The Effects of Rewards Mechanisms On the Game-based Chinese Learning System

Gamification can help students to learn. However, different mechanisms of gamification have different effects, especially the rewards mechanisms. Thus, this study aims to investigate the effects of rewards mechanisms on the gamebased Chinese learning system. We defined 2 kinds of rewards mechanisms: intrinsic and extrinsic rewards based on selfdetermination theory, and conduct an experiment in 3 version of game-based Chinese learning system to find out how rewards mechanisms affect users’ learning motivation and behavior intention to keep learning in the game-based Chinese learning system. The results reveal that intrinsic-rewards are mostly lead to higher motivation and behavior intention to keep learning. Further, extrinsic-rewards have slight effects on users’ motivation, but it has no significant effect on users’ behavior intention to keep learning. These insights add relevant findings to the ongoing discourse on the roles of different types of rewards mechanisms in gamification designs and suggest that learning system designers and operators should value the intrinsic motivation in users’ behavior.