We commonly see gamification in commerce and shopping. It has been used in sales and marketing for decades, and its use in travel was popularised with air miles around 1980.
Credit cards and banks use it to encourage and reward spending and saving, and online gamblers look for a trusted online casino for high roller players that offers loyalty programs that incorporate elements of gamification. According to online gambling expert Wilna van Wyk, such programs provide incentives like increased bonuses in exchange for regular deposits and consistent gaming.
Gamification is the application of gaming elements to non-gaming activities. This typically means the rewarding of points or the gifting of rewards for reaching certain milestones or completing specific objectives. Think of shopping loyalty programs, which have proven very effective, that give 10% off when you reach a specific spending threshold in a month.
But gamification elements don’t have to include money off or physical gifts. Language learning app Duolingo uses badges, levels, and stars to encourage its users to return frequently and learn often.
In education, gamification can turn otherwise passive lessons into interactive and engaging sessions. By introducing elements of competition, students not only want to complete courses to do well, but they also want to outperform other learners. This can help provide motivation for top learners, as well as those who might be falling behind.
Information retention is a critical part of education. If students aren’t retaining information from lessons, they aren’t learning. Quizzing and other gamification elements can help increase this retention so that participants are more likely to remember and be able to recall the information they are taught.
Some gamification can include real rewards. These might include money off additional courses or even partner discounts. Offering these real rewards can motivate students to get through otherwise challenging topics.
It is possible, through competitions or leagues, as well as group events, to encourage both competition and collaboration, using gamification. Both have proven to be effective in physical and virtual classrooms.
Gamification does come with some challenges. Fun can help drive learning but getting the balance right is important. If the onus is on gamification elements above education, it can have a detrimental effect.
Students may become less likely to learn, and they may be more inclined to remember the competition, or even look for ways to game the competition, rather than actually studying.
It is important to set goals and targets before implementing gamification elements. In education, this could be as obvious as passing a set exam within a given timeframe. Or, it could be to reach a given pass rate in a provided quiz after a set amount of time.
Monitoring results are important. By carefully analysing educational results and comparing these to gamification programs, it is possible to see which elements work and which don’t. Educators should also gather feedback from students to determine what they enjoy and what they think works. As with any education plan, optimization will help further improve results.
Not all students respond well to all gamification elements, and accessibility is a critical consideration. Color blindness, for example, might lead to the exclusion of some students from certain elements. Offering a good variety of gamification elements is important, and it does require offering alternatives to elements that might be inaccessible to some.
