Would I Use It? A Study with Experts Exploring Game Design

Storytelling as a Facilitating Process for Creating Educational

Gamiﬁcation

ao Bernardo

1 a

, Fernanda Pires

2 b

, Sheila Reinehr

3 c

, Marcela Pessoa

2 d

and Tayana Conte

2 e

Institute of Computing, Federal University of Amazonas, Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil

ucleo de Computac¸

ao, Universidade do Estado do Amazonas, Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil

Pontif

ıcia Universidade Cat

olica do Paran

a (PUCPR) Curitiba, Brazil

Keywords:

Gamiﬁcation, Narratives, Focus Group, Usability Evaluation.

Abstract:

Educational gamiﬁcation can improve student engagement, motivation, or performance; however, educators

face challenges in aligning game elements with learning objectives. This article presents the Game Design

Storytelling (GDS) process, developed to assist professors in creating gamiﬁed lessons that integrate game el-

ements with learning objectives. The process uses a narrative structure as a guide for developing the elements,

aiming to increase student engagement and motivation. A two-stage study was conducted to evaluate the ease

of use of the process. In the ﬁrst stage, education experts participated in focus group sessions to provide feed-

back on the process. Based on this feedback, an improved version of the process was developed. In the second

stage, this new version was evaluated by more experts, who provided positive feedback on the implemented

improvements. The results indicate that experts felt more inclined to use the new version of the process, with

some expressing a desire to use the gamiﬁcation generated in this study.

1 INTRODUCTION

Gamiﬁcation aims to motivate students by integrat-

ing game elements, such as leaderboards, badges, and

more, into academic environments, promoting partic-

ipation to improve knowledge retention (Majuri et al.,

2018). However, gamiﬁcation can adversely affect

student behavior, such as a lack of interest in the ap-

plied content, low interaction, and more (Hanus and

Fox, 2015; Toda et al., 2017). A possible reason

is that professors and instructors face difﬁculties in

developing and implementing gamiﬁcation proposals

that connect game elements and learning objectives

to the designed world, mainly due to their limitations

and the overload of daily activities (Pernelle et al.,

2021; Ara

ujo and Carvalho, 2022).

To support the incorporation of gamiﬁcation in the

educational context, some tools have been developed,

https://orcid.org/0009-0001-6517-0874

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8180-9850

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9430-7713

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3064-5585

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6436-3773

such as (i) Kahoot!, which creates interactive quizzes

for dynamic reviews (Tan Ai Lin et al., 2018), (ii)

Classcraft, which combines game elements with tra-

ditional teaching to reward positive behaviors and im-

prove academic performance (Paiva et al., 2022), and

(iii) the Palomino (2022) framework, which is cen-

tered on narratives and evolves to elevate the educa-

tional experience through gamiﬁcation focused on the

user experience.

In order to support the implementation of gamiﬁ-

cation in education, Bernardo et al. (2021) propose a

process that allows creators (professors or instructors)

to design gamiﬁed environments through personal-

ized themes, challenges, types of activities, and as-

sessment methods according to the needs of students.

The process guides educators in creating gamiﬁed ex-

periences for their classes through nine steps, cover-

ing everything from conception, theme development,

missions, and scoring rules until the ﬁnalization of the

proposal. However, professors did not evaluate the

process; with their classroom experience, they could

offer insights for improvements and adjustments.

Based on this, this article presents the results of

a two-stage study that evaluates the ease of use of

436

Bernardo, J., Pires, F., Reinehr, S., Pessoa, M. and Conte, T.

Would I Use It? A Study with Experts Exploring Game Design Storytelling as a Facilitating Process for Creating Educational Gamiﬁcation.

DOI: 10.5220/0013294600003932

Paper published under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

In Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Computer Supported Education (CSEDU 2025) - Volume 1, pages 436-443

ISBN: 978-989-758-746-7; ISSN: 2184-5026

the Game Design Storytelling (GDS) process when

applied to educational contexts. Education experts

participated in evaluation sessions, where they pro-

vided feedback on the proposed process through a fo-

cus group (Kontio et al., 2008). As a result, the ex-

perts’ opinions and suggestions served as a basis for

improving and adapting a new version of the process,

containing response selection forms and the automa-

tion of the generation of the gamiﬁed lesson project

through ChatGPT

2 GAMIFICATION IN

EDUCATION

Gamiﬁcation uses game-based mechanics, aesthet-

ics, and thinking to engage people, motivate action,

promote learning, and solve problems (Kapp, 2012).

