Cognitive learning outcomes of virtual vs. in-person gamified workshops: a pre-post survey experiment

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the use of gamification in education intensified as it allows for higher levels of participation in online environments, which can increase student motivation through greater interaction. However, there is little research on using the same gamification elements in different settings. Therefore, we explore the different cognitive learning outcomes of participants in virtual and in-person gamified workshops. We developed a gamified workshop concept on sustainable transport logistics that was used for virtual and in-person settings in Austria. To ensure the quality of our workshops, we have introduced a pre-post experiment where learning effects are measured by a survey. The main findings show that gamification has proven to be a useful pedagogical strategy to achieve cognitive learning outcomes in in-person and virtual workshops. However, the cognitive learning outcome differs significantly between the participants of virtual vs. in-person gamified workshops. Our study shows that more attention needs to be paid to gamification in virtual vs. in-person settings to maximize the cognitive learning outcome of users with different demographic characteristics.