The study revealed a positive influence of badges, leaderboards, and experience points on learners with reflective, global, visual, and intuitive learning tendencies, and negative on students with sensing learning tendencies. Hence, this study supported the idea of introducing learning tendencies in the gamification design process and indicates the need for further research in this direction.

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