Reclaiming pedagogical architecture in adaptive gamification: Design-time scenario-level adaptivity beyond algorithmic personalization

Adaptive gamification has emerged as a prominent strategy for addressing engagement and motivation challenges in higher education and distance learning. Recent research has increasingly framed adaptivity as a run-time, algorithmic process driven by artificial intelligence and learning analytics. While such systems offer computational efficiency, they frequently reduce adaptivity to parameter optimization within fixed instructional structures, resulting in limited transparency and superficial personalization. This article argues that adaptive gamification should be reconceptualized as a design-time pedagogical architecture rather than a reactive algorithmic feature. Drawing on a conceptual synthesis of adaptive gamification literature, the study distinguishes between the temporal locus of adaptivity (run-time versus design-time) and the scope of adaptation (element-level versus scenario-level), foregrounding a structural imbalance: adaptation has been elaborated almost entirely at the element level, while scenario-level alternatives remain largely untheorized. Grounded in self-determination theory and informed by systemic gamification theory, the article proposes scenario-level design-time adaptive gamification as a coherent alternative that foregrounds learner agency, pedagogical transparency, and instructional integrity. By embedding adaptivity into pre-authored pedagogically equivalent scenarios, this approach accommodates motivational diversity while preserving assessment equivalence. The study concludes by positioning adaptivity as a pedagogical responsibility rather than a purely technical capability.