I often have conversations with people who are enthused about using gamification, or games, in learning. But just as often, they’re a little hazy on exactly how they can do this. People use the term ‘gamifying’ something to mean anything from adding points to creating a full-blown simulation game.
The terminology can be confusing but I think it masks a simpler underlying principle. Games-based learning, in its broadest sense, is about looking at games and saying, ‘hey, when people play games, they engage really well and they learn–can we use that power to make learning better?’
When you put it like that, in very practical terms, there are four ways to do it. At the ‘slighter’, less obviously games-based end, you can take the principles and workings of games and build them into everyday learning, without actually playing a game. Or you can use an existing game, if you think it fits with the learning objectives. Or you can adapt one so that it does. Lastly, you could design a bespoke learning game.
Use the principles of games to enhance learning
Games are made up of all kinds of small elements. Obvious ones like points and levels and less obvious ones like choices and caretaking. If you take any of these individual ideas and design them into a learning activity that’s not itself a game, many people would call that gamification. The language app, Duolingo uses achievements, points and lives to motivate people to work through learning new words and grammar.
Another way to design principles from games into learning experiences is to make learning activity-based. You could say this is just a kind of gamification – it’s taking something from games and using it outside games. But it’s possibly the core thing that makes games engaging – you’re playing them, you’re doing things. So, designing learning experiences where the learner does things rather than listens or watches is a great way to harness the power of games.
The Transform Deck is a deck of cards I designed to inspire people to create more activity-based learning 