The Role of Happiness in University Gamification: Its Relationship to Learning Perception and Kahoot Intent to Use

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.61604/dl.v18i32.452

Keywords:

Higher education, educational innovation, educational technology, student attitudes, emotional well-beign, game-based learning

Abstract

Gamification has been consolidated as a strategy to improve participation and learning in higher education; however, it is still unknown to what extent students' emotional well-being influences their experience with gamified tools. This study aims to analyze the relationship between happiness and learning perception, as well as examine the role of variables such as anxiety, time pressure, and FOMO in gamified environments. To this end, a survey was applied to 127 university students and analyses of variance (ANOVA) and correlation tests were carried out in order to evaluate differences between groups according to their level of happiness and determine the factors associated with the intention of future use. The results show that students with higher levels of happiness perceive greater learning through gamification compared to those with lower well-being, which supports the theory of the expansion and construction of positive emotions; however, no significant differences were observed in anxiety, time pressure, or FOMO based on the level of happiness. Unlike previous studies focused mainly on the usefulness of Kahoot or the general effects of gamification, this work examines the role of situational emotional well-being in the perception of learning and in the future acceptance of the tool.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biographies

Sofía Blanco-Moreno, University of Leon

Sofía Blanco-Moreno is a Marketing and Tourism expert with a specialization in Digital Marketing and technologies such as Web Scraping and Artificial Intelligence (Machine Learning and Deep Learning) applied in Tourism and Hospitality. She is also a PhD student and an assistant professor at the University of León (Spain), and she has worked as a Digital Marketing expert on international companies such as Meliá Hotels. She has received several research awards, such as the best communication at the AIRSI and AIM 2023 conferences, I UAM-ASSECO Business Case Award 2022 and "Proof of concept" within the University-Business Knowledge Transfer Plan for the platform Photo Data Tour Analytics (https://mktingphotodatatour.unileon.es/)

Rafael Ravina Ripoll, University of Cadiz

Professor of Business Organization at the University of Cádiz, he is a member of the Esteban Boutelou Historical Studies Research Group. He has been a visiting professor at the Autonomous University of Baja California, the Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences, and the University of Verona, where he has given lectures on happiness management. He is the author and co-author of articles, papers at international conferences, and books related to the economics of happiness and creativity. Since 2016, he has been a member of the Editorial Board of the journal "Estudios Sociales" in Chile. He also organizes courses and conferences on corporate happiness and creativity.

Araceli Galiano Coronil, University of Cadiz

Araceli Galiano Coronil, doctora en Marketing y Comunicación por la universidad de Cádiz, actualmente profesora del departamento de Marketing y Comunicación en dicha universidad y miembro del Instituto Universitario de Investigación para el Desarrollo Social Sostenible (INDESS). Mi linea de investigación se centra en la utilización del Big Data y social media como instrumentos de marketing social y felicidad en las organizaciones.

Araceli Galiano PhD, is professor in the Faculty of Social Sciences and Communication at University of Cadiz in Jerez (Spain). She is also currently a member of the University Institute of Research for Social Sustainable Development (INDESS). Her interests are in the role and effects of Big Data and social media as social marketing and happiness tools in organizations.

Guillermo Antonio Gutiérrez-Montoya, Universidad Don Bosco, El Salvador

Profesor de organización de empresas, análisis estadístico y psicología individual. Sus líneas de investigación incluyen el clima organizacional, gestión estratégica y desarrollo emprendedor

References

Ajzen, I. (1991). The theory of planned behavior. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 50(2), 179–211. https://doi.org/10.1016/0749-5978(91)90020-T

Alt, D. (2018). Students’ well-being, fear of missing out, and social media engagement for leisure in higher education learning environments. Current Psychology, 37(1), 128–138. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-016-9496-1

Baker, Z. G., Krieger, H., & LeRoy, A. S. (2016). Fear of missing out: Relationships with depression, mindfulness, and physical symptoms. Translational Issues in Psychological Science, 2(3), 275–282. https://doi.org/10.1037/tps0000075

Buckley, P., & Doyle, E. (2016). Gamification and student motivation. Interactive Learning Environments, 24(6), 1162–1175. https://doi.org/10.1080/10494820.2014.964263

Chan, E., Nah, F. F. H., Liu, Q., & Lu, Z. (2018). Effect of gamification on intrinsic motivation. In HCI in Business, Government, and Organizations: 5th International Conference, HCIBGO 2018, Held as Part of HCI International 2018, Las Vegas, NV, USA, July 15-20, 2018, Proceedings 5 (pp. 445-454). Springer International Publishing.

Cheong, C., Cheong, F., & Filippou, J. (2013). Quick quiz: A gamified approach for enhancing learning. In PACIS 2013 Proceedings. 206. http://aisel.aisnet.org/pacis2013/206

Cohen, J. (1988). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd ed.). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Davis, F. D. (1989). Perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and user acceptance of information technology. MIS Quarterly, 13(3), 319–340. https://doi.org/10.2307/249008

Deterding, S., Dixon, D., Khaled, R., & Nacke, L. (2011, September). From game design elements to gamefulness: defining" gamification". In Proceedings of the 15th international academic MindTrek conference: Envisioning future media environments (pp. 9-15). https://doi.org/10.1145/2181037.2181040

Dichev, C., & Dicheva, D. (2017). Gamifying education: what is known, what is believed and what remains uncertain: a critical review. International journal of educational technology in higher education, 14, 1-36. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41239-017-0042-5

D'Mello, S., Dieterle, E., & Duckworth, A. (2017). Advanced, analytic, automated (AAA) measurement of engagement during learning. Educational psychologist, 52(2), 104-123. https://doi.org/10.1080/00461520.2017.1281747

Field, A. (2013). Discovering statistics using IBM SPSS statistics (4th ed.). SAGE Publications.

