What is gamification? What do we mean by gamification in education?

 

What is gamification?

What is gamification? What do we mean by gamification in education?

Let's start with this phrase:

If games are more exciting than learning for the learner, there must be something wrong with education!

Why do games attract learners' interest and motivate them to participate more? While we find them less effective and active during classroom activities that are free of motivation and challenge!

We can answer this question by saying that games are built on elements for which motivation and challenge are the most important goals. If education is also based on lessons tagged with elements of play, we will not find a clear difference between the learner's interaction with play and his interaction with lessons, and lessons will not rise to the level of attractiveness of games until they get out of their boring stereotypes and enter the realms of motivation by combining them with the magical elements that make play attractive and desirable.

Here we are not talking about the integration of games in education with what is known in educational sciences as the concept of play PEDAGOGY, but we are talking about integrating the elements of play with what is known in gamification marketing techniques. What is gamification and what do we mean by gamification in education?

What is gamification?

It is a new term derived from the word Game, also known as Ludification, and is translated in Arabic as gamification or game. He first appeared in the field of commercial marketing to promote brands, then moved to other fields including education and training, media and health. Here are some definitions that try to bring us closer to its meaning:

• Gamification is the application of game elements and digital design techniques to games in achieving goals and solving problems in other fields outside the context of games such as media, marketing, and education.

• Gamification depends on the transfer of game mechanics to other non-recreational fields in order to solve problems or improve the level. It is based on understanding the mechanisms, techniques, characteristics and elements that allow the creation of a good game, as well as studying the behavior of players, and therefore aims to make activities (outside the scope of 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 a framework, promotional or motivational philosophy, that harnesses traditional game elements and game design techniques in contexts unrelated to gameplay as we know it. In gamification worlds, the arts of gameplay are applied in order to achieve goals beyond what the game itself serves. We humans play to have fun, to satisfy the instinct of competition within ourselves, or to spend time on something fun. That's how it used to be. But imagine getting others into a kind of game so that their activity promotes your product and increases your company's profits, or eventually gets you a job.

Electronic Game

Electronic games are the dominant form of entertainment in the modern era because they strongly stimulate behavior, and the mechanics of games can be applied outside of their entertainment environment, to create interesting experiences and to award and recognize rewards.

Gamification then is the use of some elements of games and their mechanisms in various life affairs, in other words making real life simulate games, and not making games simulate real life (reality games such as the Happy Farm game), but making life simulate games not in the sense of transforming our lives into games, but in the sense of introducing game elements to our lives, and as an example, here is a video that shows what happens to a normal staircase after it has been gamified, that is, developing it with play elements, and not turning it into just a game, it is still a staircase that plays its role But better after gamification:

What is the basis of gamification?

We saw in the previous definitions that gamification is based on the transfer of game mechanics and elements to other fields... Well, what do we mean by the elements of games that were mentioned so often in the previous definitions?

No matter how different the games are in their types, objectives and techniques of manufacture, they share a set of fixed elements that make them more interesting and motivating, among these elements that you know well while playing a game:

• .  Points you collect.
• .  Level you reach (level)
• .  Ranking among other players (Leaderboard).
• .  Challenges you face in the game.
• .  Prizes and gifts you earn (Rewards).
• .  The decorations or medals that you receive whenever you achieve an achievement (Badges) ... and other elements.

So can simply moving these elements to other worlds away from play be called gamification?

This was an old practice that is applied in many areas of our lives, for example through competitions and tests, but it is a new practice or a new trend in relation to technology, and an old practice in relation to public life. Gamification as a practice has already existed for decades, but as a concept and as a term it is new because it represents a new strategy close to the world of technology.

What do we mean by gamification in education?

Gamification in education is an educational approach that motivates students to learn using game elements in learning environments, with the aim of maximizing fun and engagement by engaging learners to continue learning. In the educational context, gamification can affect a student's behavior by motivating him to attend class with greater desire and eagerness, focusing on useful educational tasks and taking initiative.

How is education gambled?

Gamification in education can be achieved through several means and techniques, including:

• .  Add points to assignments and assignments.
• .  Identifying badges and awarding them to outstanding students after meeting specific criteria
• .  Create the ranking list for outstanding students.
• .  Set levels to repeat tasks or perform harder tasks.
• .  Link earned badges to higher levels.

What are the benefits of gamification in education?

Among the benefits of gamification on education that make initiatives to implement it successful in the classroom are:

• .  Give students full freedom to own their learning.
• .  Motivate them to continuous self-learning.
• .  Given the opportunity to learn with virtual characters.
• .  Expand the margin of freedom to make mistakes and try again without any negative repercussions.
• .  Doubling opportunities to increase fun and joy in the classroom.
• .  Learning by different teaching aids
• .  Linking education to real life and practical application
• .  Provide an appropriate and unlimited set of tasks for students
• .  Inspire students to discover their own motivation towards learning.