Gamifying Quantified Self Approaches for Learning: an Experiment with the Live Interest Meter

In this paper, we present our research on the impact of gamification – ‘the use of game design elements in non-game contexts’ – to increase the motivation of students to use PLEs (Personal Learning Environments). To examine this, we conducted an experiment with the Live-Interest-Meter (LIM), a Quantified Self (QS) application to improve the learning experience during and after lectures. The results showed that perceived fun has a positive effect on the motivation to use the LIM and the motivation to use it is with gamification significantly higher than without. Therefore, gamification seems to be an appropriate enabler to engage people in using QS approaches as PLEs for improving their learning experiences.