Gamification in education enhances levels of students' engagement and participation similar to what games can do, aiming to make learning more engaging and appealing and to improve students' particular skills. Let's have a look at the importance of gamification in teaching and learning.
Gamification in Education
Gamification Towards Better Learning
The technological acceleration in the world and the development in the use of computers and digital technology tools have led to the emergence of much different software and artificial intelligence systems, which in turn work to develop the teaching-learning process. The emergence of new educational methods and strategies contributes to increasing students’ motivation towards learning and makes learning more enjoyable, stimulating and interesting.
So, educational games are designed by computer software and technologies, as games designed by computers and their technologies have become called digital educational games, which in turn led to the emergence of teaching and learning strategies, one of which is the digital educational game, and it is called gamification strategies.
The use of gamification has spread in various fields of the educational process and various academic subjects, especially in the first basic stages, as well as in various institutions, organizations and agencies, including universities and education sectors.
Gamification is one of the concepts capable of increasing students' motivation towards learning and providing them with different skills and knowledge to develop their thinking towards modern learning with new thinking.
What is the Concept of Gamification?
Gamification is all about turning the classroom environment and regular activities into a game.
Gamification is a modern strategy in education, which is the use of game principles and elements in contexts outside the game, where the learner completes educational tasks and activities to achieve educational goals that develop creative thinking skills.
Gamification is the application of game elements and digital game design techniques in achieving goals and solving problems in areas other than the context of games such as media, marketing, and education.
Gamification depends on transferring the mechanics of games to other non-recreational fields with the aim of solving problems or improving the level. It is based on an understanding of the mechanisms, techniques, characteristics and elements that allow for creating a good game, as well as the study of the behavior of players. Hence, it aims to make activities (outside the scope of the so-called games) more fun and interesting just like games.
Gamification is taking the principles of play and using them to make real-world activities more interactive.
Gamification is suitable for multiple levels of teaching because it has a positive impact on the success of the educational mission by improving the levels of participation and motivation for students, and it also helps in overcoming the complex academic challenges faced by learners.
Online educators can combine this strategy with existing curricula to help bridge the gap between passive stagnation in the learning process and active student participation, which increases academic achievement and satisfaction.
What are the Objectives of Gamification in Education?
The objectives of gamification in teaching-learning experiences and skills are classified into:
Cognitive goals: Develop your mental abilities, thinking, exploration and innovation.
Social goals: Communicate with others, and learn social order, rules, and laws.
Emotional goals: enhance motivation, self-expression, and character formation.
Skill development goals: Learn the skills of speed, accuracy, and problem solving regardless of the audience or topic.
The main objective of gamification in the educational environment is to create exciting educational and entertainment content, and it is not intended to turn the educational process into a game, but to have a motive to compete, improve oneself, excel over others, and to have satisfactory and motivating rewards for that.
What is the Importance of Gamification in Education?
Gamification in Education seeks to motivate students by using video game design and game elements in learning environments.
The aim of Gamification in Education is to maximize enjoyment and participation by engaging learners and inspiring them to continue learning. The use of gamification in the educational process helps to:
- Develop verbal and nonverbal communication skills.
- Get rid of the psychological pressures that fall from educational practices or socialization.
- Encourage self-learning and aid in cognitive development in adolescents.
- Work on the foundation of applying game mechanics and design to a non-gaming context.
- Make difficult operations easy to learn.
- Teach students to make decisions and take responsibility.
- Narrow the gap between the female applicants and the backward ones in academic achievement.
- Reinforce what students have learned and give them an opportunity for meaningful revision.
- Increase learners' motivation to learn and provide an element of competition, luck and excitement.
- Activate students' thinking to understand educational concepts.
- Establish educational concepts, where the student is physically and mentally active.
- Allow students to work freely, and the teacher has the opportunity to pay attention to the individual needs of some students.