Fredrickson, B. L. (2001). The role of positive emotions in positive psychology: The broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions. American psychologist, 56(3), 218-226. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.56.3.218

Fredrickson, B. L., & Joiner, T. (2002). Positive emotions trigger upward spirals toward emotional well-being. Psychological science, 13(2), 172-175. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9280.00431

Hamari, J., & Koivisto, J. (2015). “Working out for likes”: An empirical study on social influence in exercise gamification. Computers in human behavior, 50, 333-347. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2015.04.018

Hanus, M. D., & Fox, J. (2015). Assessing the effects of gamification in the classroom: A longitudinal study on intrinsic motivation, social comparison, satisfaction, effort, and academic performance. Computers & education, 80, 152-161. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2014.08.019

Kari, T., Piippo, J., Frank, L., Makkonen, M., & Moilanen, P. (2016). To gamify or not to gamify? Gamification in exercise applications and its role in impacting exercise motivation. In BLED 2016 Proceedings. 20. https://aisel.aisnet.org/bled2016/20

Koivisto, J., & Hamari, J. (2019). The rise of motivational information systems: A review of gamification research. International journal of information management, 45, 191-210. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2018.10.013

Kotler, P., & Lee, N. (2015). Social marketing: Changing behaviors for good. SAGE Publications, Incorporated.

Lampropoulos, G., & Sidiropoulos, A. (2024). Impact of gamification on students’ learning outcomes and academic performance: A longitudinal study comparing online, traditional, and gamified learning. Education Sciences, 14(4), 367. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci14040367

Lazarus, R. S., & Folkman, S. (1984). Stress, appraisal, and coping. Springer publishing company.

Licorish, S. A., Owen, H. E., Daniel, B., & George, J. L. (2018). Students’ perception of Kahoot!’s influence on teaching and learning. Research and Practice in Technology Enhanced Learning, 13(1), 1-23. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41039-018-0078-8

Lyubomirsky, S., & Lepper, H. S. (1999). A measure of subjective happiness: Preliminary reliability and construct validation. Social Indicators Research, 46(2), 137–155. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1006824100041

Manzano-León, A., Camacho-Lazarraga, P., Guerrero, M. A., Guerrero-Puerta, L., Aguilar-Parra, J. M., Trigueros, R., & Alias, A. (2021). Between level up and game over: A systematic literature review of gamification in education. Sustainability, 13(4), 2247. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13042247

Nunnally, J. C., & Bernstein, I. H. (1994). Psychometric theory (3rd ed.). McGraw-Hill.

Przybylski, A. K., Murayama, K., DeHaan, C. R., & Gladwell, V. (2013). Motivational, emotional, and behavioral correlates of fear of missing out. Computers in human behavior, 29(4), 1841-1848. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2013.02.014

Richard, N. L., Kristina, N. B., & Rachel, C. C. (2017). Gamification of task performance with leaderboards: A goal setting experiment. Journal of Computers in Human Behaviour, 71, 508-515. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2015.08.008

Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2000). Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. American psychologist, 55(1), 68. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.55.1.68

Salanova, M., Bakker, A. B., & Llorens, S. (2006). Flow at work: Evidence for an upward spiral of personal and organizational resources. Journal of Happiness studies, 7(1), 1-22. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-005-8854-8

Sailer, M., Hense, J. U., Mayr, S. K., & Mandl, H. (2017). How gamification motivates: An experimental study of the effects of specific game design elements on psychological need satisfaction. Computers in human behavior, 69, 371-380. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2016.12.033

Schaufeli, W. B., Salanova, M., González-Romá, V., & Bakker, A. B. (2002). The measurement of engagement and burnout: A two sample confirmatory factor analytic approach. Journal of Happiness studies, 3, 71-92. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1015630930326

Schöbel, S., Saqr, M., & Janson, A. (2021). Two decades of game concepts in digital learning environments–A bibliometric study and research agenda. Computers & Education, 173, 104296. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2021.104296

Schunk, D. H., & DiBenedetto, M. K. (2020). Motivation and social cognitive theory. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 60, 101832. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2019.101832

Subhash, S., & Cudney, E. A. (2018). Gamified learning in higher education: A systematic review of the literature. Computers in human behavior, 87, 192-206. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2018.05.028

Tomas, L., Evans, N. S., Doyle, T., & Skamp, K. (2019). Are first year students ready for a flipped classroom? A case for a flipped learning continuum. International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, 16(1), 1-22. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41239-019-0135-4

Wang, A. I. (2015). The wear out effect of a game-based student response system. Computers & Education, 82, 217-227. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2014.11.004

Wang, A. I., & Tahir, R. (2020). The effect of using Kahoot! for learning–A literature review. Computers & Education, 149, 103818. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2020.103818

Downloads

Published

2026-06-02

How to Cite

Blanco Moreno, S., Ravina Ripoll, R., Galiano Coronil, A., & Gutiérrez-Montoya, G. A. (2026). The Role of Happiness in University Gamification: Its Relationship to Learning Perception and Kahoot Intent to Use. Diá-Logos, 18(32), 09–30. https://doi.org/10.61604/dl.v18i32.452

Issue

Vol. 18 No. 32 (2026): Revista Diá-logos No. 32, enero-junio 2026

Section

Articles

License

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.