The design of health game rewards for preadolescents Videogames are a promising strategy for child health interventions, but their impact can vary depending on the game mechanics used. This study investigated achievement-based ‘rewards’ and their design among preadolescents (8-12 years) to assess their effect and explain how they work. In a 2 (game reward achievement system: social vs. personal) x 2 (game reward context: in-game vs. out-game) between-subjects design, 178 children were randomly assigned to one of four conditions. Findings indicated that a ‘personal’ achievement system (showing one’s own high scores) led to more attention and less frustration than a ‘social’ achievement system (showing also high scores of others) which, in turn, increased children’s motivation to make healthy food choices. Furthermore, ‘out’-game rewards (tangible stickers allocated outside the game environment) were liked more than ‘in’-game rewards (virtual stickers allocated in the game environment), leading to greater satisfaction and, in turn, a higher motivation to make healthy food choices.
LINK
Background:It is unclear why some physical activity (PA) mobile health (mHealth) interventions successfully promote PA whereas others do not. One possible explanation is the variety in PA mHealth interventions—not only do interventions differ in the selection of persuasive strategies but also the design and implementation of persuasive strategies can vary. However, limited studies have examined the different designs and technical implementations of strategies or explored if they indeed influenced the effectiveness of the intervention.Objective:This scoping review sets out to explore the different technical implementations and design characteristics of common and likely most effective persuasive strategies, namely, goal setting, monitoring, reminders, rewards, sharing, and social comparison. Furthermore, this review aims to explore whether previous mHealth studies examined the influence of the different design characteristics and technical operationalizations of common persuasive strategies on the effectiveness of the intervention to persuade the user to engage in PA.Methods:An unsystematic snowball and gray literature search was performed to identify the literature that evaluated the persuasive strategies in experimental trials (eg, randomized controlled trial, pre-post test). Studies were included if they targeted adults, if they were (partly) delivered by a mobile system, if they reported PA outcomes, if they used an experimental trial, and when they specifically compared the effect of different designs or implementations of persuasive strategies. The study methods, implementations, and designs of persuasive strategies, and the study results were systematically extracted from the literature by the reviewers.Results:A total of 29 experimental trials were identified. We found a heterogeneity in how the strategies are being implemented and designed. Moreover, the findings indicated that the implementation and design of the strategy has an influence on the effectiveness of the PA intervention. For instance, the effectiveness of rewarding was shown to vary between types of rewards; rewarding goal achievement seems to be more effective than rewarding each step taken. Furthermore, studies comparing different ways of goal setting suggested that assigning a goal to users might appear to be more effective than letting the user set their own goal, similar to using adaptively tailored goals as opposed to static generic goals. This study further demonstrates that only a few studies have examined the influence of different technical implementations on PA behavior.Conclusions:The different implementations and designs of persuasive strategies in mHealth interventions should be critically considered when developing such interventions and before drawing conclusions on the effectiveness of the strategy as a whole. Future efforts are needed to examine which implementations and designs are most effective to improve the translation of theory-based persuasive strategies into practical delivery forms.
DOCUMENT
One of the factors that differentiate honors from regular teaching at the Faculty of Geosciences at Utrecht University, the Netherlands, is the freedom that honors students enjoy, a freedom that evokes excellence because it is focused and targeted. This targeted freedom takes three different shapes in our honors program and comes with specific challenges for both students and teachers. While the attractions and advantages of such freedom are both theoretically and practically significant, our experience has also demonstrated drawbacks that need to be addressed and resolved in creating effective honors education.The challenges and struggles as well as the rewards that we have experienced might be familiar to honors educators around the world, but they are also shaped by the particular contexts of our program within the Faculty of Geosciences, within Utrecht University, and within the Netherlands, contexts that we will now introduce.
DOCUMENT
This poster sketches the outlines of a theoretical research framework to assess whether and on what grounds certain behavioral effects may be attributed to particular game mechanics and game play aspects. It is founded on the Elaboration Likelihood Model of Persuasion (ELM), which is quite appropriate to guide the evaluation structure for interventions that either aim at short term or long term attitude and behavior change.
DOCUMENT
The HRM study program of The Hague University of Applied Sciences (THUAS) recently replaced classical, module-based education by so-called learning landscapes in which students approach complex problems by interdisciplinary learning activities. Teachers collaborate in multi-disciplinary teams that have a shared responsibility to support students as well as to innovate their education. This new way of organizing educational processes not only need to strengthen the learning ability and flexibility of students, but also the learning and innovation ability of teachers. Our exploratory research among teachers showed that this new way of working increased their job satisfaction. However, teachers experience difficulties in implementing their ideas, which is an important precondition for sustainable educational innovation. In our research we addressed the question whether the new working context of teachers supported innovation. The organizational structure as described in this case study is characterized by a high degree of autonomy for the teachers who collaborate in multidisciplinary teams, in which the management rewards innovative behaviour and facilitates where possible. Given the fact that this context incorporates a high number of elements that are known to facilitate innovation, the assumption was that teachers would experience that this context was supporting them to innovate. We evaluated whether this was indeed the case in their educational innovation. Our research shows that in general teachers positively evaluate the new working context. They experience the renewal process to contribute to their job satisfaction and feel supported by the management. A large majority of the teachers, partly as a result of this new working context, do have many ideas to renew the education. Even though they use multiple sources to generate ideas, they are mainly inspired by the needs of students and the occupational practice. Especially by sharing their ideas with others, they enrich their ideas. For the implementation of their ideas they specifically focus on creating buy-in, mentioned in two-thirds of the storyboards, with activities such as seeking allies, communicating the idea to others and ‘drinking lots of coffee’. In addition, experiments help to make their ideas more visible.
