Recently, I participated in
a #TrainChat on twitter on
the topic: "What Angry Birds Can Teach Us About Instructional
Design." The chat was
interesting and insightful and some very good points were made about the impact
of design elements such as simplicity, focus on skills and competencies,
engagement, motivation and challenge. The chat
came at a time when I was reading about 'gamification' and its impact on
education and learning. Karl Kapp's book
on “The Gamification of Training:
Game-based Methods and Strategies for Learning and Instruction.” is
out and I recently read the reviews by Clark Quinn and Jane Bozarth. I have also been visiting http://gamification.org/wiki/Gamification to
study how gamification is impacting various industries and how it is quickly
changing the trends in education
and learning. So, it was the perfect time to reflect and blog about gamification and its role in learning.
So what is
gamification?
As per Wikipedia: Gamification is
the use of game
design techniques[1], game
thinking and game mechanics to enhance non-game contexts. But I found a better
definition on Dr. Camille's blog "the
gamification of education is a relatively new approach to education that
employs game play mechanics to creating a more engaging and playful learning
experience. It works by using ideas from game design to encourage people to
learn and complete tasks with more enthusiasm. Gamification can also provide
the necessary external motivators for the important learning that must occur
outside the classroom (Pearce, 2011)."
Gamification is
different from game-based learning. Gamification focuses on the design,
techniques and the process of thinking and applying gaming principles in the
design of training whereas game-based learning utilizes games to teach concepts
and apply games in specific learning contexts with pre-defined outcomes.
And why does gamification of learning matter?
Games are powerful, addictive,
immersive, engaging, challenging, social, competitive and fun - all the things
we want learning to be. Therefore, there are many lessons to learn from games.
The truth is that we have always learnt
better using games. As toddlers and young children, we participated in
role-play games at home and with our friends and played games with our teachers
to identify shapes, numbers and colors. However, somewhere along the line,
games stopped being a part of the classroom and other training methods. Perhaps
one of the reasons could be that games and having fun is considered the
opposite of learning and serious work. But when work and training becomes fun, it
becomes closer to how we naturally learn – using stories, play and role-play.
Gamification of learning matters and is
critical to how training and education evolves in the coming years because
games are:
- Skill and level-based
- Social and competitive
- Experiential and immersive
- Non judgemental and fearless (do not generate fear of failure)
- Focussed on problem-solving and application
When we play games, we are able to
apply existing skills, learn new skills, get feedback, learn from our mistakes,
reflect and apply new skills – all in a matter of a few minutes! All desirable
factors of a perfect learning environment are therefore engrained in the design
of games.
Game environments are active, real-time, hands-on, short-bursts of
learning and that’s why people must play games. The questions that remain to be
answered is what kind of game designs work best and how should gamification be
integrated into learning, education and training and eventually the work
environment.
References
and further reading
- You can find a recap of the chat with @LnDDave on lessons for training pros from #AngryBirds here.
- Read more about the Kapp’s book and gamification here.
- Read more about the distinction between gamification and game-based learning in the following posts:
- View a short interview with Brenda
Enders who answers this question during the Learning Solutions Conference and Expo 2012 in Orlando, Florida.
- Karl Kapp views about why games matter http://learningcircuits.blogspot.ca/2012/01/what-is-gamification-and-why-it-matters.html.
- Dr. Camille Rutherford post that shares practical tips about how to gamify your classroom and discusses gamification of learning.
- Read how gamification is changing the face of the 21st century education and if you have time to spare, check out the speeches that were delivered at Penny Conference 2012 .
- For case studies and examples of how gamification is being used in corporate world, check http://gamification.co/
- Here’a another useful post by Kapp that lists examples of how gamification has been implemented.
- For further reading, here is an interesting list of gaming and gamification-related books http://gamification.org/wiki/Gamification_Books