Gaming can help learners. . . well. . . learn
Gamification education has shown incredible results. After all, students have not only been introduced to gaming, many of them consider themselves hardcore gamers. In 2020, the global gaming industry was worth $152.1 billion. (Dobrilova, 2021) We now have access to multiple online resources that help to gamify educational lesson plans. Some of these programs are sites that make competitive games out of questions tied to your curriculum. These sites are very effective at student engagement. However, many of them have a flaw. Once a student starts to lose, what keeps them motivated to keep playing. Also, many of them are based off of quick time answering, which discourages students who simply have a slower pace or reaction time. There are many intrinsic motivators for gamification. Competitiveness is a powerful one that keeps a student engaged and committed but if they lose that or never had that trait in the first place, then you quickly start to lose engagement and interest.
Learning through gaming at my own pace.
Gamification uses specific elements of a game (e.g., points, in-game activities) to enhance the human reaction (e.g., motivation, fun, patience). (Young, 2017) The simple game programs offer the end state of winning as the only motivation. Better gamification programs will do more than that and promote individual as well as teamwork incentives. One very effective way to keep students engaged is by allowing them to control pace. If playing a Kahoot! Game, the student with the ability to answer the question the fastest is rewarded the most points. Unfortunately, many students need more time to think through the question and answer and shouldn’t be punished for that. Gimkit allows for students to answer at their own pace and then receive multipliers for correct consecutive answers. That helps to build intrinsic motivation for students who don’t necessarily consider themselves the quickest. It is a quality over quantity mindset.
If I am not winning, why should I keep playing?
One major flaw of competitive gamification is how to deal with the students who are, in essence, losing. Once a student feels like they no longer have a chance of winning, often you will see a decrease in engagement. Just like learners need to know the usefulness of what they are learning in order to stay focused, competitors also need to know that what they are doing still means something or has a purpose, especially if they are losing. Gimkit does this in many creative ways. Other than being self-paced, which helps, you have stronger abilities or increased effect when falling behind. This game mechanic is very familiar to students who have played the very popular Mario Kart series. As one falls behind, it helps to keep you engaged and invested because you know that the balance is there. Otherwise, one may just give up, which often happens when dealing with education.
Teodora Dobrilova (June 2021). How Much Is the Gaming Industry Worth in 2021? https://techjury.net/blog/gaming-industry-worth/#gref
Michael F. Young. (2017). Exploding the Castle: Rethinking How Video Games & Game Mechanics Can Shape the Future of Education. Information Age Publishing.
Gamification Enhances Engagement
Integrating game elements, such as points and competition, into non-game contexts like education is known as gamification. Research has shown that gamification in education can significantly improve student engagement. Many students are avid gamers and are naturally attracted to competitive and interactive elements, as evidenced by the global gaming industry's worth of $152.1 billion in 2020 (Dobrilova, 2021). By making learning fun and competitive, gamification can effectively engage students in learning (Nair & Mathew, 2021). Also, gamification creates a dynamic, immersive learning environment that taps into learners' intrinsic motivation. When students perceive learning as a game, they approach tasks with enthusiasm and determination, and the sense of competition fosters a feeling of accomplishment and achievement. Gamification leverages…
Great Gamification = Great Engagement
Explore/ Master
The title equals the truth. It truly says it all. According to Hill and Brunvan unlike teaching with games, gamified instruction is the integration of gaming principles, and this approach to teaching and training is gaining popularity in the field of education as well as private and public corporations (2018), it is a tool for the process of immersive learning. This case study does address the usefulness of gamification on learning for all levels of school-aged learners, Pre-K through college. Gaming can indeed help learners learn. Providing authentic opportunities for choice can lead to more engaged learning as players feel they have control over the outcome of the game (Hill, et al., 2018)…
Gamification encourages problem solving, helps to manage behavior and helps with decision making. Gamification applies game mechanics, game dynamics, and frameworks to promote desired learning behaviors (Lee & Hammer, 2011).
Extrinsic motivation
Game dynamics as and extrinsic force, play critical design strategies and stimuli to drive, to motivate, and to promote positive and desired learning behaviors. Game dynamics are reflected in the nature of the interactions between the learner and the major tasks in the activity and between the learners in the activity (Prensky, 2001). Gamification in the classroom is not necessarily about winning and losing, but keep the learner focused on what they are learning. Badges, rewards and positive feedback help to keep the learner focused on the task…
Gamification in the classroom is an up-and-coming way for teachers and students to remain connected in the classroom. Gamification of education does not toss out the traditional learning material meant for academia. Instead, it enhances it by allowing students to connect to learning material in a way that they are familiar. Since students of this generation are exposed to a wide variety of information and technology, gamification in the classroom is becoming an effective tool to engage them.
Creating meaningful goals in the classroom:
Educational goals for students differ vastly from personal goals students may have for themselves. Therefore, it is essential to balance students' academic and personal goals when implementing gamification in the classroom. Goals can be specific or…
Teachers should ask themselves on a regular basis, is my class engaging and a place where students want to come learn? Hopefully this is a questions that they can answer with a yes. However sometime students can be hard to hook and engage. This is a place where Gamification of learning can make a difference.
GimKit is a educational gaming platform in which the teacher makes question sets based on the information they are teaching in the classroom. They can then use those question sets to play interactive games within the classroom. Students will have to answer questions in order to advance in the game. According to Lieberman, Incorporating digital games as a tool for engaging students is okay,…