JOIN USTo learn, improve and up one’s skill is the culture of learning. Gamification is the active and imaginative use of game mechanics in a non-game context or learning process, to engage and motivate learners.
It is effective for all age groups, from a school student to a corporate trainee. It is important to note here that game-based learning is different from gamification, in that it is primarily curriculum-aligned and based on the game’s cognitive content and residue. Gamification is a situation-specific system designed to focus on encouragement mechanics. What they both have in common is that they can be and are used to promote mastery over a particular learning experience, academic or otherwise.
Game-based learning
Education doesn’t work with a one-size-fits-all approach. Teaching requires a deep understanding of the differences in knowledge, abilities and learning styles that students bring to the classroom. Smart-age teachers have realised for some time now that textbook methods do not hold water anymore. The diversity of learning styles and abilities in any given classroom means that teachers must meet all the students in the level they are at, in order to ensure their success.
Why can’t classes be fun and compelling like a learning game, every single school day, all year long? It can and is rapidly becoming so in innovative classrooms and of course, across the virtual platform of apps, games and gizmos. Game-based learning builds a positive attitude and develops memory skills and excites the learner to discover and explore in the process. Back in time, when I was a chit of a girl, my Maths skills were nothing to write home about and my father saw a way to help me manage money without baulking at numbers by allowing me to play ‘banker’ in a trade game. It was the sense of responsibility and the knowledge that others depended on me to dole out the correct change, reward them or punish them when they landed in the box called ‘chance’. Suddenly numbers became fun.
Creative minds
Today, as a teacher, I have succeeded in adapting game rules and rewards to carry my class with me during a lesson, whether it is English, History, Geography or Political Science. A group of eleventh graders, who questioned the relevance of studying Shakespeare in this age and time, found themselves enjoying the classic comedies and tragedies when they were introduced to amateur theatre.
The difficult teenagers took great pride in dramatising marked scenes, working out all the details of production and direction, down to period costumes and properties. I watched the group of reluctant students transform into enthusiastic directors, managers, costume and art designers, resource persons and language and accent experts. Shakespeare was back with a bang!
Paradigm shift
Game-based learning has brought about a paradigm shift in the teaching learning methodology. Simulation and strategy games are in constant use to teach world history and cultures, economics, geography and government through interactive game play. It is not easy to build in game techniques into a lesson. The subject content has to be modified and tailored to suit individuals and groups to meet the needs of all the students.
Real life challenges
Ms Sarin, a middle school teacher in a standard curriculum school, who was bold enough to break away from the norm and introduce game-based experimental learning, shared happily that she was inspired by the way the youngsters interacted and engaged in thoughtful conversations around problem-solving within a game. A simple reversal of role where students became organisers and the teacher, the facilitator, in hosting a school science fair, saw the youngsters turn into inventors, skill enhancers or motivators, group leaders who led with confidence, researchers, and a motivated team body which worked with fervour and focus, setting goals, working within a time frame…“the list is exhaustive,” she smiled. The insights gained from these practices actually helped them in better appreciating and recognising that the work of scientists and engineers is a creative endeavour with social responsibility.
Rehabilitation programmes
Gamification methods work wonders with children who have Attention Deficit Disorders (ADD). To counteract the monotony of standard instructions, gamification methods are introduced, which allows for engaging elements to be added, increasing retention, and impressing a positive association with the learning process, which is otherwise an ordeal for those with attention disorders.
The game-based learning process is literally taking a player (learner) on a journey from the unfamiliar to competence to mastery. In many of the interactive videos and apps, the instructor becomes the game master, like the teacher in a classroom, who is quick to mark the pre-assessment stage, progress stage and the challenge stage of growth of the class. Earning badges, reward points and climbing the level graph are the basic forms of motivation and evaluation. The incentives and subtle disincentives come into play in higher levels of learning.
The dynamics of gamification have yielded positive results in motivating patients recovering from a stroke, to push themselves to reclaim their lost skills and progress on the road to rehabilitation. A city hospital rehabilitation worker confirmed that using a competitive social scoring system with merit badges for impressive, most improved and remarkable levels of progress, did stimulate and engage patients to give it that extra bit of effort. The excitement of the learning process does much to distract from the pain.
Gamification is by no means a new concept. Only, now there are systems and technology to help in the implementation. Designers look at it as an effective tool in behavioural management — to get people to do more, more frequently and for longer periods of time willingly. It is to incentivise a particular behaviour, so to speak. Whether it is e-learning, a classroom or the playground, gamification techniques aim to promote interactivity, pique the learner’s interest, motivate and nurture the desire to achieve a set goal, while adhering to the rules of the game.