Gamification is a prominent pedagogical tool to boost language learners' engagement, motivation, and learning outcomes. However, its effectiveness varies depending on contextual factors and individual characteristics, such as age. Understanding these dynamics is critical for designing inclusive and adaptive gamified learning environments. To address this issue, we conducted a quasi-experimental study with 299 participants to examine the effects of gamification on language learners' gameful experiences (i.e., accomplishment, challenge, competition, guidance, immersion, playfulness, and social experience) according to their age. Participants interacted with the gamified platform Duolingo and completed the GAMEFULQUEST questionnaire. Data processing used Structural Equation Modeling to explore the effects of gamification on language learners' gameful experiences. Results revealed that older participants had the highest sense of accomplishment and immersion during the system usage. These findings contribute to language education and gamified education, providing insights into the interplay between gamification and language learners' gameful experiences.

Contribution: In this full research paper, we offer a quantitative analysis of how gamification influences students' gameful experience within a mobile online learning gamified platform, specifically Duolingo. We explored how these effects vary based on students' self-declared gender, providing valuable insights into the intricate dynamics within gamified educational environments. Background: The use of gameful environments as educational tools has been acknowledged for its potential to yield diverse outcomes in students' learning achievements, encompassing both advantageous and disadvantageous effects. Among the hypotheses regarding the observed diverse outcomes is that gamification may influence individuals' experiences differently based on their inherent traits, such as gamer type, age, and gender. While recent research has made strides in exploring this hypothesis, knowledge regarding how gamification can affect users' experience in gameful environments remains limited. Research Questions: This study aims to address the following question: How does gamification affect students' gameful experience (i.e., accomplishment, challenge, competition, guided, immersion, playfulness, and social experience) according to their self-declared gender? Methodology: To answer this research question, we conducted a quasi-experimental study (i.e., involving the comparison of groups without random assignment), organized in three steps. In the first step, we invited technology students to utilize the gamified platform, Duolingo, for a minimum of 20 minutes. In the second step, participants completed the GAME-FULQUEST, a scale comprising 56 items across seven dimensions, designed to measure their gameful experience while using the platform. They also answered a demographic questionnaire to indicate their gender (following ethical recommendations, we included the options: “male”,”female”, “non-binary” and “I prefer to not disclose”). In the third step, we employed Structural Equation Modeling to analyze the effects of gamification on students' gameful experience, according to their gender. Our sample comprised 110 students, with 42 self-identified as females and 68 as males. Findings: Our results indicate that learners' gender did not affect any of the dimensions of the gameful experience. This result opens up space for several insights into how gamification can affect the learners' experience according to different variables.

Currently, an essential challenge in education in Brazil is to promote quality education that reaches all schools in the country, even those with limited technological educational resources. With this work, we have made a contribution to the field of gamified education by creating a comprehensive didactic booklet that has been translated into Brazilian Portuguese, English, and Spanish, thereby facilitating educators to gamify their classrooms in an unplugged and personalized way. We have introduced an innovative approach to designing unplugged gamified classes, aiming to provide engaging and enjoyable learning for students. This instructional material is based on a framework of five distinct gamification designs, offering teachers a versatile toolkit to gamify their classes, even if they never had any experiences with gamification. Our resources not only serve as valuable aids but also function as guides for teachers, empowering them to gamify their classes in a manner that is both student-centric and adaptable to different contexts, an essential characteristic with the possible variations of the students and places. This booklet is the result of an intensive training course provided to 15 Brazilian teachers, even in a short period of time, training them with essential knowledge and skills. These educators gained proficiency in several key areas, including i) understanding the fundamental concept of gamification and your more common definition, profiling their students and recognizing the pivotal role this plays in designing effective gamified learning experiences for the evolution of them, ii) familiarization with the various gamification elements and their organization into the five distinct designs, and iii) crafting context-free lessons that align with each of these innovative gamification designs. In an evolving educational landscape, our work stands as a beacon, enabling educators to harness the power of gamification and create dynamic, interactive learning environments for their students. This initiative has the potential to improve the quality of education and awaken in students a curiosity that transcends traditional borders. Such a transformation in the educational landscape could have far-reaching effects, ultimately contributing to the cultivation of an innovative, engaged, and motivated future generation, which will drive progress and innovation in various contexts.

This experience report addresses training that was offered to teachers in Brazil. The main objective of such training was to train teachers to be able to gamify their own classes, in an unplugged way (i.e., without the use of digital technologies), and student-centered (i.e., personalized). The external observation was used as the primary data collection approach. This initiative was proposed by the Brazilian Ministry of Education, in which 27 laboratories were made available (one for each state of the federation) with the aim of preparing teachers nationwide. However, although some educators have shown a strong interest in using gamification as a strategy in their classrooms, a second group has demonstrated some resistance to the incorporation of gamification within the scope of education. These different levels of receptivity among teachers highlight the importance of continuous support and professional development to ensure the successful integration of gamification into the educational setting.