Gamification is an established concept with a proven track record, but it is also one that has been gaining new steam over the past few decades. This is largely due to the fact that more and more people are realizing that it can be a very effective tool for motivating people to engage and succeed in tough or mundane tasks. Gamification also helps us connect with our peers through simple goal-setting and friendly competition.
The purpose of gamification may vary from one industry to the next, but its implementation always comes down to a desire for the same set of core benefits. Quite simply, it makes learning lessons and accomplishing goals more fun.
Today, we will take a look at what gamification is, how to implement it in your school or organization, some of its benefits, and how to incorporate this powerful practice into projects and lesson plans as an effective strategy to drive engagement and motivate people.
What is Gamification?
Gamification can take many forms, but basically, it is the practice of applying elements associated with gaming to activities in traditionally non-game contexts. There are two main ideas behind gamification: creating video games that are designed to teach certain lessons and using traditional game elements to make learning a boring subject more enjoyable and accessible. Either way, the importance of gamification is demonstrated in its ability to get participants engaged and create a motivation for them to complete tasks or learn lessons.
There are examples of gamification all around us, whether we realize it or not. Gamification may motivate consumers to purchase more fast food items in the hopes of winning extravagant prizes. It may also motivate employees to upsell specific items for the chance at winning free meals or an extra day off. It can even motivate students to meet educational goals in pursuit of bragging rights or special perks in the classroom. No matter how we employ these techniques, the purpose of gamification is the same.
The Purpose of Gamification
As you may have gathered through the given examples, the reason we gamify certain activities or lesson plans comes down largely to motivation. When we employ motivational factors outside the simple satisfaction at a job well done, we drive engagement. When there is a possible reward at the end, we are often more likely to give tasks greater attention and try harder at them. This results in a wide range of wonderful benefits.
Gamification Benefits
The benefits of gamification go much deeper than simple satisfaction or instant gratification, including things like increased engagement, improved information retention, and creating real-world connections. Follow along for a deep dive into some of the top reasons gamification is such a powerful, low-cost investment in our communities.
It Drives Participation and Engagement
One of the biggest benefits of gamification is that participants are more likely to engage and participate because it makes mundane activities more fun. It is a whole lot easier to engage in entertaining activities than boring ones. When we engage fully, we are more likely to participate with an enthusiasm that helps us get the most out of the activity. In educational settings, it can even help us retain more of the information we’ve learned.
Improved Retention
When applied to employee training programs or student lesson plans, gamification delivers improved levels of information retention. Since participants are more engaged in the activities, their brains are primed to retain more of what they have just learned. It is much easier to remember something we find enjoyable than it is to remember something that bores us to death.
Improved Accessibility
Another way gamification is changing the way people learn is through improved accessibility. Turning complex subject matter into an easy-to-follow game allows students from all walks of life to access and absorb the material in a way that makes sense to them. The simplicity of the game can take some of the complexity out of most subjects, making them easier to grasp.
It Creates Real-World Connections
The same elements that allow gamification to improve accessibility also give it the power to teach through real-world examples. The skills we use to complete game elements to move on to the next level provide us with life skills for solving problems and dealing with troubles throughout the rest of our lives. The process of learning takes center stage, making it easier for us to remember the subject matter or solve complex problems.
It Can Aid in Cognitive Development
Many games are designed to enhance cognitive development. You may know them as Brain Games. When we implement gamification techniques in ways that spur activity in the areas of the brain that aid in cognitive development, we can help students improve their ability to process and retain information. This delivers big benefits that can last for decades.
Implementing Gamification
We can apply gaming elements to nearly anything, but knowing how to begin helps to make the process of gaining all the gamification advantages you can, go much more smoothly. There are some simple strategies that can help you gamify nearly anything and get people more involved. Here are a few to get you going.
Identify Game Elements
The first step in creating a game out of a lesson plan or sales goal is to identify game elements that make sense for the subject matter. If you are trying to meet 5 objectives out of a possible 25, a bingo card may make perfect sense. It allows participants to prioritize obtainable goals and develop a plan to meet them. On the other hand, if you are trying to teach American history to young children, this may or may not be the best suited gamification element for your purposes. The specific lesson or set of objectives will naturally define which game elements work best.
Make Games Visually Appealing
Modern students have grown up on electronic devices and high definition television. This has resulted in a generation of learners who are driven by visual appeal. Bright colors and fun graphics make games feel more official, and make them look like something students actually want to get involved in.
Introduce Competitive Elements
At the heart of any game that involves more than one player is a little friendly competition. If there were no winners or losers in football and soccer, they would quickly lose their places as two of the world’s most popular sports. Competition teaches us to persevere through adversity and shows us that we can overcome obstacles when we put our minds to it. Developing and fostering elements of competition can turn any lesson or activity into something we really care about.
