Higher education enrollment has declined recently. New recruiting strategies and student-centered learning environments with challenge, enthusiasm, and joy are required to boost enrollment and engagement. Thus, the student-centered teaching approach, which one of the approaches under implementation and observation, are increasingly needed. Gamification and flipped classroom are cutting-edge educational approaches to motivate students. Nevertheless, the effectiveness of both methods has not yet been explored. The aim of this experimental study is thus to investigate and compare the effectiveness of these approaches. Student-led activities are designed and the perspectives from both participants and activity conductors are collected. The results show that these techniques successfully shift students' perceived usefulness and engagement intention. Gamification gains slightly better results than flipped classroom from the participants' viewpoints.