When applied to the classroom context, gamiﬁcation

can be an approach that uses game elements, such as

boards, levels, rankings, and challenges, to help to en-

gage and motivate students (Deterding et al., 2011),

making it possible to transform monotonous tasks into

more stimulating activities, to encourage student par-

ticipation (Majuri et al., 2018).

Studies show that gamiﬁcation can aid in aca-

demic performance and student participation in the

classroom (Pimentel et al., 2022; Sousa-Vieira et al.,

2021). Prieto-Andreu et al. (2022) conducted a sys-

tematic review of the literature on the relationship be-

tween gamiﬁcation, motivation, and learning, and ev-

idence that the correction of game elements, such as

badges, leaderboards, and points, have a positive ef-

fect on student motivation and performance in educa-

tional environments, in addition to promoting a more

positive attitude toward learning. However, the use of

gamiﬁcation as a learning strategy is still a challenge

for education, as it lacks methodological rigor (Sailer

and Homner, 2020) and/or tools that provide support

for applicators to design their strategies (Ara

ujo and

Carvalho, 2022). To develop educational gamiﬁca-

tion that meets learning objectives and structures the

instructional content well, gamiﬁcation enhances in-

struction rather than replacing it (Landers, 2014).

A gamiﬁcation design should begin with identi-

fying desired learning outcomes and selecting game

mechanics that align with these goals (Kapp, 2012).

Include mechanics like group missions and friendly

competitions to promote collaboration. In addition,

assessment is a crucial part of the gamiﬁcation pro-

cess. It is important to measure academic perfor-

mance and factors such as satisfaction, motivation,

https://chatgpt.com/

and student behavior during gamiﬁed activities (Sailer

et al., 2017).

Considering the combination of instructional de-

sign with the gamiﬁcation proposal, one alternative is

to use processes or proposals for implementing edu-

cational gamiﬁcation that simplify and optimize the

planning of teaching activities, making them interac-

tive and engaging for students. Some proposals to

support gamiﬁed learning can provide structures that

help professors practically integrate game elements

into their classes without requiring much time and re-

sources, promoting a more dynamic and stimulating

learning environment.

2.1 Proposals to Support Gamiﬁcation

An example of a tool that supports learning through

gamiﬁcation is Kahoot!

, which allows the creation of

interactive quizzes and question-and-answer games.

Educators can create curriculum-based challenges

and engage students in friendly competitions, making

the review and learning process more dynamic and

fun. However, Kahoot! focuses mainly on applying

gamiﬁed elements without including speciﬁc mecha-

nisms for the continuous evaluation of the impact of

these elements on student performance (Tan Ai Lin

et al., 2018).

The Classcraft

platform is an educational plat-

form that combines game elements with traditional

teaching to create a more motivating learning expe-

rience for students with a theme. Professors can re-

ward students for good behavior and academic per-

formance, while negative actions can result in losing

health points (HP) from student characters. Paiva et

al. (2022) conducted a study using the gamiﬁed plat-

form Classcraft to evaluate how user experience (UX)

and usability inﬂuence the acceptance of this tool in

the educational environment. The study aimed to in-

vestigate the factors that affect student motivation and

engagement in gamiﬁed learning activities. An em-

pirical experiment was conducted with high school

students, in which aspects related to the UX and us-

ability of the platform were evaluated. The methodol-

ogy included applying the AttrakDiff model, which

measures an interface’s pragmatic quality, hedonic

quality, and attractiveness. The results indicated that,

despite positive expectations regarding gamiﬁcation,

students found the interface unattractive, with insufﬁ-

cient visual elements to keep them engaged. Further-

more, the data collected indicated low usability and

limited stimulation, demonstrating that gamiﬁcation

does not guarantee the acceptance of an educational

https://kahoot.com/

https://www.classcraft.com/pt/

Would I Use It? A Study with Experts Exploring Game Design Storytelling as a Facilitating Process for Creating Educational Gamiﬁcation

437

platform if a good user experience does not accom-

pany it.

