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5 ways to Incorporate Gamification in Education

Description: Incorporate gamification in e-learning using these tried and tested methods. 

Motivate learners by introducing game elements to an e-learning experience using these tips and transform the education design project.

The idea of a game is deeply entrenched in culture. Benjamin Franklin said,

‘We do not stop playing because we grow old. We grow old because we stop playing.’

Anecdotally, this seems to be true. People who are able to see experiences, even life itself as a game are more happy to participate.

Gamification is a proven way to motivate learners to spend more time on their platform. These ways to incorporate game elements into learning experiences are likely to make them more interactive, and play on learner’s desire to succeed.

Gamification has not only taken hold in a plethora of E-learning applications, but has creeped into a variety of domains like health and wellness, marketing, and social media. 

In reality gamification is nothing new. You might have been lucky enough to go to a school where teachers gave out credits for participation, that you can then redeem for real prizes. For example, the school distributed Scholastic catalogs that were used to order books and other items, and the points you earned in class could be used to order from them.

Another really simple example of gamification is the pomodoro technique. This study method is basically self-gamification of work or study. After 25 minutes of focus, the user gives themselves 5 minutes to do anything they want; surf social media, drink some tea, or talk on the phone. This technique is so popular, dozens of students swear by it,

If you went to school in the 90’s you may remember ‘Math Circus’, ‘Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?’, or other games installed on your school’s library computers or computer lab. These applications were essentially reading or math exercises but were packaged in such a way that our human sense perceived them as games, not work.

Here are 5 ways to incorporate gamification in e-learning.

1. Inspire competition.

Perhaps the most common way to inspire competition is to offer points. Rewards programs range from air miles (gamifying travel), to educational software like Duolingo (exp points). The points have to be redeemable for something, though. Users who reach higher scores can not only feel satisfied by having earned something, but can also be proud of their achievements as they see how they stack up to other learners. Variations on the gamification of reward include: levels, checkpoints, and badges. The symbolic value of each of these rewards will motivate learners.

2) Create a narrative

Nothing makes people more willing to invest time into something than a story. A Learning experience can be framed as a kind of make-believe adventure. You could really go wild with this including heroes, monsters, and villains. Most evocative stories have a goal like saving the world. Instead of course modules and lessons, your gamified learning experience could feature towns, islands, and dungeons.

3) Reward Academic objectives

A rubric can be converted into objectives and rewards. Instead of giving scores as fractions or percentages, try to assign them through different types of rewards. This does two things. 1) it breaks up the monotony of receiving the same type of feedback for every academic objective and 2) it focuses on what the student managed to achieve, not just what they did not (unlike fractions).

4) Reward procedural objectives

Gamification of class procedures can offer an invaluable classroom management tool when by rewarding behaviours that make your role, as a designer or instructor, easier. If assignments need to be submitted in a certain format (eg. naming, file type), then reward those who follow the instructions. If you have a video session and student’s microphones need to start on or off, then have a built in system to reward these behaviours. After all, they are saving precious time that the students can be using to learn!

5) Community rewards

In some of my elementary school classes, teachers rewarded free time after class sometimes; 2 or 3 minutes after each class all added up towards the end of the semester to make enough time for an hour-long pizza party.  This can be done at a group level too, if groups remain constant throughout the semester and inspire more competition. Be careful using this gamification method to impose negative rewards or punishments however. This applies particularly to higher stake educational experiences like higher education or corporate learning. The learners may not appreciate being disadvantaged by things outside their control,

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