The rapid development of the online environment and opportunities it provides us with enables education to be accessible outside of a physical classroom and traditional textbooks. Online courses, e-books, various media, discussion boards and so on give educators and students new tools to gain knowledge more actively and efficiently.

Among a variety of contemporary approaches to education and innovative methods in learning, gaming environment appeared to be a reasonable platform to use in education.

According to ESA’s 2013 Essential Facts about the Computer and Video Game Industry, 58% of Americans play video games, spending a total of $20.77 billion dollars in 2012 (Huang, Somon 2013). Games are familiar to a wide range of populations. Children start using game applications on smart devices at the early age, 23% of adults keep playing into their 50s and older. However, 29% of video game players in the US are 18-35 years old, followed by 28% - under 18 years old. This age group also represents students and young professionals who seek for higher or additional education.

There are many reasons for games to be so appealing, but in terms of using game mechanisms in education we will focus mainly on one — engagement. In today’s digital generation, gamification has become a popular tactic to encourage specific behaviors, as well as increase motivation and engagement. It is a powerful tool for catalyzing attention and focus; it transfers the mode, value, and incentive of game play to a separate experience while at the same time associating fun with learning (Arnold, 2016).

So what exactly is Gamification?

Yu-kai Chou, also known as a “gamification guru” defines gamification as “the craft of deriving all the fun and addicting elements found in games and applying them to real-world or productive activities”, while Ray Wang, CEO & Principal Analyst of Constellation Research, Inc., describes it as a “series of design principles, processes and systems used to influence, engage and motivate individuals, groups and communities to drive behaviors and effect desired outcomes.” (Huang, Somon 2013).

It doesn’t mean that classes and learning materials are expected to resemble a classic video game. However, it does imply that using gaming attributes helps with strengthening skills, changing behavior, and driving engagement.

Among the tools that can be borrowed from games and applied to education there are: tracking mechanisms (tools that measure student’s progress), currency (units of measure like time, points rules etc.), level (a specific amount of currency used to accomplish an objective), rules (boundaries of what student can and can not do in their learning program, to ensure it is a fair learning environment for everyone), feedback (a mechanism the instructor and/or student can use to learn about the progress made) and more (Huang, Somon 2013).

Gamification has a controversial reputation in media, which is not unexpected due to the existence of conservative distinctions between “fun activities” and “learning activities”. At the same time gamification in education is gaining further support among researchers and educators who recognize that games stimulate productivity and creative inquiry among learners (New Horizon Report, 2013). As educators continue to explore better and more effective ways to engage a wider audience of learners in a broader context of environments, the adoption of gamification methods will continue to offer quicker and more effective catalyzing tools than traditional ‘sage on stage’ instruction (Arnold, 2016).

Resources:

Arnold, B. (2014), Gamification in Education, Conference paper.

Huang, W., Soman, D. (2013), A Practitioner's Guide To Gamification of Education.