The Palomino (2022) framework, centered on nar-

ratives, aims to assist in the learning and experience

of students, proposing to encompass four compo-

nents: narrative establishment, narrative-based struc-

ture, customized approach to the gamiﬁcation jour-

ney, and an application ontology. Analyzing these

components through empirical studies, user testing,

and conversations with experts, indicates that the log-

ical combination of game elements can elevate gami-

ﬁcation from a simple application to a relevant expe-

rience.

Unlike previous proposals, this paper presents the

evaluation and improvements in a gamiﬁcation pro-

cess. The process helps to develop game elements

and learning objectives through a game design pro-

posal integrated with the narrative structure. It allows

the creation of the gamiﬁed environment through the

selection of the most appropriate theme, the deﬁnition

of the challenges to be faced, the types of activities to

be applied, criteria for evaluating the performance of

the participants, and combining this and other infor-

mation in a narrative speciﬁc to the project.

3 THE GAME DESIGN

STORYTELLING PROCESS

With the plot (narrative) as the backbone of the Pro-

cess, GDS proposes a pattern of events in a timeline

format

. In each stage, the user/student is the main

hero of the gamiﬁcation. To do this, the creator must

look at the narrative from the same perspective as the

user, being aware of the order of the events, expe-

riences, and elements will be structured in a logical

sequence of events, creating a plot that the user can

follow (Bernardo et al., 2021).

In the Introduction phase, the player is intro-

duced to the game through the story, scenario, and

rules, essential elements to engage players, obtained

through research on the target audience. Moving on

to the Routine phase, aspects of the player and their

daily activities are outlined, immersing them in the

character’s story, social role, interpersonal ties, hier-

archies, and motivations to get involved in the game.

In the Event phase, villains, drastic changes, chal-

lenges, and barriers are explored to take the player

out of their comfort zone, indicating danger. In the

Call for adventure phase, elements that support the

hero’s journey are introduced, such as missions, learn-

ing objectives, desires, needs, obstacles, hero identity,

Process: https://encurtador.com.br/PLJnA

rules, and collectibles. It is suggested that a map of

phases/missions, a personal or team identiﬁer, a visual

scoring system, and a repository of gains be included

to arouse the player’s curiosity.

In the Daily journey, the player faces missions

proportional to the number of content classes, involv-

ing progress in tasks and application of motivating

elements. It is recommended that elements such as

learning objectives, mission names, player objectives,

challenges, and game elements be included to main-

tain progress.

In the Final Challenge, players face the most sig-

niﬁcant obstacle (boss), exploring the villain/cause to

the fullest and connecting it with elements of the jour-

ney, generating ﬂashbacks. Players apply the content

learned and receive tips to overcome the challenge.

After “defeating the Boss”, participants complete

their journey in the Finalization and are rewarded

according to the scoring system and the leaderboard.

After overcoming the obstacles and being decorated,

players can return to their world or continue as ex-

pected.

Two complementary documents facilitate the

practical application of the Game Design Storytelling

Process (GDS) in educational settings. The ﬁrst is a

tutorial

for educators, which provides a step-by-step

guide on how professors can gamify their lessons us-

ing the GDS framework. The second is a compre-

hensive guide

, offering detailed instructions on de-

signing a gamiﬁed experience based on the process.

These resources provide practical insights and exam-

ples to support educators in implementing gamiﬁca-

tion in their classrooms. Both documents can be ac-

cessed through the links provided in the footer of this

page, ensuring readers have direct access to the com-

plete materials for further exploration.

4 METHODOLOGY

For this research

, we adopted the methodology de-

scribed below in Figure 1.

1. Focus Group. In the ﬁrst Stage, we organized a

focus group (Kontio et al., 2008) with ﬁve professors.

These participants were selected based on their expe-

rience in Computer Science education and their inter-

est in this research. During this session, we presented

the process and examples of its application, including

the tutorial described in Section 3. The group of four

Tutorial: https://encurtador.com.br/e3Fll

Guide: https://encurtador.com.br/LIrrr

This project is supported by the Ethics Committee, ac-

cording to the approval of CAAE: 81543724.5.0000.5020.

