Technological Aspects of Gamification: Criteria for the Selection of Digital Tools and Platforms

This work-in-progress paper describes research conducted as part of the ongoing project "Enhancing Motivation for Learning Through Gamification", whose main aim is to develop a pedagogical-technological gamification framework to help high school teachers design and implement gamification activities. The research will be conducted using the Design-Based Research (DBR) methodology. Currently, the project is focussing on researching the technological aspects of the gamification framework. This paper proposes criteria to consider when selecting digital tools and platforms for gamification and presents the results of analysing selected tools. The main contribution of the paper lies in its own categorisation of the gamification criteria based on the MDA framework, in which the gamification categories are described according to Mechanics, Dynamics and Aesthetics. As an example of the application of the categorisation, the analysis of the gamification tool Kahoot! is described in detail.