DOCUMENT
The combination of self-tracking and persuasive eCoaching in healthy lifestyle interventions is a promising approach. The objective of this study is to map the key components of existing healthy lifestyle interventions combining self-tracking and persuasive eCoaching using the scoping review methodology in accordance with the York methodological framework by Arksey and O’Malley. Seven studies were included in this preliminary scoping review. Components related to persuasive eCoaching applied only in effective interventions were reduction of complex behavior into small steps, providing positive motivational feedback by praise and providing reliable information to show expertise. Concerning self-tracking, it did not seem to matter if more action was required by the participant to obtain personal data. The first results of this study indicate the necessity to identify the needs and problems of the specific target group of the interventions, due to differences found between various groups of users. In addition to objective data on lifestyle and health behavior, other factors need to be taken into account, such as the context of use, daily experiences, and feelings of the users.
DOCUMENT
The global incidence of chronic diseases is rising, posing substantial social and economic challenges. These conditions necessitate effective long-term self-care, which can be supported by digital interventions using remote measurement technologies, like smartphones and wearables. This systematic review investigates the motivational strategies within digital technologies to improve self-care adherence for chronic illnesses, particularly cardiovascular diseases and diabetes mellitus. A literature search was conducted, focusing on studies from 2004 to 2024. A total of 17 studies met the inclusion criteria. The reviewed interventions targeted medication adherence, lifestyle modifications, and symptom tracking. Findings suggest that motivational strategies, such as feedback, health literacy, reminders, and motivational messages, goal-setting, social interaction, gamification, and rewards can improve patient adherence to self-care behaviors. However, their effectiveness relies on theoretical grounding, data-driven features, and personalization. Future research should prioritize integrating robust theories and developing standardized metrics for adherence to enhance the reliability and impact of digital interventions.
MULTIFILE
"In recent years, the former Dutch welfare state has been transformed into a participation society [1]. As support from the government decreases, citizens are increasingly expected to be self-managing. Since not everyone is able to be self-managing, there is an increasing demand for help offered by volunteers. Although the number of volunteers in the Netherlands is relatively stable, the amount of time per volunteer has decreased over the past couple of years [2]. Most volunteers traditionally come from the wealthier, more educated segment of society and are likely to be female, married with children, 50+, and active in religion [3, 4]. In order to meet the increasing demand for volunteers, either the amount of time spent per volunteer should be increased, or new groups of volunteers should be attracted. The Dutch foundation “Possible Today” started an initiative aimed at motivating (potential) volunteers: Social Credits for Volunteers. This is digital platform, based on block chain technology, connects volunteers with projects. The platform uses a digital currency -Social Credits- to appreciate and reward the efforts of volunteers. The currency can be exchanged for discounts or other value, offered by organizations and stores that feel involved with the community. An important feature of this system is the opportunity for volunteers to draft a social curriculum vitae. The aim of this study is to generate recommendations for Possible Foundation about how the Social Credits Platform should be designed and deployed in order to persuade (potential) volunteers to spend (more) hours on volunteering. Therefore, the following research question is answered: ‘What motives, desires and barriers traditional and less traditional volunteers have in regard to appreciation and reward for volunteering?’"
DOCUMENT
This study investigates the mediating role of organizational citizenship behaviours (OCBs) on the leader-member exchange (LMX) and employee performance relation and the degree to which work experience moderates the relation between leader-member exchange and OCBs. Lecturers from six technical universities in Ghana, making up three hundred and thirty-six lecturers, were selected using convenience sampling. The participants completed self-administered surveys. OCBs fully mediated the association between LMX and employee performance. Furthermore, the findings indicate that the interplay between LMX and work experience on OCBs is compensatory in nature such that as work experience increases, the positive association between LMX and OCBs decrease. Managers of higher education institutions should create enabling work environments that encourage high-quality LMX and citizenship behaviours. Moreover, as work experience tends to attenuate the positive influence of LMX on OCBs, managers in higher education should focus their attention on employees with low rather than high work experience. This research adds to the employee performance literature through examining a novel link among leader-member exchange, organizational citizenship behaviours and performance.
DOCUMENT
The workforce in the EU is ageing, and this requires investment in older workers so that the organisations in which they work remain competitive and viable. One such investment takes the form of organising and facilitating intergenerational learning: learning between and among generations that can lead to lifelong learning, innovation and organisational development. However, successfully implementing intergenerational learning is complex and depends on various factors at different levels within the organisation. This multidisciplinary literature review encompasses work from the fields of cognitive psychology, occupational health, educational science, human resource development and organisational science and results in a framework that organisations can use to understand how they can create the conditions needed to ensure that the potential of their ageing workforce is tapped effectively and efficiently. Although not a comprehensive review, this chapter serves as a basis for further empirical research and gives practitioners an insight into solving a growing problem.
DOCUMENT
