How to use gamification in education

Gamification

How to usE

IN EDUCATION

Why use gamification? Games are for fun and entertaining, right? For the same reason, they are also a powerful educational resource. The explanation lies in our brain: When we play a game, we produce dopamine, a substance that relates to learning and memory. When we experience pleasant sensations such as solving a problem or getting a response right, we release dopamine. The interesting thing about this is that we tend to repeat any action that provides satisfaction because it is essentially a reward. Conversely, when we are wrong, the level of dopamine drops, and this is unpleasant for us. Therefore, the brain learns to make an effort to avoid what is wrong and repeat what is right so it can continue to receive the pleasant sensations. That’s why reward systems are so motivating and so important in learning.

How to create successful gamification: 1. Define your goals Create a list of your goals as a teacher. What do you want your students to learn? What values would you like to instill? In the example genially, the teaching goal is to learn biographies of famous characters. 2. Create storytelling To do this, think about your students. What do they like? What are their hobbies? The key is to connect with the student body and make them feel like the protagonists. 3. Define the mechanism of play and motivation Creating a series of exercises where they choose the answers is not gamification, even if the style of the game is based on their interests. How can you hook them and make sure they keep playing? When are they given feedback? Feedback should provided at each step, encouraging you to repeat the attempt if a mistake is made. The reward system should be complex enough to keep students engaged – they have to get five numbers to be able to open the safe and complete the challenge.

Gamification Gamification consists of applying game-specific elements in any other context to achieve certain goals. The objectives can be varied, but, in general, it’s a matter of getting someone to perform a certain behavior or action. For example, getting answers from a survey, facilitating understanding of complex concepts, or simplifying tasks. Gamification uses the incredible power of games as motivation to achieve certain goals, and has been proven effective in improving the learning experience for people of all ages.

How to create successful gamification: 4. Find the tools and elements you’re going to use You need a tool that makes it easy for you to create an attractive storytelling, with resources to illustrate and structure it as quickly and easily as possible. As far as this is concerned, Genially provides everything you need, with over 70 templates specifically designed to create gamifications available to teachers. Genially also allows you to add interactivity and animation to your creations in a few minutes without programming knowledge, and is a perfect support for storytelling. These features make it a very powerful tool for developing your gamification. With interactivity, your students can interact with content in an immersive way, and different animations will easily capture their attention. 5. Make it fun! Once the whole system is created, try to view it through your students’ eyes and make sure you’ve built a fun learning experience.