The term gamification was coined in 2002 and has since developed to impact education at all levels including higher education. Gamification involves the incorporation of game elements into educational contexts to improve engagement, motivation and student interaction within courses. With gamification, students are fully immersed into the course subject matter which allows for longer retention of material than does the traditional lecture. By gamifying content, students are encouraged to take-risks and explore without the pressure of failure. Research shows that students become more successful with challenging content through gamification because it creates a sense of accomplishment, encourages motivation, and improves the educational environment.

 

Gamification is used because it has been proven to increase motivation and can be underpinned by multiple motivational theories. The first theory that helps prove success in gamification is Deci and Ryan’s self-determination theory (SDT). SDT focuses on the three basic psychological needs that all humans have: relatedness, competence, and autonomy. Gamification works to motivate students by playing to these needs by encouraging social interaction (relatedness), recognizing achievement or progress throughout the game (competence), and allows students to travel through levels or tasks (autonomy).

 

Another motivational theory that is represented well through gamification is the goal setting theory. This theory proves that goals effectively increase performance and engagement. Most games set forth specific goals for players to complete and in turn increase student engagement. The final theory has shown that games can maximize engagement and student enjoyment. Flow theory encourages the creation of learning environments that focus on both psychological and physical needs. Games often have specific goals, direct feedback, indicate progress, and challenge players which allows for student needs to be met and helps increase motivation.

 

Using games in the classroom has shown increased student motivation and enjoyment will improving both cognitive and metacognitive achievements. Gamification is associated with constructive and interactive learning environments where students tend to be more engaged and receptive.

 

What does gamification look like in higher education?

Gamification is not just playing games with interconnected educational topics but instead it incorporates game like aspects into to learning. Gamification can be included in courses at the course or assignment level. Course level gamification may look like a class leaderboard or students earning badges for completing content. For gamification incorporation at an assignment level this may look love scavenger hunts, quests, or mini games for content retention.

 

Examples of Gamification at the Course Level

Research shows improved student engagement, enjoyment, and content retention with the addition of gamification in the classroom. Gamification can be applied in many ways, below are a few that encourage active learning.

 

One approach that allows for frequent feedback, is implementing gamification in grading. This may look like students earning points for different activities. In this case students start from zero and must earn their grade by accumulating points through different assignments and activities. As students’ complete assignments they progress through levels, like what one might experience in a video game. This approach has proven to create a growth mindset in students by increasing motivation to progress through levels.

 

Mastery based grading often integrates badging into the grading system. Students start at the lowest level badge and as they progress through educational content they earn more badges. At Gustavus Adolphus College, Professor Jeff Ford, uses 25 badges in his course. Students begin as a mouse and unlock larger animals with each badge to end with a dinosaur. Each badge is tied to a level in his grading rubric that connects to participation, completed homework assignments, and passed quizzes. The badges have made his grading system more user-friendly to students than the previous, more complicated grading rubric. Students can quickly assess how they are doing in the course and are motivated to work towards the next badge or “level up”, similar to how they would in a video game.

 

Examples of Gamification at the Assignment Level

The incorporation of quests has been proved to increase student participation by 70%. Professor Yan Shi of University of Wisconsin at Platteville assigns seven quests to her students throughout the semester. These quests encouraged students to obtain more information than is given by the standard course content. One quest sent students to the annual career fair, the completion of this quest garnered students extra credit points. By simply rephrasing the encouragement of attending the career fair into gamification with a quest, she saw a major increase in participation.

 

Role playing is a frequent gamified tool used in higher education. Roles can be assigned to students to encourage them to gain a broader understanding of other roles in their course or future field of work. Mark Carnes, faculty at Barnard College, create student role playing in history classes. He had students assume roles informed by classical texts and then debate the fundamental issues that occurred within historical events. This immersive role-playing was so successful that it is now seen at over 350 institutions. Carnes collected qualitative and quantitative evidence proving that the gamified approach increases student motivation, engagements, and overall understanding of historical events.

 

Numerous educational technologies exist to incorporate gamification into the classroom. Many of these technologies are free and extremely user friendly, allowing for quick implementation into course content. Using a game for content review is a popular practice due to the resulting repetition and reinforcement of knowledge learned. Implementing an educational game into your classroom can promote collaboration between students, critical thinking, and a bit of competition. View the next module for further information on educational technologies for gamification.

 

Technology has changed the world we live in today, including the students within it. Gamification helps meet students where they are and assists them in obtaining educational content within courses. Educators can make a large impact on students by differentiating course material with gamification.