“Gaming in Action- ‘Engaging Adult Learners with Games and Gamification” 2018-1-TR01-KA204-059315
What is Gamification?
Summary: Gamification describes the process of applying game-related principles — particularly those relating to user experience and engagement — to non-game contexts such as education.
Gamification in education, or gamification in learning, is sometimes described using other terms: gameful thinking, game principles for education, motivation design, engagement design, etc. It is different from game-based learning in that it does not involve students making their own games or playing commercially-made video games. It operates under the assumption that the kind of engagement that gamers experience with games can be translated to an educational context towards the goals of facilitating learning and influencing student behavior.
Since gamers voluntarily spend countless hours playing games and problem-solving, researchers and educators have been exploring ways to harness videogames’ power for motivation and apply it to the classroom.
Gamification in Education
A classroom that contains some or all of these elements can be considered a “gamified" classroom. The best combinations, the ones that create sustained engagement, consider the unique needs of the learners and do more than just use points and levels to motivate players. The most effective gamification systems make use of other elements such as narrative and connection with fellow players/learners to really capture the learner’s interest.