Guide to Gamifying Your Classroom

When I first came across the term ‘gamification’, Halo came to my mind. For those who are not so familiar with the Halo series, it is a video game based on science fiction. But then Halo dissolved as quickly as it had materialized, as soon as the context of classroom associated with ‘gamification’registered in my brain.

I did a quick research. The results that came up overwhelmed me.

Games are something that kids can relate to with a sparkle in their eyes and a gleeful expression on their faces. And education is a fundamental necessity. Imagine combining the two together. Wouldn’t that be quite something?

Before we move on to the details, let me first introduce you to the concept of gamification.

What is Gamification?

Gamification is the employment of game-based techniques in a non-game context. If you think about it, you will realize that we have all been a part of it at some point of time or the other. I’ll give you an example.

If you are a professional, then it is possible that you have a profile on LinkedIn. Have you noticed the LinkedIn profile completeness bar? For every completed field regarding your information, the completion bar shoots up a little. This is just like a game that you are playing to achieve a 100% on the completion bar and in this process, you are providing the necessary information without feeling a little bit flustered about all the text that you have to type in.

Today, education is one of the key gamification use cases. And the idea behind gamification in education is to make education a more wholesome and engaging journey, which is often achieved by leveraging gamified eLearning tools.

The idea behind gamification is to make education a more wholesome and interesting journey.

Gamification in Education

The high school dropout rate has witnessed a steady climb over the years. A lack of motivation and the flaws in the education system could be a part of the reason for this. In addition, there has been an increased focus on the grades instead of building the fundamental skills. This creates a disparity in the whole system of learning, so much so that, in many cases, there exists a blinding contrast between the grades and the skills acquired.

Apart from that, for a student in the traditional classroom, it is quite a struggle to find enough motivation to complete homework and assignments, study for the next class and prepare for an exam, especially when the grades do not measure up to the efforts put in. This is where frustration sets in. Students get stressed and depressed in the constant race to be the best and tend to lose focus from reality.

Games form an incredible motivator for students. So why can’t learning be just like playing a game with rewards for every completed quest and an option to learn from the mistakes, safely? In fact, this is what gamification of education is all about.

Gamification taps into the varied learning potentials of students, draws on their strengths and engages them as rapt learners.

Now the question is, how to achieve this in your classroom? Let’s find out.

Steps to Gamify Your Classroom

Gamification of the classroom is a wide concept. There are a number of ways to make it work for you. We have presented a few ideas for you to start with. You can modify them according to your class to make learning more effective.

1.  Gamify the Syllabus

Design the syllabus as milestones in a game. The homework can be quests. Develop long and short-term goals with your class and locate the challenges. Where there are challenges, there can be brownie points for overcoming them successfully. Math could become a game of codes, which when cracked leads to the island of treats. You can do the same with projects and other assignments.

Once you accomplish this, the tedious syllabus would quickly turn into progress-strategies in a game. Isn’t that cool? This technique camouflages the pressure of syllabus completion, homework etc. with a game-like experience. It cannot get any better than this.

     2.  Award Reward Points for Every Quest Completed Successfully

Remember the time when three smiley faces on the paper meant the answers were perfect and the smile that used to spread on the receiver’s face could light up the entire room? The technique worked wonders – in fact, it still does. So you can make the most of it while you are gamifying your classroom.

Rewards on completion of the tasks encourage perseverance. They also keep track of progress. You can add a touch of creativity to it by including badges and ‘experience points’ to liven up the accomplishments. Some points can be made redeemable. You can translate these scores to grades. We have one suggestion – be generous, please.

A couple of months back I came across a TED talk by the late educator, Rita Pierson where she was talking about building relationships with students and how the slightest of faith in them works wonders towards helping them achieve great heights.

She gave a quiz of 20 questions in class one day and one student missed 18. She put a +2 on his paper and a big smiley face. Later on, he came up to her and asked her, “Ms. Pierson, is this an F?” She said, “Yes”. He then asked, “Then why’d you put a smiley face?” To this, she replied, “Because you’re on a roll. You got two right. You didn’t miss them all. And when we review this, won’t you do better?” And he said, “Yes, ma’am, I can do better.”

Do you see what happened here? A little bit of encouragement and a slice of hope can do powerful things: “-18 sucks the life out of you, +2 says, ‘I ain’t all bad’.”

3.  Build Teams

Games, when played in teams, encourage collaborative learning. It becomes all the more effective when you bring in some diversity into the team. A little bit of competition is healthy. It creates an atmosphere conducive to learning. You can transform the syllabus into tournaments. This will incentivize groups to work towards a common goal: learning the material, performing well and emerging successful in the competition.

Here’s what you can do:

• Form teams that include students of mixed abilities.
• Instill a sense of unity in them.
• There are going to be struggles. Your job is to ease out the difficulties and help them find the right way.

Once you build teams, the following happens:

• It helps build trust among fellow students
• Working as a team encourages participation, which in turn engages students and adds to their interest in learning.
• A team working through a learning game initiates an exchange of valuable ideas to build upon. When constructive ideas flow, the outcomes will blow your mind.
• As teams, students build listening skills as they hear out the ideas of every participant and decide on the ones that are effective.

Additionally, teams work as amazing equalizers among students. Introverts get a platform to showcase their ideas without having to don the limelight.

Recommended Read: Collaborative Learning and its Advantages

4.  Utilize the Gaming Lingo

Since you have decided to bring gaming into your classroom, you might as well do it right. Nothing completes the gaming experience than the gaming lingo. You must include those to build a complete gaming atmosphere in your class. Some common terms are as follows:

• Levels
• Challenges
• Players
• Permission to abort
• Badges
• Collectibles

There are many more terms to gaming that we know not of. You can find some of these here. Once you become well-versed with the gaming jargon, it will make the lessons even more interesting by incorporating a real gaming atmosphere in the classroom.

Tracking the progress is important. You must monitor the quests completed and provide your students with feedback. This will give them a better idea about where they stand and what they need to achieve. That is how they will improve. In addition, you must also be open to feedback from your students in enhancing the experience to accommodate an optimized learning experience.

What do you think about gamifying your classroom? Do you have any other ideas to add to this list? Share those with us in the comments section below. We would love to hear from you.