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Chris Powell

Ms. Lee
New Technologies 325
March 10, 2015
Game On! The Potential for Gamification in Education
Educators across the country, from graduate schools to middle schools, are increasingly
focusing on gaming methodology to turn learning into an interactive experience.

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Gamification uses game design elements in nongame contexts, but it should not be
confused with a traditional game of any kind. More than other disruptive technologies,
gamification has the potential to change content delivery systems in the classroom and
create truly meaningful experiences for students.

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Nearly every school is challenged to motivate students and strengthen student

engagement. Successful student engagement is the foundation for learning and includes the
learning process, the subject matter, the purpose of study, and additional social and cultural
factors.

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Gamification attempts to harness the motivational power of games and apply it to realworld problems. Game players regularly exhibit persistence, risk-taking, attention to detail,
and problem-solving, all behaviors that ideally would be regularly demonstrated in school
(Lee 7).
Game-like components that track activities such as custom avatars, badges, and other
rewards keep students motivated and task-oriented. Presentation can change behavior in
many settings. Researchers at Thefuntheory.com studied whether more people would

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choose climbing stairs over taking an escalator if taking the stairs were more fun. When
stairs were covered to look and sound like piano keys, 66% more people than normal took
the stairs, proving that fun can positively impact behavior (The Fun Theory 1).

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Several studies on instructional games revealed that the greatest benefits were obtained
when users could target specific content and knew the objectives. Instructional games can
provide measureable learning for many different types of learners. Making sure that
students knew how to play the game was often more important to students than how
realistic the game appeared (Franklin 46-52).

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Adequately measuring the games effectiveness both during and after the activity is
crucial to determining whether learning is actually taking place and evaluating the return on
investment. There are four components to measurement:
1.

Reaction Did the student enjoy the experience, and if so, how?

2.

Learning How much did the student increase his or her knowledge about the

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subject?
3.

Behavior Did the students new knowledge translate in a real way?

4.

Results Were the original goals met?

With adequate investment, training, and instructor guidance, gamification can reach the
same goals as quizzes and tests. Whether the market can sustain the investment remains an
open question.

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Works Cited
Franklin, Anne. Rewarding Play: The Role of Games in the Classroom. New York: Roberts
Educational Publishing, Inc., 2012. Print.
Lee, Joey J. "Gamification in Education: What, How, Why Bother?" Academic Exchange
Quarterly 1 June 2015.
The Fun Theory. 2015. Web. 4 June 2015.

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