Gamification 101: Introducing Gamification in Education

A student’s ability to be successful educationally, largely depends on how that particular student retains the information he or she receives from an educator. In return, the student’s ability to retain information largely depends on the mode of learning that suits the individual.

What is Gamification in Education?

To understand the meaning of the term Gamification, one must have a thorough understanding of both its technical and non-technical description. Gamification—in the technical sense—is the use of game thinking and game mechanics in non-game contexts to engage users in solving problems. Which simply means that Gamification is a teaching technique that employs the use of both physical and online gaming to capture a student’s imagination in order to get him/her to make logical decisions.

This teaching technique, which is quite popular in kindergarten schools but rarely used in adult educational institutions, can be applied in both virtual and physical classrooms in diverse ways. Online educators can introduce classical games such as; crossing the river—which involves getting some characters across a river despite certain limitations—to teach students the basis of logical reasoning. While classroom educators can introduce the board game, Monopoly, to teach the benefits of opportunity cost.

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What students Stand to Gain

The benefits of introducing Gamification procedures in teaching are quite numerous but here are some of our personal favorites:

• Building Inter-personal skills —getting a group of students to perform a task where cooperation is required for success has proven to be highly effective in dragging taciturn individuals out of their shells. These inter-personal communications provides opportunity for students to socialize in a controlled setting thereby eliminating certain poor attributes—such as bullying—prevalent in teenage social gatherings.
• Inspiring Competition —for those who learn best by competing, Gamification is a sure way to pique their interest. Organizing educational contest between such personalities instantly gets the participants to bring their ‘A game’ to the table. The availability of a prize for the winner definitely adds some spice to these kind of games.
• Demystifying Work —the terms ‘work, exercise or test has the ability to send tremors down the spine of under-achieving students and Gamification drastically reduces this innate fear by turning the workman-like responsibility of taking tests into a more interesting and less daunting task. Thereby working on the fears of affected students who might build their confidence levels by performing outstandingly in a gaming task.

So Are You Ready for The Revolution?

A research survey conducted by Forbes showed that 70% of the institutions interviewed planned to incorporate Gamification into their teaching or tutoring process. While the institutes already using this approach, boasted of increased student/employee retention capacity as well as increased profit margins, which puts the ball in your court.

Gamification Infographic

Created by Knewton and Column Five Media