Gamification is used in many fields and industries. It aims to promote customer loyalty in the business: ” Find a discount among our 5 most recent emails to get 50% off dedicated server hosting.”
In education it is a little different. Gamification in education aims to provide more interactive learning for students while providing evidence of their progress through rewards.
Gamification plays a key role in modern education and offers many benefits besides making the learning process fun.
About gamification
Gamification is the process of making various activities more fun by turning them into games.
See also The difference between game-based learning and gamification
In education, gamification involves incorporating 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. Educational gamification does not mean turning every lesson into a game, but rather using game features to enrich lessons.
Games can help educators determine the strategy to use to promote a particular skill or activity. For example, they can offer activities that include a competition to encourage social interaction or customization to encourage creativity.
In short, gamification is there to increase motivation and interest in learning.
See also How to remove gamification from your classroom
Benefits of gamification
The benefits of gamification are hard to deny and very visible; therefore below we mention the most essential ones.
Better cognitive development
Gamification has been shown to activate brain areas associated with cognitive development. In addition, gamified learning accelerates brain activity and accelerates the development of various skills.
The variety of ways in which a task is presented through gamification helps to expand the scope of situational analysis and problem solving.
Higher levels of engagement
Increased engagement in the classroom is one of the most profound effects of gamification. Conventional teaching methods often struggle to maintain a student’s attention and focus, often leading to poorer learning outcomes.
Gamification uses challenges, leaderboards, points, badges, etc. to encourage exploration and curiosity and keep students engaged.
Making learning visible
One of the reasons that students are not as invested in the learning process as they could be is that it is difficult to define learning without specific milestones and something to represent them.
Gamification helps make the learning process visible. Rewards or points are often earned after a certain task is completed, or there is a physical result of collaboration that reminds students of a certain activity.
Fostering a growth mindset
Feelings of shame or embarrassment are very real for students of all ages. There is also the fear of failure, potentially witnessed by other classmates, which becomes pressure.
The introduction of game elements into the learning process creates an atmosphere of problem-free self-expression. Plus, it makes failure fun and even something to commit to.
Like a video game where you fail but have to try again, this time knowing what to expect, gamification introduces a perspective where failure is just part of the process. In this way, gamification helps build persistence and confidence.
How effective is gamification?
Gamification has many advantages and thanks to them it is very effective. Based on research and statistics, gamification leads to:
- Almost 90% increase in student performance.
- 68% increase in motivation to learn.
- 300% homework completion rate.
- Faster completion of tasks in more than 50% of cases.
- Continuous learning improvement for 73% of students with ADHD.
- Students want to be part of improving the learning process.
How gamification can help diverse students
Gamification can foster an equal environment for innately unique students.
The reality is that the classroom is diverse and students will find a task of varying complexity. Gamified lessons can help students approach and complete tasks that seem too difficult or too easy in an enjoyable way, while helping learners stick to the curriculum.
Gamification can help:
-Break down difficult material. Gamification can put difficult material into an easy-to-digest form so that all students can understand it. And even if they don’t fully understand it, the gamified lesson invites them to follow those parts that are easier for them to follow at their own pace.
-Make easy tasks interesting. On the other hand, if the material is too easy for other students, they may lose interest and focus. Gamification, using rewards and challenges that they can take on at their own pace, can help these students better attend to their progress.
-Overworked students relax. The reward system is a great tool that gamification offers. It can help overwhelmed students feel better about their progress by keeping their focus on the step-by-step rather than being overwhelmed by the big picture.
– Anxious and stressed students to focus. Gamified lessons take the “seriousness” out of formal education and bring more fun into learning.
