Gamification all set to boost online education

Why not get educated online as if you are playing a hugely entertaining game? That’s exactly how online education in India will take shape in the next four years, ‘gamification’ being the catchword. Indicated clearly in a recent survey by Google, the process will dramatically change the way students are taught, online and offline.

Simply put, gamification is the practice of applying game mechanics of fun, collaboration, competition and rewards in non-game situations. The global market for gamification in education is estimated to reach
$ 10 billion by 2020.

In India, as a Google official recently put it, gamification has already started to gain popularity among education service providers. For instance, a leading player in the primary and secondary supplemental education space has launched an application that combines games, simulations and videos to train children.

So, how will gamification work in online tuitions for primary, secondary classes? The Google-KPMG study talks about simulation to explain concepts, quizzes, peer comparison and interactive lab experiments.

For test preparation, the process will take the gaming route for incentive-based learning with concepts such as leader board, badges, discounts and prizes based on overall performance. In higher education, gamification will show up as a module representing minimum pass percentage to unlock the next module.

To boost engagement with students of language and casual learning, gaming concepts will be introduced to unlock new features at every level. Just like in certain highly engaging games, elite groups are formed based on performance. Gamification is also expected to help bridge the gap between online courses and offline classrooms. More offline courses will diversify into online supplements since the latter provides a low-cost alternative. The Google-KPMG study had found that the cost of offline education in India had increased by a whopping 175% from 2008 to 2014.

Online skill enhancement courses are currently around 53% cheaper than offline alternatives. The shift to online and online-offline blended education is also getting a big boost thanks to the exponential growth of internet penetration in India. Studies have concluded that there will be nearly 735 million internet users by 2021.