Gamification Does Not Belong at a University

Gamification in higher education has drawn strong criticism from students who saw it as manipulative, and this analysis examines how such resistance played out in practice at a university setting. Through a case study of gamified university learning management systems, the work argues that institutions must understand existing gaming behaviour and the competing framings that different stakeholders bring before implementing gamification. The central thesis is that how gamification is received depends heavily on role positioning, whether participation is voluntary, and the interplay between the framings held by students, designers, and the institution.

The findings center on a gamified technical course in which a flaw in the system allowed students to automate their progression. A bug that failed to apply a cooldown to experience points earned from clicking article links let students use scripts to reach levels far beyond what designers intended, with one reaching level 9073 against an expected range of 8 to 12. In a separate Canvas-based case, students scripted thousands of automated submissions and reached levels in the thousands within days. Students framed these actions as resistance to gamification they considered unethical, addictive, and meaningless, objecting in particular to rewards such as extended deadlines that overlapped with accommodations for students with special needs. The university treated the behaviour as cheating, resetting levels for all 84 students in the affected course, while the gamification studio regarded it as a playful prank.

The scope centers on a Swedish technical university and a related institutional setting, with data gathered through multi-sited ethnography across 38 weeks. The analysis draws on Goffman's frame analysis and situates its conclusions within prior mixed evidence on gamified higher education, which shows positive engagement effects alongside inconsistent achievement outcomes. The work's reference base spans education and computer science research on gamification and higher-education dropout indicators.