What Is Gamification?
Gamification is applying typical elements from games, such as points, badges, rules, and competition, to other areas of activity.
Gamification can be used in the classroom to encourage students to participate in classroom activities and assignments.
- In the video below, you will be given the rundown on what gamification is and the elements within it, specifically in the classroom setting.
How to Gamify Your Classroom
There are many ways to introduce gamification in the classroom. Like I mentioned earlier, points, badges, competition, and rules help to turn your regular lesson and teaching style into a fun and encouraging strategy for keeping student engaged.
- Points:
Points can be a fun way to measure students achievement in relation to the rest of the class. It can also be used as currency so that when students reach a certain amount they can exchange their points for some sort of reward or prize.
- Badges:
Badges can be used to visually represent the achievements of the students, like rewards.
- Levels:
Levels are great to incorporate in the classroom especially when dealing with activities or assignments that involve a process or multiple steps. Levels will encourage students to progress through these assignments to ultimately unlock new rewards.
With levels it is important to remind students that failure is not only okay, but it is acceptable and expected. This is how students will learn from their mistakes. Levels are not supposed to be easy; it will be more challenging as you progress through the activities and assignments.
- Leaderboards:
Leaderboards add to the competitiveness, as we know everyone strives to be in first place or at least the top three. This is a good way to keep your class motivated to finish what has been started. At the end of the assignment, students should be arranged according to their rank.
- Rules:
It is important to enforce rules when gamifying your classroom. Always remind students that failure is apart of learning and that everyone learns at their own pace, so it is normal to have some students progress faster than others. Although competition is apart of gamification, it is not meant to be used in a “mean” way.
Mastering the Task
The awesome thing about gamification is that there are multiple ways to get to your end goal. Think of it as a treasure hunt, you can get to the treasure by going around the island one way or around the island another way. You might get stuck in quicksand when taking one route, but the other way might be smooth sailing. Students should continuously try to achieve a badge or a level because the point of the system is to grow as you learn- meaning that failure (or getting it wrong the first time) is part of the experience.
Reminders for Teachers!
When incorporating gamification in your classroom, do not replace bad grading practices with bad badges. If this happens students will feel torn down or embarrassed which could result in lack of motivation for the rest of their activities and assignments.
For the Future
I think gamification is an excellent way for students to stay motivated and encouraged in the classroom. Gamification can be incorporated into any classroom and at any grade level. Elementary school kids would really enjoy the point system, as well as badges, levels, and rewards. Gamification is something I would love to use in my classroom since it is a unique way to keep students engaged.
- The video below gives insight on how to utilize gamification in the classroom and make your classroom an engaging learning environment.
