Education is all about learning new things and enhancing capabilities. But the conventional form of the education system is quite boring. Now, everyone is more concerned about learning with fun that’s why engaging content and processes are more desirable. Gamification is satisfying this requirement and is thus highly acceptable in the education industry. Let’s see how gamification is redefining the education system and how learning has become more fun and effective.
Gamification: What Does It Mean?
Gamification simply describes the use of game elements, design, and mechanics in other non-game activities. As per Yu-Kai Cou, a gamification expert, and author of Actionable Gamification, “Gamification is the craft of deriving all the fun and addictive elements found in games and applying them to the real-world or productive activities.
The method can be stockers, badges, direct competitions, or leaderboards and utilized by various industries such as retail and healthcare apart from education which is being revolutionized with gamification.
Transform A Boring Lecture Into Engaging Session…..But How?
Games render entertainment and thus if you gamify the education system it will transform a boring lecture into an entertaining education class. Nothing is more important than education and every student needs motivation for learning. Gamification is a way that makes education more entertaining and engaging.
Could Gamification In Education Bring Any Revolution?
Gamification in education for kids and children was so common but nowadays everyone needs motivation and entertainment. A Harvard Graduate School of Education study in 2010 revealed that almost 1.2 million students fail in their graduation each year. Only 56% of the students complete their 4-years graduation in 6 years. It was felt that the entire education system and process needed to be changed and should be made more innovative and engaging.
Let’s see how it is useful for higher education as well:
- Self-paced online learning could be more engaging. Learners will not be only motivated to learn but will understand each concept more clearly.
- Devices such as smartphones are being carried by the students even in the classrooms. Gamification motivates them to use their own devices in the classroom to learn their lesson easily with more fun.
- College students are highly interested in playing games. This interest can be used to harness the competition among the students through gamification. They would be excited to complete a task and to compete with their fellow mates.
- Some of the games are based on strategizing concept and thus helps in boosting the thinking capabilities and skills of the students.
- In gamification, students can be grouped for a certain task. It would help students to learn and do a task in a collaboration that helps them a lot in online learning.
How Education Can Be Gamified?
There are various ways to employ gamification in the education industry. Let’s see how the conventional classroom can be introduced to the gamification.
- Find out the pain points
Find out the pain points of the classroom, it will help you in creating a strategy for gamification. You can put the issues of the students at the forefront of your strategy. For instance, if you find that your students are getting bored with the PowerPoint presentation; you could add some interactive elements to make it interesting and engaging.
You can also survey to know your audience, their requirement, pain point, etc. As per the Survey, you can gamify the education system to make them more effective.
- Define a goal
Defining a goal will be easier to find how you should introduce gamification in education. Whether you want to engage the students or you want to explain a difficult or boring concept to the students with much interaction. It becomes easier with gamification.
- Redefine the grading system
Most of the parents and students find marks as the most nerve-wracking part of the learning. So the grading system should be strategized based on the fact that it would present the progress of a student rather than mistakes.
- Organize the resources and elements
Every game has a set of instructions that deliver the steps and the required information about the game to the gamer. Likewise, you must create a manual in which you have explained everything, step by step. It will include what is your strategy, the end goal, how a student will accumulate the points, and the winning strategy.
- Apply the elements in the system
Employing the strategy is not enough; you must measure the progress as well. You must create, maintain, and share a chart that will show the progress of every student.
Apart from progress, students also want some reward points and that’s why you must take care of these elements.
Gamification in Education Is All About the End Result
The success of gamification is based on the flow of activity. It doesn’t matter what is the content, what attracts gamers is the flow that engages them and forces them to complete the task. There are so many apps as well as software available for gamification of the education industry. Such games including quizzes and challenges are widely used to engage and educate a student. The gamification brings comfort and a familiar zone for students.
But it should also be noted that the gamification shouldn’t be followed just because it is in trend and people are getting bored with the learning process. All activities need to be strategized and set up with an end goal. Also, it should accomplish the requirement of the students.