CSEDU 2025 - 17th International Conference on Computer Supported Education

438

Figure 1: The research methodology consisted of four

stages: a focus group, identiﬁcation of process improve-

ments, implementation of improvements, and evaluation of

the new version of the process.

women and one man discussed the process, identify-

ing strengths and weaknesses regarding its applicabil-

ity in the classroom. A moderator facilitated the dis-

cussions, presenting targeted questions and recording

them through audio and transcriptions.

2. Identiﬁcation of Process Improvements. The

main improvements were identiﬁed based on feed-

back collected during the focus group. The analysis

highlighted the need for adjustments, particularly in

simplifying certain steps and developing support ma-

terials to assist professors in updating the use of the

proposed tool. Data were organized into spreadsheets

and analyzed qualitatively, with suggestions and crit-

icisms categorized for future implementation.

3. Implementation of Improvements. After iden-

tifying potential improvements, there was a GDS up-

date to optimize its usability, focusing on reducing the

time and effort required to create gamiﬁed projects.

Although the number of steps remained the same,

new support materials were introduced, including two

forms that allowed creators to select predeﬁned op-

tions instead of manually writing details. The ﬁrst

form covered themes, assessments, types of feedback,

challenges, and rewards, while the second focused

on mission design, enabling the creation of person-

alized missions. These forms simpliﬁed the process,

reduced complexity, and automatically forwarded re-

sponses to users for easy reference.

We identiﬁed that creating narratives for gamiﬁca-

tion was a signiﬁcant challenge for educators, many

reported a lack of time and difﬁculty in creating sto-

ries. To address this issue, ChatGPT

, an artiﬁcial in-

telligence tool capable of generating texts based on

speciﬁc prompts, was proposed as a means of assist-

ing professors in creating narratives for gamiﬁcation

more efﬁciently.

4. Evaluation of the New Version of the Process.

In the ﬁnal Stage, the new version of the process was

used and evaluated by eleven experts with experience

in teaching computing. Five of the experts had pre-

viously participated in the focus group, while the re-

maining six were professors who volunteered for the

study. Participants received the revised process pro-

posal via a link (presented in Section 5.3). After sub-

mitting their responses through an online form, the

gamiﬁed content was generated using ChatGPT and

subsequently shared with the experts for evaluation.

After analyzing the result of the generated gamiﬁca-

tion, a satisfaction survey was conducted to gather

user feedback.

One of the professors liked the gamiﬁcation gen-

erated and decided to apply it the following week in

one of his Requirements Engineering classes. The re-

sults of this application are published in Bernardo et

al., (2025) .

5 RESULTS

In this section, we present the results of the activities

described in the previous section.

5.1 Focus Group Results: Experts’

Perceptions of the Process

The experts here, referred to as ExpX, were initially

presented with the steps of the GDS process (Section

3) and the important elements for understanding each

of them. Afterward, the moderator asked the partic-

ipants,: “Would you use this process to gamify your

classes?” and asked each expert to express their opin-

ions. Table 1 describes the experts’ opinions.

In general, the participants expressed concern

about the length of the process, considering it long

and tiring. Points such as “the lack of time to dedi-

cate to ﬁlling out the steps in detail, due to the work-

load” led to suggestions for shortening the process.

Another point highlighted was the lack of ability to

create narratives, which is a key element in gamiﬁca-

tion through the GDS process.

https://chatgpt.com/

Would I Use It? A Study with Experts Exploring Game Design Storytelling as a Facilitating Process for Creating Educational Gamiﬁcation

439

Table 1: Focus group: expert opinions.

Expert Comments

Exp1 “This process is very long, just think-

ing about answering each step, I would

have already given up”.

Exp2 “I teach a lot of classes, it would take

a long time to transfer my entire les-

son plan to this proposal, I don’t have

all that time.”.

Exp3 “If it was smaller and more objective, I

think it could work, but I wouldn’t use

it because of its size.”.

Exp4 “I don’t have the creativity for creating

stories.”.

Exp5 “We have to ﬁnd a way to optimize this,

it’s a very large and detailed process, I

feel lost.”.

The experts were then asked what could be done

to improve the process. Table 2 presents the improve-

ments suggested by the experts.

Table 2: Focus group: suggestions for improving the pro-

cess.

Expert Suggestions

Exp1 “Could summarize the questions, re-

ducing the number of questions as

well”.

