Michael Hanus

Who they are

This page records only what the cited paper and its published record state. Biography beyond the cited work is not given here.

Key papers

Assessing the effects of gamification in the classroom: a longitudinal study on intrinsic motivation, social comparison, satisfaction, effort, and academic performance (2015), with Jesse Fox. The study compared two university courses over a 16-week semester and surveyed 71 students at four points. One course used a leaderboard and badges and the other taught the same content without game elements. Students in the gamified course became less motivated, satisfied and empowered over time, and lower intrinsic motivation accounted for part of a drop in final exam scores.

Key ideas

The authors conclude that reward-heavy gamification can backfire in education. The study sits beside short-task experiments in which points, levels and leaderboards raised output, and shows how the same elements can have a different payoff over a semester.

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