It took people several years to understand that promoting education is not enough unless it effectively achieves the goal to enhance students’ knowledge. Thankfully, educational experts have always been looking for methods to increase student engagement and motivate them to learn interactively. One of the break thoughts in this regard is gamification.

The most common reason for students not wanting to study or compromising studies is because they want to play. Gamification is the smart technique to include games in the learning process to enhance their understanding. It involves the curriculum heavily based upon interesting games to grab students’ attention and enhance their involvement in the learning process.

It is considered the future of modern education for all good reasons.

Key features of gamification

The key features of gamification are discussed here, differentiating it from traditional education.

Compatible with modern educational needs

Nowadays, the trends in education are entirely different from what they used to be a decade or two ago. Things have evolved, changed, replaced, vanished, and renewed during previous years. Modern educational methods require modern resources such as e-books, digital libraries, online nursing dissertation writing service uk, collaborative learning platforms, etc. the influence of technology on education is very significant.

The increasing influence of technology has made gamification a crucial teaching technique. It has a unique blend of several factors necessary for students, such as technology, skills, mental exercise and concentration development. It is the right learning resource for modern educational needs.

High retention rate

The biggest problem with the educational system prevalent in our society is that kids only learn for exams and forget everything soon. The shortness in retention of the topics taught in the classroom has become so serious that students now find it difficult to retain the classroom lecture for long. They usually take studies as a burden and get less engaged in class.

Incorporating games and game-based activities in education motivates students to take an interest in the lessons being taught by the teacher. When they are more attentive in class, they tend to retain more things for a longer period. It is seen that students tend to learn more when they enjoy learning or having fun.

Understanding of real-world applications

Knowledge is beneficial when it is applicable in real-life. A major dilemma in education is that students learn concepts but do not know their applicability in their life and thus, their knowledge makes no difference for them. Gamification introduces students to the application of taught knowledge and how to benefit from it. It facilitates learning through experiencing.

The immersive experience provided by games allows students to understand better their knowledge and the detailed observation of its application.

Interactive approach

Instead of a one-way teaching method, gamification enables incorporating an interactive learning approach in education. The experience of doing things on there to learn different concepts is far better than listening to long lectures and trying hard to remember everything. The focus of students is on earning more points and achieving milestones. Learning happens as an indirect process and becomes merely a by-product of games.

Facilitate cognitive development

Gamification helps in full fledge mental development of the human brain. It involves students using different parts of their brains that they usually do not use in traditional learning. Games are specifically designed to activate cognitive development in individuals. Such games include activities based on mind-mapping, problem-solving and brainstorming.

Cognitive development ranks among the most important learning objectives for any subject. Cognitive development helps better understand, retain, and apply the received information.

Learning from failure

The fear of failure is more lethal than failure. Those who are reluctant to fail are more prone to mental issues if their objectives are not achieved. The most popular mental health issues among students are anxiety, stress and depression that double up during exams. Games teach students that they can try again after facing a failure with a better strategy. They encourage them to keep trying until they reach their desired level.

The courage to fail and try again enables students to identify their mistakes and rectify them. It teaches them that there are multiple paths to reach a destination and that they can change results with a change in their approach and attitude. This improves their academic performance as well as their understanding.

Encourages experimentation

Creativity and innovation are useful when a person has the freedom to experiment with his ideas without any fear. Nowadays, the world is so dynamic with saturated markets that one cannot make a difference without showing a point-of-difference. You cannot succeed in any field if you cannot welcome new ideas. Gamification allows students to experiment different with ideas and strategies to check their effectiveness.

They explore new information every time they resume playing and incorporate it into their strategy to achieve the desired goals efficiently. This is helpful in real-life also and is considered an essential skill.

Limitations of gamification

Besides a long list of benefits of gamification in education, some limitations must be considered while implementing it.

• The feedback and response in gamification are quite quick, and students become habitual. It results in increased expectations that create a problem for them if not fulfilled. They want a rapid response in everything they do, which is nearly impossible.
• The cost of gamification is not always the same. It mainly depends on the type of technology being employed. It sometimes becomes unaffordable for the educational institutes to afford the high initial and maintenance cost of incorporating gamification in education.
• Without proper planning, the assessment criteria of students can be challenging. Since every game has a different ranking system, the generalisability of the ranking is nearly impossible.
• Since gamification provides a personalized experience to students, it sometimes becomes difficult to complete the specified course in the available time. It might end up consuming most of the time without completing the syllabus.

The impact of gamification on education highlights its significance for education that prepares students for the future. The skills and characteristics required to comprehend the current and the future world can be installed among students through gamification. It supports the idea that gamification has a significant place in the future of education since the latest technologies would heavily derive it.

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