Enhancing Accounting Education through Gamification: A Flow Theory Perspective

Abstract

Accounting education focuses on delivering knowledge to students. However, most students feel bored and gain passive knowledge because they are not engaged in active learning strategies. Based on the flow theory (Csikszentmihalyi, 1996), the study postulates that the use of a board game could change the way students learn and rebuild the student's learning experience. The aim of this study is to explore the importance of gamification in improving student motivation and engagement in the learning process. This study looks into the impact of some characteristics of games, such as concentration, clarity, feedback, challenge, autonomy, social interaction, and perceived learning, on students’ learning flow. The research results show the benefits of gamification and provide some ideas on how to implement it in education. It is found that the subject can be taught with recourse, i.e. AccountingPairs board game, and become an effective addition to the traditional teaching method. By concluding that the educational games that were tested have an effective impact on student’s motivation, flow, concentration, feedback, challenge, autonomy attitude, interaction, and perceived learning of Accounting knowledge. The results also show that the gamification do enhance learning by combining traditional classes with the playing of such games, and make learning Accounting easier. The author suggests that educational games may be an effective means to create conditions for the flow, which make game-based learning easier. The games, AccountingPairs, used in the classroom process reduce the boredom factor and increase students’ intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, concentration and interest in learning.