Exp2 “Look, it would be interesting if, in-

stead of writing things down, I could

just select them”.

Exp3 “Have you ever thought about making a

light version of the process, with just a

few ﬁxed game elements?”.

Exp4 “Have you ever thought about doing

something with short descriptions of

what it is to do?”.

Exp5 “There could be examples of ready-

made gamiﬁcation for the professor to

base themselves on when creating their

own gamiﬁcation”.

The participants expressed their ideas related to

improvements that could be made regarding reducing

steps to reduce the complexity of the process, improv-

ing the descriptions of each step, and giving examples

of answers for the designers to base themselves on.

5.2 Identiﬁcation of Process

Improvements

Considering the experts’ suggestions, the process was

changed. Instead of the professor having to write each

step using hints, questions were created for each of

the nine stages of the project composition without go-

ing into excessive detail to avoid complexity.

However, even with the reduction, Expert 2, who

was the participant who volunteered to continue giv-

ing feedback after the focus group, considered that it

would still be too much work to have to answer each

of the steps, which was not attractive for a profes-

sional with multiple classes and little time available.

After analyzing this possible idea for change, Expert 2

indicated that, for him, the most practical thing would

be to “not have to write anything, just select the an-

swers”.

After identifying improvements, a new version of

the process was designed, taking into account the sug-

gestions for reducing the GDS process, and precisely

Expert 2’s suggestion of providing a selection of pos-

sible answers for each question.

5.3 Implementation of Improvements

Based on the improvements suggested by the experts,

a new version of GDS was developed with the aim

of optimizing the execution of the steps. Although

the number of steps in the process remained the same,

the inclusion of the support material made it possible

to reduce the time needed to create the gamiﬁcation

project. More speciﬁcally, the changes implemented

included forms with the possibility of selecting an-

swers and the integration with ChatGPT version 3.5

to assist in creating narratives, as follows.

5.3.1 Proposal for Filling out by Selecting

Answers

Instead of requiring the gamiﬁcation creator to man-

ually complete each step of the process, forms were

developed that allow ﬁlling out using selection ﬁelds.

The ﬁrst form

presents the creator with sugges-

tions related to themes, evaluations, feedback, chal-

lenges, awards, and other gamiﬁcation possibilities.

The second form

concerns missions, allowing

the user to create as many missions as necessary. It

is possible to select the desired elements to be applied

in the missions, such as type of evaluation, feedback,

challenges, score, and other elements that make up a

mission. For example, if you want to apply GDS to

a single class, you only need to complete the mission

form once to create the corresponding mission. On

the other hand, if you want to gamify three classes,

you need to ﬁll out the form three times or more, as

needed.

Both forms will be sent by email so that the cre-

ator can respond. As soon as you respond to each

form, your answers will be forwarded to your email,

https://chatgpt.com/

First form: https://forms.gle/fxphzHTeWGVofWsg9

Second form: https://forms.gle/r7UM34zFpGxZRXvq8

CSEDU 2025 - 17th International Conference on Computer Supported Education

440

as a way to help you consult the items previously an-

swered and selected.

5.3.2 Integrating ChatGPT into the Process

During the focus group, Expert 4 reported the need for

creativity to integrate the selected information into a

narrative. To minimize the problem, Expert 2 recom-

mended using ChatGPT to use the responses from the

forms and develop a gamiﬁed proposal.

We conducted tests using prompt engineering with

ChatGPT to enhance creativity during narrative con-

struction. A document containing the evolution of

prompts is available for consultation

To test the results of the gamiﬁcation generated

with the support of ChatGPT, the participant was a

high school professor who intended to gamify his

classes but did not have time to learn gamiﬁcation

methods and did not feel creative enough to create a

proposal for such an activity.

A proposal

was made available to the professor

that present the result obtained with the application

of the command prompt that uses the structure of the

original process and the answers selected by the pro-

fessor from the forms about the world of gamiﬁca-

tion

and creation of missions

If the user prefers to develop their plot, he can use

the traditional process. However, if you want to au-

tomate this task, you can use the command prompt in

ChatGPT or another generative AI that supports this

prompt.

