Education Technology Services
Merging work and play with gamification
Innovation in technology is driving every aspect of life, and the education sector is no exception. Experts are focusing on and exploring novel approaches in transforming mundane learning into a fun, immersive, and rewarding experience. Gamification tops the list of one such novel approach as we explore its application as a teaching tool as well as discuss the advantages of incorporating gamification in education.
What is gamification?
Gamification is the tactful incorporation of gaming elements and principles into every day, productive activities in an attempt to boost interest, participation, and performance. Modern video games are engineered to captivate and entertain, use reward systems to motivate players, and stimulate the production of dopamine in their brains.
Dopamine — commonly referred to as the ‘feel-good’ hormone — prompts feelings of pleasure, euphoria, and enhanced concentration and motivation. Gamification uses these game-based elements to create similar experiences to engage and motivate individuals in non-gaming activities. Organisations use gamification techniques in various ways, including encouraging employee collaboration and creating captivating marketing strategies.
Gamification in learning and education
Educators around the world are incorporating game-based learning activities to boost content comprehension as well as improve information retention among students. Gamification strategies in learning include awarding points for completing certain tasks, leaderboards to promote competition, badges and awards to highlight special achievements, and challenges to enhance problem-solving skills.
When properly applied, gamification strategies provide a riveting and engaging experience that makes learning enjoyable and generate an intrinsic motivation among students to complete lessons and tasks. Intrinsic motivation is the desire to perform an activity primarily for the personal satisfaction of completing the task rather than aim for a reward or to avoid punishment. Intrinsic motivation is the difference between students actually enjoying a lesson and completing it because they are required to do so.
Playing to the human psyche
Using modern technology and online solutions to ensure that students have an immersive and entertaining experience is a mark of evolution in the education sector. Incorporating strategies such as gamification to enhance student engagement ensures a better learning experience. The game mechanics cultivate essential life skills, including critical reasoning, analytical thinking, problem-solving, social awareness, cooperation, cognitive abilities, and collaboration — qualities often associated with sports. Gamification in education has also proven to increase interest among students as well as motivate them. Let’s take a closer look at how gamification benefits the education sector.
Highly-motivated learners
Introducing gamification elements such as progress indicators motivates students to achieve their objectives. Rather than setting one big and final goal to work towards, gamification relies on several smaller intermediate goals and achievements to keep learners interested and motivated. Additionally, certain apps and websites promote social learning and competitiveness by allowing students to compare their progress against each other online and continually challenge themselves.
Fun learning activities
Introducing an element of play into study time makes for a fun and immersive learning experience. Splitting lessons into various levels encourage students to push themselves harder to achieve their next goal. Just like with video games, the challenge of successfully completing one level and moving on to the next can be an enjoyable experience and keeps the learners engaged.
Control over progress
Being able to earn points, feature high up in leaderboards, and move to newer levels provide students with goals to accomplish and allow them to take control of their progress. This goal-oriented learning allows students to progress at their own rate, eliminating the stress and demotivation of failing or receiving bad grades. Gamified learning encourages students to try repeatedly after receiving an unsatisfactory result, allowing them to reach the next level at their own pace.
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How can Infosys BPM help?
With a suite of edutech services that integrate contemporary learning methods with modern technology, Infosys BPM can guide educational institutions into the digital age.
