Gamification in the “Applied Phonetics and Phonology” course: do personality traits and learning styles affect gamification satisfaction and effectiveness?

The increased interest received by gamification over the last decade for its hypothesized benefits on motivation and learning leads to question which factors contribute most to its success. Literature reports significant differences in the approach to gamified experience based on individual characteristics. The article arises from the need to analyze the factors influencing the success of a rapidly growing teaching method in order to achieve its effective use. The purpose of our study is to investigate the presence of any correlations between effectiveness and satisfaction of a gamification experience with the learning strategies and / or students’ personality traits, in the “Applied Phonetics and Phonology” course in Speech and Language Therapy (SLT) Bachelor Degree at the University of Padova. To achieve the proposed goal, three questionnaires were administered to the 25 students of the second year of the Degree Course in SLT in order to value the gamified activity and to study satisfaction and effectiveness related to students’ learning strategies and their personality traits. The data collected showed a statistically significant positive correlation between performance and student satisfaction with gamified activity. Another significant positive correlation was also highlighted between student satisfaction and the personality trait of emotional stability. The analysis of the relationships between learning strategies and satisfaction and between learning strategies and performance led to a negative correlation between satisfaction and the verbal visual channel, a negative correlation between satisfaction and the kinesthetic channel and a positive correlation between satisfaction and the auditory channel. As found in the literature, the present study also shows significant differences in the approach to gamified experience based on individual student features, which underscores the importance of understanding how these affect the effectiveness of gamification to achieve its effective use. In view of the findings, gamification must be therefore studied and implemented, while also taking into account individual learning styles and personal traits.