5.4 Evaluation of the New Version of

the Process

To obtain feedback on the new proposal for applying

the gamiﬁcation process, an evaluation was carried

out with eleven volunteer participants in an unmoder-

ated format (executed with the participant alone with-

out the presence of the moderator), where all of them

generated gamiﬁcation proposals for the classroom,

using topics that they usually teach in their comput-

ing disciplines.

The procedure carried out had the following steps:

(i) brief explanation about the new version of the

process via a text message;

(ii) time for the experts to answer the new forms

based on the process to specify details of their gami-

ﬁcation. For this test, everyone had to create a gami-

ﬁcation of just one mission;

Prompts: https://encurtador.com.br/7wWcu

Proposal: https://encurtador.com.br/vWIX4

Response 1 Form: https://encurtador.com.br/0AFUt

Response 2 Form: https://encurtador.com.br/YKjIx

(iii) the participants received and analyzed their

gamiﬁcation project proposals generated based on the

responses to the forms;

(iv) At the end, a satisfaction survey was con-

ducted with the users.

The results generated by the experts

helped pro-

vide feedback, as shown in Table 3. The experts unan-

imously recommended the process to other profes-

sors, highlighting that the system facilitates the cre-

ation of gamiﬁcation.

Table 3: Feedback on the new version of the process.

Expert Participants’ comments

Exp1 I saw the potential of the process to in-

crease student engagement.

Exp2 I consider the process easier and more

interesting to apply in the classroom.

Exp5 I highlight the simplicity and speed of

the process.

Exp7 I enjoy facilitating the creative process

and creating an engaging class..

Exp11 I recommend using the process because

it makes the professors job easier.

Despite the positive feedback, some experts also

pointed out opportunities for improvement. Expert

1, for example, highlighted that the gamiﬁcation gen-

eration stage could be better integrated into the ﬁrst

phases of the process, making the ﬂow more cohesive.

Expert 2 mentioned the need to establish a minimum

and maximum number of choices in speciﬁc options

to prevent the professor from creating a too extensive

dynamic or with too few elements, which could im-

pact practical application. The Expert also suggested

including example scenarios or a brief explanation be-

fore starting the form so the professor can understand

what will be generated at the end.

Other experts raised questions about the clarity

and detail of the instructions provided. Expert 3 sug-

gested including a more robust initial explanation of

the process, which would better contextualize the use

of the form. Expert 4 suggested adding help buttons

to guide users unfamiliar with speciﬁc gamiﬁcation

terms. At the same time, Expert 5 recommended cre-

ating a manual with examples that could clarify items

that seem similar or overlap in the form. In addition,

he highlighted the need to include more detailed feed-

back for all types of challenges in the process.

Some experts, such as Expert 10, highlighted that

using forms, although functional, can harm the inter-

action experience. The suggestion was to create a

more contextual environment, with graphics and vi-

sual elements that would facilitate understanding and

the creation of the artifacts necessary for gamiﬁcation.

Results: https://encurtador.com.br/mxuuB

Would I Use It? A Study with Experts Exploring Game Design Storytelling as a Facilitating Process for Creating Educational Gamiﬁcation

441

Finally, Expert 11 suggested testing the process

with professors from other areas of knowledge to pro-

vide a broader perspective on the tool’s applicability

in different educational contexts.

These points of improvement indicate that, al-

though the new version of the process has made it

easier to create gamiﬁcation, there is still room for

adjustments, especially in terms of ease of use, clarity

of instructions, and visual and contextual support.

To support the validation of the process, incorpo-

rated quantitative metrics to provide data on the ease

of use and adoption of the proposed improvements by

participants. The metrics collected during the study

were:

• Time Reduction. The process time has been re-

duced from 120 minutes to 7 minutes. Previously,

users had to stop and develop the entire gamiﬁca-

tion proposal manually, but now they only need to

select the relevant options in the form, making the

process much faster.

• Recommendation Rate. 91% of participants

stated they would recommend the process to other

educators.

• Adoption Rate. 73% would apply the process in

their classes.

• Average Satisfaction Score. 4.2/5 average sat-

isfaction rating from participants. 85% rated the

process as ”easy” or ”very easy” to use.

• ChatGPT Efﬁciency. 100%. Percentage of par-

ticipants who found ChatGPT helpful in creating

narratives.

