Gamification is used in many fields and industries. It aims to promote customer loyalty in business. “Find a discount in our latest 5 emails and get 50% off on dedicated server hosting.”
The case of education is a little different. Gamification in education aims to provide students with a more interactive learning experience while providing evidence of their progress through rewards.
Gamification plays an important role in modern education and not only makes the learning process fun, but also brings many benefits.
About gamification
Gamification is the process of making different activities more interesting by turning them into games.
See also: Differences between game-based learning and gamification.
Gamification in education refers to the incorporation of game elements (usually game design) into educational settings and learning materials to increase students’ enthusiasm for learning and skills such as analytical thinking, problem solving, communication, and collaboration. point. Educational gamification doesn’t mean turning every lesson into a game, but rather using game features to enrich your lessons.
Games help educators determine the strategies they need to apply to promote specific skills and activities. For example, you can suggest competitive activities to encourage social interaction, or customization to encourage creativity.
In other words, gamification exists to increase motivation and interest in learning.
See also How to remove gamification from your classroom.
Advantages of gamification
The benefits of gamification are hard to deny and very visible. Therefore, the most important ones are listed below.
better cognitive development
Gamification has been shown to activate brain regions associated with cognitive development. Additionally, gamified learning promotes brain activity and accelerates the development of various skills.
Variety in the way tasks are presented through gamification also helps expand the scope of situation analysis and problem solving.
higher engagement levels
Increasing participation in the classroom is one of the most significant effects of gamification. Traditional learning methods often find it difficult to maintain students’ attention and concentration, resulting in poor learning outcomes.
Gamification uses challenges, leaderboards, points, badges, and more to encourage exploration and curiosity and keep students engaged.
Visualize learning
One of the reasons students aren’t as invested in the learning process as possible is because it’s hard to define it without specific milestones or something to represent it.
Gamification helps visualize the learning process. Rewards or points are often earned after completing a particular task, or there is a physical result of collaboration to remind students of a particular activity.
Promoting a growth mindset
Feeling embarrassed is a very real thing for students of all ages. There is also the fear that other classmates will witness your failure, which turns into pressure.
Introducing gaming elements into the learning process creates an atmosphere of effortless self-expression. Plus, failing can be fun and can even strengthen your bond.
Just like in a video game, if you fail, you can try again knowing what to expect this time, so gamification introduces the perspective that failure is just part of the process. In this way, gamification helps build persistence and confidence.
How effective is gamification?
Gamification has many benefits that make it very effective. Based on research and statistics, gamification leads to:
Student performance has increased by almost 90%. Motivation to learn increased by 68%. Homework completion rate 300%. Tasks are completed faster in more than 50% of cases. 73% of students with ADHD show continued academic improvement. Students want to participate in improving the learning process.
How gamification helps different students
Gamification can foster a level playing field for students who are unique in nature.
In reality, classrooms are diverse and students will find different complexities within a single task. Gamified lessons help students have fun tackling and completing tasks that may seem too difficult or too easy, while also helping learners stay on track with the curriculum.
Gamification helps:
– Break down difficult materials. Gamification can break down difficult content into an easy-to-digest format for all students to understand. Even if you don’t fully understand it, gamified lessons allow you to learn the parts that are easier to understand at your own pace.
– Make simple tasks interesting. On the other hand, if the material is too easy for other students, they may lose interest and focus. Gamification helps students feel more aware of their progress by using rewards and challenges that they can complete at their own pace.
– Overwhelmed students relax. Reward systems are a great tool that gamification provides. This can help overwhelmed students feel better about their progress by staying focused on one step at a time instead of being overwhelmed by the big picture.
– Ask students who are anxious and stressed to focus. Gamified lessons take the “seriousness” of formal education and make learning more fun.
