Most educational institutions transform conventional and digital classrooms by adopting gamification as an educational approach. They keep students engaged and motivated by including many elements of gamification in both regular activities and the classroom environment. The new-age online learning platforms and learning management systems (LMS) come with built-in features that facilitate gamification in classrooms to make learning fun, interactive, and engaging.
According to the latest statistics on growth of gamification,
“Nearly 80% of learners said they would be more productive if their learning or job was more game-like. Likewise, 97% of teachers use digital games that were created specifically for educational use, and 18% use games for education on a daily basis.”
As an educator, you must gamify your classroom to leverage a slew of benefits – increase the level of student engagement, deliver age-appropriate content, and facilitate the cognitive development of students. It is important to know that a single gamification idea may not appeal to every student. You must experiment with several ideas for gamification in the classroom to keep the learners productive and motivated.
10 Creative Ideas to Gamify Your Classroom and Improve Student Engagement
Student Involvement
It is important to focus on making classroom gamification a collaborative effort by involving students in the process. When students act as co-designers, you can easily evaluate the pros and cons of individual ideas for gamification. You can also fine-tune the process regularly based on the feedback and suggestions shared by students. The sense of ownership will encourage students to create a learning environment that is both engaging and interactive.
Receive and Provide Feedback Instantly
The digital games keep players engaged and excited by providing feedback instantly. While gamifying your classroom, you need to ensure that each student can receive and share feedback instantly. The instant feedback will make the student aware of their performance and preparedness in real-time. It can be challenging to share feedback instantly with many students due to constraints related to time. That is why; you must divide the students into multiple learning groups. The easy-to-manage learning groups will make it easier for you to provide instant feedback to multiple students as a group.
Allow Students to Choose
In this digital age, students want to play games in their own way. Digital games that allow them to choose from many options are popular among the kids. While implementing gamification in the classroom, each student can choose from a slew of options. For instance, you can allow the students to acquire knowledge by choosing from multiple learning paths. Likewise, you can assess the performance of students in a variety of ways – quizzes, presentations, and assessments. The choices will make students engage in the process of learning and keeps them motivated by creating a sense of ownership.
Divide the Learning Goal into Levels
Your classroom gamification strategy must focus on dividing a learning goal into multiple levels. The multiple levels will make the student feel like playing a digital game while studying topics sequentially. The student can access the next level or learn complex topics only after passing the initial stage. While dividing the learning goal, you must organize the topics sequentially based on pre-requisites and complexity. For instance, the student must learn single-digit addition in the first level before learning double-digit addition in the next level. Also, she must learn to be proficient in single-digit addition before learning double-digit addition.
Make Progress and Results Transparent
The digital games enable students to know their status or progress on demand. While gamifying your classroom, designing dynamic progress bars instead of giving marks or grades is important. Every time a student completes an assignment or clears a test, they will get certain points in the progress bar. The students can check the progress bar to measure their achievements and estimate the distance that still needs to be covered to achieve the preset goals. The students will feel motivated and confident by accessing the progress bar from time to time. However, weak students need to motivate by providing on-time assistance and guidance.
Allow Students to Try Again and Again
Digital games allow players to try repeatedly to reach the next level. The chances or opportunities motivate players to complete the current level. While implementing gamification in the classroom, the students must be allowed to try an assignment or take a test several times. The chances will also make the students learn from their mistakes and avoid committing the same mistakes. The smarter students can further leverage the opportunities to identify and work on their weaknesses. Hence, student performance can be boosted by giving multiple chances.
Give Tokens on Mastering a Topic
When you divide the learning goals into several levels, the students will learn topics and concepts sequentially and gradually. It is important to focus on motivating the students to complete the current level and reach the next level by appreciating their performance and achievements regularly. While gamifying your classroom, students should be awarded tokens after mastering a specific topic. For instance, you can issue an Addition Master sticker or digital token to students after completing the relevant topic. The students will feel confident and motivated by highlighting their knowledge using tokens.
Keep the Reward System Tangible
The popular digital games use reward systems as a powerful tool to motivate and engage players. In addition to rewarding players, they allow the player to display the rewards to others. Your classroom gamification strategy must keep students motivated by giving rewards in several formats – virtual certificates, merit awards, or displaying names on the leadership boards. However, rewards should not be only awarded only on completing a level. Along with keeping the reward system tangible, rewards should be awarded to appreciate a student’s personal achievements and level of effort.
Encourage Friendly Competition
While gamifying the classroom, competition and challenges should be used as tools to keep students excited and engaged. Your classroom gamification strategy must focus on encouraging students to compete with classmates in a friendly way. For instance, you can encourage friendly competition by asking students to put ideas on a whiteboard, answer quiz questions, and display mathematical skills. The competition will make students feel competitive and motivated. However, you must focus extensively on not feeling any student intimidated while organizing these friendly competitions.
Leverage New Technologies
According to Fortune Business Insights,
“The global gamification market size was USD 6.33 billion in 2019 and is projected to reach USD 37.00 billion by 2027, exhibiting a CAGR of 24.8% during the forecast period.”
The steady growth of the global gamification market creates opportunities for you to gamify your classroom using many online educational games and resources. For instance, you can use free online educational games to make students learn new languages, acquire critical thinking skills, or practice arithmetic. You can always borrow ideas from many sources to implement gamification in the classroom more effectively.
About Mintbook
At Mintbook, we provide you eLearning solutions which have native features to facilitate gamification in the classroom. Our virtual classroom software comes with built-in options to gamify your virtual classroom according to your strategy. Also, the platform can seamlessly integrate with our learning management system and digital library. You can also use multiple customization options to experience innovative ideas for gamification in the classroom regularly.
