How Game Elements Structure Educational Learning Paths: A Literature Review

Gamification has been widely adopted in education to enhance motivation, engagement, and persistence, yet it is often implemented as a superficial reward layer rather than as a structured redesign of how learners progress through a course. Learning paths define how activities, content, and challenges unfold and adapt for the learner. As such, they are central to instructional design and provide a powerful leverage point for gamification to deepen engagement and meaning in learning. This review examines the role of gamification in shaping learning path design within educational settings. Drawing on a systematic approach informed by PRISMA guidelines, we identified 35 pertinent studies and conducted an in-depth analysis of their learning path architectures, personalization mechanisms, embedded game elements, and documented outcomes. Our review shows that gamified learning paths often share a layered structure: a core progression sequence, grouped into larger units and smaller tasks, with difficulty levels and optional activities added on top. Most systems use fixed or semi-adaptive paths, where personalization is mainly controlled by the system and students have limited choice. The game elements used are mostly performance-focused, such as points, levels, and leaderboards, linked to challenge-based tasks, whereas narrative and identity-building elements are rarely included. We explain how different combinations of structure and game elements influence visibility of progress, learner agency, and alignment with learning goals. Based on these findings, we propose design guidelines and a research agenda that encourage clearer terminology, stronger theoretical grounding, better reporting, and a shift away from reward-focused designs toward adaptive, explainable, and pedagogically coherent gamified learning paths.