Gamification involves incorporating game-like elements into non-gaming activities, enhancing engagement and motivation. Designed with intrinsic motivation as a core element, gamification is based on the desire to do something because you are interested in doing it.
Implementing Gamification In A Learning Program
A popular global concept in gamification is learning that occurs through immersive experiences. In a learning environment, intrinsically motivated learners genuinely enjoy their study topics. Things to take into account when using gamification for learning include:
- Have a clear idea of what you want your learners to achieve
- Learning objectives and outcomes should be SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound.
- Decide how learners’ progress will be measured.
- Align goals with the art curriculum and standards.
- Games should reflect the skills and knowledge that learners need to develop.
Conversely, extrinsic motivation is wanting to do something based on external rewards or factors. While extrinsic motivation, such as badges, points, and other mechanics, is popular amongst learners, a balance between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation should be sought.
Game elements and mechanics are the building blocks of gamification. They include points, badges, levels, leaderboards, quests, challenges, rewards, feedback, and narratives.
You can use different combinations of these elements and mechanics to create engaging and meaningful gamified experiences for your learners.
For example, you might use points and badges to reward learners for completing tasks, levels to indicate their progress and mastery, quests and challenges to provide structure and direction, feedback to give them guidance and encouragement, and narratives to create a context and a story for their art projects.
What Gamification In Education Entails
The basic gamification principle is that engagement experienced by the gamer should be translated into the learning context.
Incorporating game-based elements and mechanics in the teaching and learning process, gamification involves integrating game goals, rules, challenges, rewards, and other game design principles into educational activities to enhance engagement, motivation, and learning outcomes.
The hours learners willingly spend solving the gaming challenges in video games can harness learners’ motivation and be applied to learning environments.
The mechanics of gaming- badges, points, levels, or leaderboards, improve the learner’s motivation, and games offer learners the freedom to face and fail or accomplish various challenges and goals.
Gamification gives learners instant feedback to students and lets them track their progress and identify areas for improvement. In itself, this feedback loop can help develop a self-directed growth mindset.
Gamification should be carefully and thoughtfully implemented, and educators should continuously assess the effectiveness of gamification strategies and adjust them where appropriate.
Benefits Of Gamification In Education
Gamification can cater to different learning styles, preferences, and needs. By customizing and personalizing gamified activities to suit learners’ interests, goals, and abilities, gamification allows for flexibility in setting pace and difficulty levels.
Children also find it interesting to learn by having fun, and one of the easiest ways to gamify the learning process is to create and organize a quest around all the lessons taught over a week or month. The benefits of gamification include:
- Improves overall learning experience.
- Motivates students and learners.
- Allows learners to see real-world applications.
- Enhances student engagement.
- Creates an addiction to learning.
- Makes learning fun and interactive.
- Gives children a natural high which helps with retention of knowledge.
Gamified Educational Games
The following games help learners master the skill or information but also offer rewards and both positive and negative feedback:
Brainscape: Brainscape is a mobile app offering users a platform to create, share, and study digital flashcards.
It is a simple learning-oriented game that helps learners create exceptional smart flashcards to meet their specific learning capabilities. Brainscape uses gamification to incentivize users to continue studying with points and badges.
The designers say that users who earn at least one badge are 50% more likely to finish a full set of flashcards, and the app has been downloaded over 10 million times.
Knowre: Knowre enables instructors to personalize the course material to every learner’s skill, catering to high achievers who may not be challenged enough or low-graders who might get frustrated because they are demotivated.
Knowre is an adaptive math curriculum with personalized instructions for every student, giving learners the benefits of one-on-one learning. It helps students learn with more depth and consistent feedback and review to overcome weak areas as they improve their math skills.
The Knowre developers say that learners who use the platform for at least 30 minutes a week improve their math skills by an average of 17%.
