Gamification in Education: Why It Works and Its Benefits
Gamification is essentially the process of adding game-like elements to non-gaming settings to increase user engagement. In education, many resources have adopted it for some time, transforming many monotonous, repetitive learning exercises into engaging, interactive experiences. Given our motto here at Busy Things is to ‘Teach, Laugh and Learn’, it’s easy to understand why gamification is a cornerstone of what we do.
In this blog, we look at how Busy Things has incorporated gamification into some of its educational games and activities, and the benefits this brings. We look at:
- Elements of gamification within Busy Things
- Examples of gamification within Busy Things’ key stages
- Benefits of gamification
- Conclusion
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Elements of gamification within Busy Things
| Real-time feedback: | This could be a simple sound of disappointment if a single incorrect answer is given, an upbeat jingle to celebrate a ‘win’ or something more concrete like a percentage. |
| Points and leader boards: | Points are accrued over a period of time to give players a rank. As a result, pupils or schools are either positioned on a leader board or given a podium position (1st, 2nd or 3rd). Children enjoy the fact that their score is visible for all to see, and trying for a leader board position can be a real motivator. |
| Competition: | Multi-player games can make the learning process more sociable, dynamic and fun. You’ll find different children enjoy different aspects of these games: some enjoy the shared experience; others, the direct competition. |
| Simulations: | Simulations take real-world scenarios and move them into risk-free environments, where making mistakes is simply part of the learning process with no repercussions or shame associated with them. They’re great for instilling a growth mindset, where effort and continued focus are rewarded. |
| Visualisations: | Visualising concepts can often help to simplify them, making them easier for teachers to explain and for pupils to grasp. |
| Strategy: | Strategy games help children learn from past experiences but also think ahead to consider what might happen as a result of their actions. It’s great learning for life and also makes the games more ‘sticky’ as there’s always the possibility of bettering your score next time! |
| Increasing difficulty levels: | Just as a computer game becomes more difficult as it progresses, so do Busy Things games. This in-built development promotes ongoing learning and motivates pupils to continue. How far can they get? Can they get the furthest? |
| Reaching a goal: | This could be winning the race, helping the character escape or making it to the leader board yourself. Getting closer to achieving a goal is motivating and reaching it, be it real or virtual, gives players a great sense of achievement. |
Examples of gamification within Busy Things
You will find examples of gamification throughout Busy Things. In this blog, we’ve cherrypicked two activities for each key stage to give you an idea of what you can expect. Real-time feedback is provided in every instance, but where other elements of gamification are involved, we’ve highlighted these:
Early Years
An example of visualisation and increasing difficulty levels.
Block-a-doodle doo is one of our most popular maths games, where children have to clear the chicken’s path to enable him to travel through.
It’s a great, visual game and gets gradually trickier as you progress. It helps children to think logically about next steps. Especially when there’s the danger of the monster on the motorcycle eating the chicken altogether!
The chicken’s been eaten? What could they do next time to avoid it happening again?
An example of points and leader boards.
Busy Box can be found directly from your set up and rather than being one game is actually a series of quick-fire mini-games, presented as a show.
Pupils can choose to play literacy, numeracy or general games, or a mix of all three.
The scores gained accumulate by school to appear on a weekly leader board.
Key stage 1
An example of a simulation.
Our Eco Worm World game is a simulator, where the happiness and health of the worms are affected by the quality of their environment. You need to keep the water clean and well aerated, repair any damage to the plant that keeps the water fresh and feed and exercise the worms.
If they get poorly, the green cross will make them better. If they get tired, they need some sleep.
It’s a real balancing act and the learnings children gain lead well into wider topics like wellbeing and mental health.
An example of strategy and increasing difficulty levels.
Mudball shootout is a fun introduction to forces, where players are looking to hit the pink men with their muddy missile.
The children have two controls to play with: the launcher which controls where the mudball is released from and the trajectory which controls the direction of travel.
Having launched one mudball, what do you learn? What will you change for next time?
As the game progresses and you gain in experience, the scene increases in complexity. This will involve nets, multiple mudballs etc., and require further decision-making and strategising.
Key stage 2
An example of competition and strategy.
Miner birds is a multi-player game on Busy Things which tests out all things maths. There are variations for subtraction, addition, multiplication, division, times tables, fractions and even algebra, but the basis is the same, players are looking to be the first to gain 20 worms.
It’s not quite as easy as answering the questions correctly though. You will need an element of strategy and luck to win too!
What’s nice is that players can compete on a level playing ground, with questions set at the level that’s right for them. As a result, siblings can compete happily together as can peers of different abilities. If no-one’s there, players can compete against the computer.
An example of reaching a goal.
Bird words is a typing game, where pupils need to save the chicken from the monster by correctly typing the words that appear.
Get it right and the chicken will be given some planks to build his tower higher and eventually escape.
Mistype a word and the monster will take a bite out of the tower, and when he’s low enough grab the chicken.
It’s a fun game which helps children familiarise themselves with the computer keyboard. To make it even trickier, you can opt to compete against the clock.
Benefits of gamification
The benefits of including gaming mechanisms in educational content are numerous, but it is a balancing act. The key is to maintain the educational learning objective of the activity so that the mechanisms support the learning, and are not there for their own sake. Done well, the benefits are clear for all to see. Gamification:
- Increases engagement and motivation so children stay on-task longer. Some do not even realise that they are learning, considering what they are doing to be more like play.
- Makes the learning experience more memorable and more positive, which makes it something worth repeating.
- Reduces the fear of failure, so that making mistakes becomes part of the learning process rather than as something negative.
- Helps develop confidence in decision making and gives children a sense of ownership and control over what they are doing.
- Provides instant feedback, so children can learn immediately from their mistakes, and put the revised understanding to the test instantly.
- Enhances knowledge retention.
Conclusion
We hope this blog has helped you understand how Busy Things has embraced gamification to deliver engaging, inspiring educational content that meets the demands of the classroom today.
We’d love you to try the games we’ve included in this blog, as well as some of our more traditional writing and project-based activities.
To do this, we’ve made the activities above, with the exception of Busy Box, free to play. To play Busy Box and look around the rest of the resources, please take our 28-day free trial. This will enable you to see all the activities, worksheets and tools we provide, and allow you to see the broad and balanced range of resources we offer our teachers.
Any questions? Don’t hesitate to call us on +44 (0)1332 364963 or email us on enquiries@busythings.co.uk.