Gamification in Education and Demand for Acquired Skills: A Systematic Review

Educational studies. 2024. Vol. 1. No. 3. P. 151–179.

Daria Tikhomirova, Anna Tregubova, Andrei Ternikov

The main focus of the paper is to present a systematic review of research by analyzing the state of gamification in higher education and its connection to labor demand. 80 papers published in high-impact academic journals over the last decade are reviewed. This study contributes to the research by attributing embedded gamification to skills acquired for recruitment purposes. In terms of managerial implications, research findings in the area have encouraged educators to embed gaming elements in their teaching routines to not only increase students' levels of motivation, engagement, and knowledge retention, but also to release into the labor market a sought-after workforce with all the necessary skills. Therefore, this paper demonstrates the effectiveness of the universal learning model, which ensures improvement of learning tasks with a view to training competitive specialists. The results suggest that the skills acquired by students in an educational process with integrated game-based elements tend to be in high demand on the labor market. The novelty of the work lies in the taxonomy of theories and methods in the field related to the acquisition of essential skills.

Keywords: высшее образование, higher education, востребованные навыки, объявления о вакансиях, embedded gamification, in-demand skills, job postings, интегрированная геймификация