Gamifying education

Turn the internet on, and notifications pop up on the screen like bursting confetti. In a split second, we find ourselves trying to make multiple decisions at once, starting from choosing which notification to respond to first, spanning across micro choices such as which emoji works best for the intended effect. In this day and age where our attention wanes, the second it goes ‘online’, e-learning systems are struggling to get past their inefficiencies.

Online courses are self-paced, lonely and lack accountability. It comes as no surprise that their completion rates are a letdown. The sit back and listen approach to the monotony of classes and lectures held online does not work. Students make “bad-network” excuses for inattentiveness and teachers struggle to get and hold attention through the lessons. In addition to the struggle to focus that comes with the very internet era, the nature of these education systems don’t make the cut for efficient learning.

This is where a new approach to education is called for and in this context, gamification has massive potential to transform the online learning landscape.

Inherently, gamification involves adding a feedback loop to any process, that makes the process fun. This feedback loop comes with rewards and penalties, with accolades and stages through which one may level up and reflect their progress. These reward and penalty loops give the mind reason and a system to engage with, while enjoying the process. Dopamine levels shoot up, the moment a ‘badge’ or ‘award’ is earned for progress and keeps us coming back for more. Confidence builds as we see that our team’s scores are on par with that of other leading teams, and we push for the finish lines. Reward mechanisms have seemed to work the most for motivating students in the past. Currently, the process is slowly adapting to a more holistic approach where rewards coupled with community-based learning and community-based incentives are working well. Team-based learning with a social element at its core is crucial for the future of education.

Having said that, there are a few challenges that pop up while gamifying education. One of the most important being that most companies revolve their entire teaching angle on gamification. Remember, gamification is just a tool, a means to get people to study and learn in a fun way. Gamification is not a solution but a tool and many companies forget that while building products thus limiting the learning outcome for that student. Educators in today’s world need to understand that simply adding a gamification element to a course or subject might not meet the educational goals that a student needs to complete. Gamification is a way to make learning interesting and not make it the learning by itself. Another challenge is that gamification might not always be effective for a student. Each student operates in a different way. While some might prefer the gamified approach, others might want a more research-based approach to learning, thus rendering the gamification pointless. It is very important for educators to fit gamification as an add on to learning and not substitute it for learning itself.

With the recent announcement of the Covid 19 vaccine, we can assume that things would soon go back to normal with schools and colleges reopening. Few states in India have already announced that schools would reopen soon and a few states are currently planning on reopening schools and colleges. It would be fascinating to see whether colleges and schools start adopting new teaching mechanisms in a post covid world. With online education booming during the Covid Era, students have found a new comfort in learning online. It would be interesting to see if students prefer offline learning or would they have more affinity towards e-learning. Moreover, we have seen the emergence of startups in India who are replicating the community element of an offline university and merging it with online education and gamification.

Gamifying Education would thus mean that methods through which we learn, upskill and grow would no longer be tedious or monotonous, on the contrary they would be enjoyable and fun. By combining education with gaming, we do ourselves a favour - we give our neural systems reason to stay engaged, keep learning and growing. Online education combined with gamification and community learning is the secret sauce that will revolutionise the EdTech industry.

(The author is co-founder and CFO, of an alternative online education platform)