We use three studies to develop and validate the new concept of playful study design – the cognitive-behavioral orientation towards study tasks with the aim to make these tasks more fun and/or more challenging. Based on play and proactive motivation theories, we propose that playful study design can be assessed by items indicating two dimensions: designing fun and designing competition. Results of exploratory (N = 378 students) and confirmatory (N = 375 students) factor analyses support the two-factor structure of the playful study design instrument in a first study. In addition, we use the data of the whole sample of Study 1 to test the convergent and incremental validity of the construct. Results indicate that playful study design predicts students’ social integration, study engagement, and well-being over and above psychological capital and core self-evaluations. In Study 2 (N = 591 students), we used playful study design to predict course grades. Results show that particularly designing competition was beneficial for study performance. In Study 3 (N = 28 students), we conducted a quasi-experimental evaluation of a training intervention to demonstrate that students who learned to playfully redesign their study tasks increased their use of fun and competition when studying. As a result, they showed greater active learning, study task proactivity, and absorption over time compared to the control group. We discuss how the construct of playful study design adds to the educational psychology literature and has implications for educational practice in university settings.

我们使用三项研究来开发和验证游戏学习设计的新概念——对学习任务的认知行为取向，目的是使这些任务更有趣和/或更具挑战性。基于游戏和主动激励理论，我们提出游戏学习设计可以通过表示两个维度的项目来评估：设计乐趣和设计比赛。探索性 （N = 378 名学生） 和验证性 （N = 375 名学生） 因素分析的结果支持第一项研究中有趣的学习设计工具的双因素结构。此外，我们使用研究 1 的整个样本的数据来测试结构的收敛和增量有效性。结果表明，有趣的学习设计可以预测学生的社会融合、学习参与度和幸福感，而不是心理资本和核心自我评价。在研究 2（N = 591 名学生）中，我们使用有趣的学习设计来预测课程成绩。结果表明，特别是设计竞赛对研究表现有益。在研究 3 （N = 28 名学生） 中，我们对训练干预进行了准实验评估，以证明学会以游戏方式重新设计学习任务的学生在学习时增加了对乐趣和竞争的利用。结果，与对照组相比，随着时间的推移，他们表现出更好的主动学习、研究任务主动性和吸收能力。我们讨论了有趣的研究设计的结构如何添加到教育心理学文献中，并对大学环境中的教育实践产生影响。