ENHANCED ACADEMICIANS ENGAGEMENT: EVIDENCE FROM GAMIFICATION INTERVENTIONS IN HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTES

Background: This paper presents an outcome of gamification interventions in higher educational institutes to enhance the engagement of the teaching staff, the academicians. The academicians' engagement is an important component to enhance learning and timely course completion and for excellent student outcomes. In the recent past the gamification being used as a beneficial strategy in several areas such as business, education, e-learning, research and development and behavioral change of employees.Method: The authors have applied gamification interventions on Academicians of Engineering colleges around Hyderabad to see the effect of gamification on academician's motivation, engagement, loyalty, dedication to the organization, and turnover. A group of 150 academicians,the teaching staff were tested using before gamification and post-gamification survey instruments, a questionnaire.Results: The reliability of the survey instrument assessed measuring Cronbach-alpha statistics, descriptive statistics, and General Linear Model analysis was carried out to predict the influence of gender and academician's gamification choices on study variables. The post-gamification results reveal a statistically significant influence on motivation, engagement, whereas gamification intervention is a not good predictor of employee turnover and loyalty. The results from the General Linear Model analysis indicate the use of games in non-game context immensely motivates the employees and academicians inclined towards quests and challenges. Conclusions: The gamification is new and the study is novel can be successfully applied to engagement the academicians, motivating intrinsically if used correctly.