6 CONCLUSION

This study held a focus group with ﬁve computer sci-

ence experts to evaluate the GDS process. We devel-

oped a new version after identifying the original pro-

cess’s limitations and potential improvements through

the focus group. This version incorporated the sug-

gestions for improvement to make it more practical

and accessible. The complexity of the process was

reduced, and a response selection system was also in-

corporated to facilitate the completion of the steps, as

suggested by one of the experts. In addition, ChatGPT

was integrated into the proposal to help create narra-

tives, offering creative support so that professors can

develop gamiﬁcation proposals practically. The new

version of the process was subsequently reassessed.

After implementing the suggested changes and in-

troducing a more simpliﬁed method for completing

the process steps, the experts were receptive to the

new version of GDS process.

The accessibility of the new version of the pro-

cess was evidenced by the positive feedback from the

experts when presented with the results generated by

ChatGPT, reducing a favorable perception regarding

the usefulness of the automated approach. The sug-

gestion to use ChatGPT to gather information and

develop gamiﬁed proposals was also well received,

demonstrating a willingness to adopt new technolo-

gies and approaches in the classroom.

However, there is still room for adjustments, such

as including limits on selection options, improving

the clarity of questions, and integrating more speciﬁc

feedback. Although ChatGPT has demonstrated the

potential to automate the generation of narratives, al-

leviating part of the workload for professors, its use

still requires validation by the professor. With these

improvements, the process aims to assist in a practi-

cal and helpful way in implementing gamiﬁcation in

educational environments.

It is important to list three limitations of this re-

search as threats to validity:

1. A limited sample of experts because although they

provided important feedback, more participants

would be needed to obtain a more comprehensive

view of the feedback.

2. The lack of a practical application test for the

projects generated a more extensive evaluation.

3. The selection of experts only from the computing

area since the application with professionals from

other areas can result in different views and feed-

back, knowing that professionals from the com-

puting area have daily experience with issues such

as process detailing and structure.

Some experts have highlighted the GDS process’s

potential to test beyond computer science disciplines.

While this study focused on computer science edu-

cators, future research could explore how can adapt

GDS process to various ﬁelds of knowledge. For

instance, history classes could use narrative-based

gamiﬁcation to bring historical events to life through

engaging storytelling. Similarly, biology educators

could employ game elements to simulate ecological

challenges, engaging students in solving real-world

problems. This broader applicability underscores the

versatility of GDS, suggesting that its narrative-driven

framework could enhance learning experiences across

different disciplines. A future longitudinal study

could assess the impact of GDS on student learning

outcomes in the long term.

In future work, an experiment will be conducted

to evaluate GDS as a process to support the creation

of gamiﬁed classes. This experiment will compare

students’ performance in gamiﬁed classes supported

CSEDU 2025 - 17th International Conference on Computer Supported Education

442

by the GDS process versus traditional classes. The

research will be conducted with professors and un-

dergraduate students of computing courses. More in-

depth studies should also be conducted to evaluate the

use of ChatGPT and other AI tools in education, in-

cluding quantitative analyses to measure the impact

of the narratives generated on student learning.

DATA AVAILABILITY

The dataset and the material used in the research, such

as the forms, GDS guide, material produced by the

experts and others, are maintained as an open source

project accessible at:

https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.ﬁgshare.27740928

If you have any questions, please contact one of

the authors.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

This work was carried out with the support of the Co-

ordination for the Improvement of Higher Education

Personnel - Brazil (CAPES-PROEX) – Funding Code

001. Additionally, this work was partially funded by

the Foundation for Research Support of the State of

Amazonas – FAPEAM – through the PDPG project.

We would like to thank the ﬁnancial support

granted by CNPq (314797/2023-8; 443934/2023-1;

445029/2024-2) and the valuable contributions from

the members of our research group, who provided

feedback and support throughout this study.

Our gratitude goes to the participants of this study,

whose engagement and insights were fundamental to

this research.

REFERENCES

Ara

ujo, I. and Carvalho, A. A. (2022). Enablers and difﬁ-

culties in the implementation of gamiﬁcation: A case

study with teachers. Education Sciences, 12(3):191.

Bernardo, J., Frota, J., Souza, T., Pessoa, M., Gadelha, B.,

and Conte, T. (2025). A journey through cyberium:

creating user stories for a dystopic world to teach re-

quirements engineering. CSEE&T. Accepted for pub-

lication.

