Here’s a huge problem. For many students, education is boring. That’s why teachers are constantly looking for new methods to make it more exciting.
Gamification is a really promising solution to this. Teachers use game elements in education. This makes it more attractive for students. The result? It positively impacts critical thinking and collaboration.
While doing in-depth research on the topic, writers from hausarbeit-ghostwriter.de found out a few facts that are worth sharing.
According to Pathways Training and eLearning, 83% of people who get training with gamification feel motivated. Now, let’s talk in detail about why this approach is great.
Top 5 Benefits of Gamification in Education
1. Improves Engagement
First of all, games make it easier to capture students’ interest. Adding game elements to instructions will definitely result in better participation and increased engagement. Gamified lessons make education look like a great adventure. Students show more enthusiasm. They are really excited and committed to completing learning goals.
Competition, challenges, and rewards improve the whole process in many ways. Easy-to-use apps like LYNX Whiteboard allow teachers to use game-like activities. People love matching and drag-and-drop activities with game elements. Teachers can also add a timer, which encourages students to be even more responsive and engaged.
2. Makes the Learning Experience Better
Gamification favors interactive learning. Students become active. They solve problems, make decisions, and overcome challenges, all thanks to a game-like setting. It encourages learners to participate and helps them remember material better.
This practical method improves comprehension. Students start to relate theoretical ideas to practical situations. Many teachers use some form of “game” in their classrooms, such as a quick multiplication facts competition.
Educational apps are available as well. They make the planning process easier and align with students’ existing home activities.
Research from Growth Engineering indicates that 80% of learners perform better with gamified approaches.
3. Develops Critical Thinking
Games make students think strategically. Many of them contain puzzles. To solve them, learners need to analyze different things. They come up with solutions and test them. Then, students adapt those approaches.
Gamified learning encourages problem-solving and inspires creative thinking. Games are also great for remote learners. A learning platform from MimioConnect allows teachers to create activities with game-like elements. These are good for scoring and assessment purposes. Tasks involve dragging, dropping, labeling, and inserting questions into videos and slides.
4. Encourages Collaboration and Teamwork
Many games encourage collaboration and teamwork, and gamified learning reflects that element. Students often do activities together to reach common objectives, cultivating a feeling of camaraderie.
This collaborative attitude fosters communication abilities. It educates people on the importance of working together. For instance, MyStemKits comes with a Sailboat Challenge. In it, people are prompted to create 3D print sails and speed test them.
5. Makes It More Appealing for Students to do Homework
61% of people who do traditional courses feel unproductive and bored. Do you remember those homework assignments from your college? They are so boring, right? That is the exact reason why nobody wants to do them.
Gamification is here to change this. Teachers start to use game elements in their courses. And here is a really great thing about it. They see that students are 3 times more likely to complete their assignments. Yes, the homework completion rate for courses with gamification is 300% higher.
Case Study
But is gamification really efficient? Let’s take a real example. Technical University in Athens tested this approach. They used the app Horses for Courses. This app offered many gamified elements to participants. It was a course in statistics, and the main goal was to improve the learning outcomes. 365 people took part in it.
The results were quite shocking. There was an 89% increase in learners’ performance. This clearly showed that gamification beats lecture-based education. Amazing, right?
Final Thoughts
And here you have it. 5 great benefits of gamification in education. It improves engagement and makes education more appealing. It develops critical thinking and encourages collaboration. Finally, gamification makes the whole learning experience better.
