1 Detecting playfulness in 2 educational gamification 3 through behavior patterns D. Codish G. Ravid 4 Games are not a new concept in learning. Game-based 5 learning, simulations, and serious games are known pedagogical 6 methods used to build on the inherent playfulness of learners. 7 Technological advances and the popularity of learning 8 management systems are making it easier to implement 9 gamification, analyze the resulting engagement and playfulness, 10 and modify the implementation if needed. However, knowledge 11 is often missing about how different combinations of game 12 mechanics and dynamics create playfulness. We discuss the 13 concept of gamification behavior patterns, which are sequences 14 of actions performed by a user that can be attributed to the 15 application of a gamification design pattern. A preliminary 16 experiment was conducted in an academic course where perceived 17 playfulness was analyzed with respect to three different sets of 18 independent variables: personality, perceived enjoyment from 19 game mechanics, and gamification behavior patterns. Results 20 show that it is practical to measure gamification behavior patterns 21 and that they have a significant predictive power. We propose 22 the development of an open-source, cloud-based gamification 23 behaviors database that will collect specific gamification 24 engagement events from systems worldwide, along with metadata 25 about each implementation. With such a database, Big Data, 26 machine-learning, and recommender-system algorithms can be 27 applied to increase knowledge regarding steering user behaviors 28 through gamification. 29 Introduction 30 The inclusion of game elements into non-game 31 environments, referred to as gamification [1, 2], is 32 gaining momentum as a method for creating gameful user 33 experiences that add value [3] and increase engagement, 34 motivation, and user involvement in the gamified 35 activities. The underlying logic at the basis of gamification 36 is that adding elements, such as those found in games to 37 utilitarian activities, will create immersion in a similar way 38 to what happens in games [4, 5]. While this makes sense, 39 empirical studies show this is not always the case [6, 7]. 40 One possible explanation to these mixed results is that 41 different people perceive enjoyment differently [8–11], 42 and thus a gamified experience may create enjoyment in 43 some people but not in others [12–14]. Depending 44 on the design of the gamified experience, and the people 45 involved, results may vary from an overall successful 46 implementation to a complete failure. Designers should 47 understand which mechanics and dynamics create 48 enjoyment, taking into account different personalities, 49 needs, and motivations. Doing so is not a trivial task [15] 50 since user personalities, needs, and motivations are not 51 known to designers, and even if they were known, it is not 52 clear how to use this knowledge to achieve better results. 53 Scholars seeking to define gamification, in such a way 54 that will address different users, use a more user-centric 55 definition and define it as “the integration of user-centered 56 game design elements into non-game contexts” [16], 57 emphasizing the fact that not all users will be equally 58 engaged. Other definitions to gamification exist but 59 are beyond the scope of this paper [2, 17, 18]. Digital Object Identifier: 10.1147/JRD.2015.2459651 D. CODISH AND G. RAVID 6:1 IBM J. RES. & DEV. VOL. 59 NO. 6 PAPER 6 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2015 ÓCopyright 2015 by International Business Machines Corporation. Copying in printed form for private use is permitted without payment of royalty provided that (1) each reproduction is done without alteration and (2) the Journal reference and IBM copyright notice are included on the first page. The title and abstract, but no other portions, of this paper may be copied by any means or distributed royalty free without further permission by computer-based and other information-service systems. Permission to republish any other portion of this paper must be obtained from the Editor. 0018-8646/15 B 2015 IBM