People always like challenges and rewards. It’s basic human psychology, and a great motivator of this psychology in learning is gamification. Gamifying education implies implementing game elements like rewards, feedback, points systems or challenges into the content to make it more engaging and interactive and help retain the attention of the learner. This innovative playway method of education does not deviate from the core learning, but improves the learning outcomes.
There are two types of motivators that gamification activates: Intrinsic and Extrinsic. Intrinsic motivation makes the learner curious, wants to learn new skills and have a sense of achievement. Extrinsic motivation involves earning stars or points, or seeing a progress graph of oneself. These motivators ensure sustained interest of the learner in doing the learning.
The learners can rectify and better their performance quickly as gamified content provides real-time, accurate feedback and gives prompt responses to the actions of the learners. This is contrary to a traditional classroom setup, where feedbacks are delayed and may not be very accurate.
Gamifying education encourages healthy competition amongst the learners and also brings about a feeling of accomplishment. This is a result of points and scores at the end of a learning session that help the learners to measure their progress.
Having to unlock and attain different levels of gamified content makes the learning interesting and keeps the learners engrossed and involved. When the gamification offers challenges and quests, it encourages robust thinking amongst the learners and helps them remain active and creative.
To be recognised as an achiever at the end of a learning is a huge morale booster. Badges and Achievements in the gamified content offer just that to a learner, encouraging them to better their performance. Gamified content has also heightened the interest in learning among students who were not doing well in the traditional way of teaching
The challenge faced with gamifying content is that the gamification could distract the learner from the core learning content. Hence, the gaming strategies must be well-synced with the lesson plan. Students from every walk of life must benefit from the gamified content.
Making learning interesting and fun is the mantra of gamification. A learner’s natural yearning to become an achiever is tapped by the educator while developing gamifying content. Game elements nurture continued and enhanced learning.
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