Educational Practices behind Gamification
By: Kriti Khare
Tags: Teaching And Learning, Online Courses, Gamification, Education, Psychology

Gamification refers to incorporating elements of games in the classroom. This can range from encouraging competition among the students, making them take part in activities that allow them to earn points, overcoming a challenge or receiving a badge. Game-based learning, refers to learning using an actual game for teaching knowledge and skills to students (Kapp, 2012). The game can be a traditional board game, an educational video game, an online game, etc.

The educational technology industry has jumped on this opportunity to build games for learning purposes or incorporate gaming concepts into education.

Websites like Duolingo for teaching language and KnowRe for Math education ease learning at different grade and knowledge levels of students (Editorial team, 2013).

Classcraft is a Quebec based company started by a Grade 11 Physics teacher that allows educators to customize their own gaming environments to use in class. Educator Ginger Schwartz recently shared why and how she adopted Classcraft in her classroom.

I have been curious about gamification and game-based learning for a while now and hence, I decided to dedicate my time to understanding the concept of gaming in learning better. Karl Kapp’s online course, Gamification of Learning, on Lynda.com, provides an excellent overview to gamification, its types, educational theories behind it as well as a thorough dive into the elements that teachers can incorporate into their classroom that will facilitate learning through a game. Considerations and best practices for gamifying the classroom were abound!

In this article, I focus on how theories in education support gamification. I think there isn’t a more convincing argument for gamifying your classroom because it takes into account so many elements of good teaching!

Most of what I have shared here is based on my notes from the course and I highly recommend you to take it when you have some time, especially if, like me, you are new to adding the touch of games to your classroom. I have also provided links to materials that would add to what I have described here.

What is gamification?

We all grow up playing games. Whether it is tic-tac-toe or Snakes and ladders, video games like Mario Kart, or outdoor games like Cricket and Hopscotch, we have each experienced some form of game in our lives. Games are fun and lead to rich engagement and motivated players.

Some elements that make a game feel like a game

When we bring one or more of these elements into the classroom, it is gamification. Game mechanics are the actions and activities that the player must undertake throughout the game.

Gamification is taking these elements and mechanics and applying them to non-traditional environments.

To bring gamification into the classroom, one must use game thinking. This involves applying the game mechanics to non-game situations, the classroom for instance, such that the learning environment encourages action on behalf of the player and leads to engagement. In my article on Empowerment and Engagement, I had mentioned the Engagement Taxonomy.

Taking action, whether by responding, solving, modifying or constructing something, all lead to active engagement in the content. A good game as well as a good implementation of gamification has challenges, risks and meaningful outcomes. Thus, it provides a reason to take these actions and keep the learner engaged.

Types of Gamification

There are two kinds of gamification and neither of them need technology in the classroom.

Content vs Structural Gamification

Currently, in the Computers camp that I volunteer at, I am using jeopardy to review computer concepts. This is an instance of structural gamification. I have presented the content in such a way that it aligns with the rules of the game.

One can have a combination of the two types as well. For example, I want to gamify my Math classroom. To do this, I can add an underlying story, giving characters and purpose to my students’ avatars. That would be content gamification. My questions, in this case, would be rooted in the story itself. At the same time, I can use scoring elements and leaderboards, and have my students work in pairs or teams. This represents structural gamification. It is not related to the content, but how the game functions by itself.

Theory behind the Practice

Kapp elaborates upon the seven concepts from education that play an important role in the development of the learner. One or more of these can be present in the gamified classroom.