Are libraries ready to serve gamification tools for teaching and learning? A review based on computational mapping

Abstract

Purpose

Gamification is an emerging technique of applying game elements to difficult and tedious learning activities to make them fun and exciting. This study aims to review the scientific landscape of the library’s readiness to adopt gamification with context to application in teaching and learning purposes based on computational tools. The present research also aims to study the growth of literature on gamification, to identify the most contributing authors, countries, affiliations and journals and collaboration status with different geographical settings. The study will also identify the most influential paper on the area with the highest citation and Altmetric Attention Score (AAS) as well as analyzing the keywords for locating the research trend in the subject area.

Design/methodology/approach

The study has adopted Scientometric and Altmetric approach by considering the research outputs of a decade (2013–2022) from Scopus database. First, the required data has been searched using appropriate keywords forming the search strategy by running title–abstract–keywords considering the limitation in the system. The exported data is systematically visualized for performing science mapping like the collaboration of authors, countries, organizations and co-occurrence of keywords using VOSviewer. For finding the Altmetrics score and Mendeley readership of the influential research works, the system Dimension.ai is further used.

Findings

The study found 928 records indicating an exponential growth over the years with total 2,750 authors. Samuel Kai Wah Chu from the University of Hong Kong, China, is the most contributed author. Spain and the USA are highly productive countries, but there needs to be a strong collaboration pattern among authors. It is found that gamification is widely applied in education discipline than any other. Some of the libraries have already implemented gamification tools for learning purposes in their services. The research on gamification still lacks social media attention and needs to be promoted more through various social media platforms for greater visibility.

Originality/value

The study explores the global scientific literature to identify the library’s awareness of implementing gamification tools in their services for teaching and learning purposes. As per the author’s knowledge, no such study has been conducted until date with such aims and objectives through the application of both Scientometrics and Altmetrics approaches.

Citation

Saikia, S., Gul, S. and Verma, M.K. (2023), "Are libraries ready to serve gamification tools for teaching and learning? A review based on computational mapping", Global Knowledge, Memory and Communication, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/GKMC-04-2023-0114