The role of gameful learning in supporting learner autonomy: a scoping review

Autonomy-supportive learning is a central goal of student-centred digital environments, yet the role of gameful learning approaches, such as gamification and game-based learning, in supporting autonomy remains unclear. This scoping review examines how gameful learning is applied in autonomy-relevant contexts and what outcomes are measured across education levels, fields and settings. Following PRISMA-ScR guidelines, Scopus and ERIC were searched, yielding 348 articles (349 studies) after screening. Data were extracted on educational context, gameful features, study design and outcomes. Findings show a strong dominance of achievement features (e.g. points and badges), with social and immersion features applied inconsistently. Use of these richer features declines at higher education levels and varies across academic fields. Most studies focused on performance outcomes, while autonomy-related outcomes were rarely measured. Among the subset of experimental studies, reported findings were predominantly positive, though mostly limited to performance indicators. Overall, gameful learning’s autonomy-supportive potential remains under-realised. Current implementations seem to favour convenience-driven feature selection and narrow outcome measures, limiting alignment with autonomy-supportive goals. Advancing this potential requires more intentional combinations of features, broader use in out-of-class contexts, stronger comparative designs and direct measurement of autonomy-related outcomes.