What can the principles of gaming can provide to the field of learning theory? How would one go about transitioning from games to structured learning?
Here’s a simple truth in academia that is unsaid: no student likes to learn. A hard to swallow notion, but if student were not trying to get into the best schools nor show their worth through their grades, the learning content would become obsolete instantly, and the institution would cease because no student would willing do so. This begs the question, how and why do students learn? Why would they learn something like a video game or the rules for chess? Because games are fun to learn, and work is not. In games, the stakes are confined to the game itself, and can incorporate more facets of yourself to participate (at least facets not conventional to academia), which leads to engagement because the effort you put in leads to a victory over yourself. For work, it takes on serious tone that has consequences to yourself, and it asks the you to deliberately practice or display your skill or skill set; this provokes a voluntary unwillingness to participate in schoolwork, and the effort you put in can be seen as draining, a deficit toward yourself. Yet, there is schoolwork, and it has to be done; how can get the same engagement and attitudes from games towards schooling and learning?
In the early 2000’s, a new concept of instructional practice has emerged that basically changed the path of how instructional development was viewed: gamification. Gamification is the process of using game design principles in non-game environments to help students engage in content as if it was a game of tag or chess. This is different from Game-Based Learning, in which a game is specifically made to enhance players’ learning through it’s gameplay (the education is the focus); gamification takes the perspective of a subject and makes it into a game-like environment (activities that provide incentives of personal benefit). Such elements of gamification rely on the reward factor (ex. getting points for doing something right, prizes for a certain amount of points). Another example would be to have optional paths for the students to explore, such as a “choose-your-own-story” game to have autonomy of the curriculum (yet still arrive at the same point as everyone). This concept allowed for creative minds to perceive their topics as opportunities to become interactive, engaging experiences that would either resonate with the students or motivate them to learn how to accomplish the task at hand.
In my personal view, I feel gamification is the future of education, but it can go further through a different branch. I see gamification understanding the problem how to make education/learning engaging and “fun”, but its executions are missing an element; engaging the topics directly. Motivating children through rewards and using literal gaming elements can be helpful, but I perceive the motivation being the instant or material gratification; the incentive of education needs to the education itself. By framing education like this, it helps the students not only understand the content, but learn the mindsets and philosophies to perceive regular patterns in that certain subject. For example, you learn the game by doing/playing the game. Not so much in the sense of experimentation by experiential learning, but that the game itself is built in a way that helps you understand not only how to play, but learn and understand the principles and mechanics in so the user can approach the problems by themselves. If you want to see a great analysis on this new idea, watch the video below:
(WARNING: The following content contains a high use of profanities, please watch at your own discretion. Also, the tone seems too comical to be taken seriously, but it is the medium in which the analysis is presented.)
I have a good feeling that gamification will adapt and lead Instructional Design down a new road of how to better using systems to create optimal learning environments. Here’s a link how to start implementing Gamification into your Instructional Design!
https://elearningindustry.com/step-instructional-design-guide-elearning-gamification
LIS 4022 Spring 2020 