Set Clear Objectives
If the purpose of gamification is to motivate participants to reach certain goals or meet objectives, it’s important that they are spelled out clearly. As we progress from the beginning of any game toward the end, knowing what the objectives are is key to being successful. It not only provides a roadmap by which to navigate the game, but it also allows us to plan how we will approach our movements and reach each successive level.
Develop a Sense of Progression Through Badges or Levels
Speaking of levels, it’s important that any game allows us to track our progression via levels or badges. These small, incremental rewards let us know we have met one of the smaller goals en route to the end goal. There is also a sense of pride in reaching the next level or collecting another badge.
Track Performance
Tracking milestones and accomplishments goes a long way toward keeping participants engaged in the game. In any sporting event, the performance metrics are tracked in real-time alongside the game. Seeing lead changes gives us the confidence to keep going when we have fallen behind. It also adds to the excitement when we take the lead.
Create a Reward System
One of the greatest joys we get out of winning a competition is savoring the prize at the end. Creating a simple reward system will keep participants engaged and trying their best. Rewards could be something as simple as a special snack, but more valuable rewards like homework passes or opting out of a test will drive engagement that much harder.
Gamification in Education
Games and education have gone hand in hand since the beginning of time. We use games to teach us lessons from the time we are able to grasp objects, and continue to utilize them until we are able to grasp complex concepts. This is why gamification is such an important concept in the world of education. If you’re interested in introducing gamification in the classroom, there are some wonderful opportunities to do so.
Creating Simple Competitions
One of the simplest ways to introduce gamification into the classroom is to create simple competitions between students or between the teacher and the students. Creating an incentive for students to perform at their best has a huge effect. This works best for activities where all players are on a somewhat even footing, such as teaching procedures and behavioral expectations. No student has an inherent edge.
Live In-School Performances
One opportunity that embodies the true purpose of gamification is the live theater performance. Live theater has been a key part of bringing people together around the complicated subject of the human condition for millennia. Introducing subject matter to students through the world of live performances in schools is a continuation of that tradition, and comes with some benefits that set it above other means of gamification.
When we bring live performances into schools, students are able to experience powerful, immersive storytelling with their peers. This not only gives them something fun to experience together, but it gives them something to talk about long after the performance has ended. Experiencing subject matter as the plot of an engaging story is a proven way to make lessons stick.
Real-Time Livestream Events
We see similar benefits through real-time livestream events. This is another medium that fully reflects the true purpose of gamification, but may be even more accessible to schools and community organizations with limited resources or who are outside the reach of the local urban sprawl. Anyone with an internet connection can enjoy its benefits and supplement lesson plans with an entertaining and educational livestream.
There are available livestream events centered around many subjects, and incorporating one or more of them into your students’ schedule can prove to be a very valuable addition to their regular educational programming.
Board Games
Creating a simple board game out of lesson plans is a great way to gamify the material. For example, creatively laid out Bingo cards paired with a scavenger hunt can both teach students to prioritize the objects or answers they need to complete their line and allow teachers to base those lines on connected topics. This forces students to develop a solid grasp of the subject matter in order to complete their line.
Educational Video Games
Depending on the subject matter you are teaching, there may be video games available that will help supplement your lesson plans. We have come a long way since the original Oregon Trail debuted, and there are games that can do a great job in helping reinforce the lessons students are learning in the classroom. Educational video games can be beneficial parts of our lesson plans, but they do have their limitations in exemplifying the true purpose of gamification.
Most of these educational video games are not set up to develop community connections the way the other listed activities do. They are inherently built around independent screen time, which many parents and teachers are eager to limit. Also, the fact that many of these games have no competitive element removes some of the incentive for students to excel.
Collecting Badges
There are a lot of fun ways we can turn badge collections into games. If students earn 4 or 5 badges in the math category, maybe they can trade them up for a “math master” badge. Maybe students with a certain badge get an extra 5 minutes of free time on Mondays. By creating incentives for students to earn as many badges as possible, students will be more eager to master all the skills.
Create Your Own Activities
At this point, you have learned enough about educational gamification to apply its principles to any lesson plan you like. Take a close look at the lesson plan and determine which types of game elements fit naturally. You will also need to have an understanding of who your students are and the things they like. If you take all of these elements into account, there is no doubt that you can successfully gamify even your most complex subject matter.
Conclusion
The primary purpose of gamification is that it makes learning or achieving easier through increased engagement and a want to participate. This makes gamification a great tool in educational settings. If you would like help implementing gamification to drive learning engagement in your local schools or other community organizations, NTC can help. We offer a range of programs that deliver edutainment and immersive learning opportunities right into the classroom. If you would like to learn more, reach out for a consultation.