Bernardo, J., Pires, F., and Pessoa, M. (2021). Uma pro-

posta de game design para gamiﬁcac¸

ao educacional

estrutural atrav

es da criac¸

ao de hist

orias. In Anais Es-

tendidos do XX Simp

osio Brasileiro de Jogos e En-

tretenimento Digital, pages 638–644. SBC.

Deterding, S., Dixon, D., Khaled, R., and Nacke, L. (2011).

From game design elements to gamefulness: deﬁn-

ing” gamiﬁcation”. In Proceedings of the 15th inter-

national academic MindTrek conference: Envisioning

future media environments, pages 9–15.

Hanus, M. D. and Fox, J. (2015). Assessing the effects of

gamiﬁcation in the classroom: A longitudinal study

on intrinsic motivation, social comparison, satisfac-

tion, effort, and academic performance. Computers

& education, 80:152–161.

Kapp, K. M. (2012). The gamiﬁcation of learning and

instruction: game-based methods and strategies for

training and education. John Wiley & Sons.

Kontio, J., Bragge, J., and Lehtola, L. (2008). The focus

group method as an empirical tool in software engi-

neering. In Guide to advanced empirical software en-

gineering, pages 93–116. Springer.

Landers, R. N. (2014). Developing a theory of gamiﬁed

learning: Linking serious games and gamiﬁcation of

learning. Simulation & gaming, 45(6):752–768.

Majuri, J., Koivisto, J., and Hamari, J. (2018). Gamiﬁca-

tion of education and learning: A review of empiri-

cal literature. In Proceedings of the 2nd international

GamiFIN conference, GamiFIN 2018. CEUR-WS.

Paiva, L. O., Barbosa, M., Oliveira, S., Barbosa, M., Klis-

man, V., Duarte, J. C., Gomes, G., Gadelha, B., Conte,

T., Cukurova, M., et al. (2022). To the next level! an

exploratory study on the inﬂuence of user experience

on the acceptance of a gamiﬁed learning platform. In

CSEDU (1), pages 281–288.

Palomino, P. T., Isotani, S., and Nacke, L. P. E. (2022).

Gamiﬁcation of virtual learning environments: a nar-

rative and user experience approach.

Pernelle, P., Carron, T., Talbot, S., and Wayntal, D. (2021).

Fast gamiﬁcation approach: Increase of the motivation

in remote classes. In CSEDU (2), pages 282–287.

Pimentel, C., Psheidt, R., Rosa, B. E., Kemczinski, A., and

Gasparini, I. (2022). Gamiﬁcation of an exercise tool

of a virtual learning environment. In CSEDU (1),

pages 397–404.

Prieto-Andreu, J. M., G

omez-Escalonilla-Torrijos, J. D.,

and Said-Hung, E. (2022). Gamiﬁcation, motivation,

and performance in education: a systematic review.

Revista Electr

onica Educare, 26(1):251–273.

Sailer, M., Hense, J. U., Mayr, S. K., and Mandl, H. (2017).

How gamiﬁcation motivates: An experimental study

of the effects of speciﬁc game design elements on psy-

chological need satisfaction. Computers in human be-

havior, 69:371–380.

Sailer, M. and Homner, L. (2020). The gamiﬁcation of

learning: A meta-analysis. Educational Psychology

Review, 32(1):77–112.

Sousa-Vieira, M., Ferreira-Pires, O., L

opez-Ardao, J., and

Fern

andez-Veiga, M. (2021). Effectiveness of gamiﬁ-

cation in undergraduate education.

Tan Ai Lin, D., Ganapathy, M., and Kaur, M. (2018). Ka-

hoot! it: Gamiﬁcation in higher education. Pertanika

Journal of Social Sciences & Humanities, 26(1).

Toda, A. M., Valle, P. H., and Isotani, S. (2017). The

dark side of gamiﬁcation: An overview of negative ef-

fects of gamiﬁcation in education. In Researcher links

workshop: higher education for all, pages 143–156.

Springer.

Would I Use It? A Study with Experts Exploring Game Design Storytelling as a Facilitating Process for Creating Educational Gamiﬁcation

443