(by Andrea Pisaniello - Instructional designer / E-learning specialist Aidr - Digital Education Observatory)
“The opposite of playing is not work. It's depression "- Brian Sutton-Smith
With the term Gamification, we mean the application of principles and elements of play in a learning environment with the aim of influencing behavior, increasing motivation and encouraging student participation.
Games have traditionally been viewed as a form of entertainment or pastime; however, they have now also become an important element in formal settings such as industry and education. It can be argued that the games are engaging, compelling and motivating. Furthermore, they can be used as a powerful tool for modeling behavior.
When participants face a challenge in a game environment and fail to overcome it, their self-esteem or motivation is not affected, on the contrary, the competitors try again. The games allow for different strategies to reach the solution and with this allow the players to be creative in the elaboration of their different attempts. What's interesting about this dynamic is that it allows players to gain new knowledge, develop new skills, and even change their attitudes.
A frequent complaint from some students is that they perceive school as boring and slow paced; Faced with this situation, teachers make great efforts to innovate their teaching methods and offer more dynamic, active and attractive environments.
Gaming environments have the ability to hold the user's attention and constantly challenge them. In addition to having considerable motivational power, the games attract students to participate often without any reward, just for the pleasure of playing and having an engaging learning experience. For this reason, the use of games or elements of them has gained strength to transform the learning environment.
Gamification can be understood as the thought process of the game and its mechanisms to attract users and make them solve problems. This definition can be applied to any situation, however in education Gamification refers to the use of game elements to engage students, motivate them to action and promote learning and problem solving.
Teachers have also used game mechanics and dynamics to increase students' motivation and performance in the classroom, with the success of Gamification in different contexts and the rise of video games, the possibilities of thinking about how to incorporate game elements have increased. in learning situations.
Difference between Gamification, serious game and game-based learning
The term Gamification in the field of education has been used incorrectly, with some other concepts related to the use of the game or its characteristics to motivate and create an environment conducive to learning. This confusion has seen Gamification combine terms such as game-based learning and serious games. Although these concepts are related, they are not equivalent as will be explained below.
Gamification
As described above, gamification in education incorporates elements of game design to take advantage of it in the educational context. This means that it is not about using the games themselves, but about taking some of their principles or mechanisms such as points or incentives, narrative, immediate feedback, recognition, freedom to make mistakes, etc., to enrich the learning experience.
Gamification works as a motivational didactic strategy in the teaching-learning process to provoke specific behaviors in the student within an environment that is attractive to him, that generates a commitment to the activity in which he participates and that supports the achievement of positive experiences to achieve meaningful learning.
Serious games
Serious Games are technological games designed with a purpose beyond mere entertainment, that is, designed and created for educational and information purposes, such as simulators or games to raise awareness. This type of game places the player or student in a very particular context with the aim of developing a specific knowledge or skill. For this reason, it is difficult to incorporate a serious game into a learning situation other than that for which it was created.
A serious game can be described as a game with a purpose; seeks to influence the resolution of real problems in environments that simulate real life.
Game-based learning
Game-based learning is the use of games as a means of instruction. This is usually presented as learning through play in an educational context designed by teachers. They are generally games that already exist, the mechanisms of which are already established and are adapted so that there is a balance between the subject, the game and the player's ability to retain and apply what he has learned in the real world.
The role of the teacher
The role of the teacher in the implementation of Gamification is not only to design a more fun activity, but must combine the elements of the game with a good didactic design that incorporates attractive and stimulating activities, so that they guide the student's experience towards the development of the skills expected at the indicated level.
Before designing a gamified environment for a class, topic or entire course, the teacher must first establish a goal for which he wants to implement this tool. Whether to improve participation in a low-performing group, increase collaboration skills, motivate students to turn in assignments on time. Having a clear goal during gamification makes it easier to design the course and then evaluate if it has been achieved.
Furthermore, to design Gamification, the teacher must consider the types of players the activity will be aimed at. It must select the pedagogical and technological resources that support the design.
By implementing Gamification, the teacher will guide their students through the journey they will take as gamers. This will allow to implement other teaching-learning strategies and consequently the development of the expected competences.
Evaluation
Formative assessment is closely linked to frequent in-game feedback as it guides students in their progress. In a gamified activity, students naturally produce various actions, while performing complex tasks such as problem solving, which are indicative of skill development. The evidence needed to assess these skills is provided by the interactions of the players in the activity.
In a gamified activity it is important to ensure that the evaluation is as unobtrusive as possible to capture the attention of the players, this can be achieved by performing what is called discrete evaluation. By analyzing the sequence of actions in a gamified environment where each response or action provides incremental evidence of current mastery of a specific concept or skill, discrete assessment can infer what students know or don't know at a certain point in the activity.
Unless assessment is consistently integrated into the gaming experience, students will feel interrupted and may lose interest. Therefore, if the dynamics of the activity do not offer significant opportunities for evaluation within it, a post-Gamification evaluation can still be done, in which students show evidence of what they have learned.
To carry out the assessment of learning, the competences that are expected to be observed must be defined.
In conclusion, depending on the elements of the game that are incorporated, Gamification provides specific benefits whose impact and scope should be known to decide which elements to use in the learning situation. Integrating playful elements into learning processes not only helps students, who feel more involved, but helps teachers by stimulating them to adopt new teaching methods.