How to use gamification as an effective learning tool
Aligning the game designers toolbox with the desired outcomes of an immersive learning experience
“Their mission had been intense, but finally success appeared to be in sight. All that stood in front of them was the final challenge. But time was running out and this task appeared impenetrable. During the preceding challenges the team had learned a lot about their mission, as well as themselves. Maybe it was time to take a step back and discuss how to put what they’d learned as a team into practice …”
What the team members didn’t realise was that the ability to pause and take that step back, at this specific point in their mission, was no accident. The opportunity to use and further embed their learning in this way had been specifically designed by the creator of this experience. But how had this moment been foreseen and how can we design immersive experiences that deliver the learning outcomes we require?
This article and the series of posts that follow it will shine a light on the effective use of gamification in immersive learning. We’ll explore the research and theoretical concepts that underpin the learning approaches as well as providing illustrations of their real-world application.
def. immersive learning — the use of immersive techniques, including storytelling, theatrical performance, gamification, technology and puzzles to develop and exercise skills and behaviours.
We’ll start by examining the wide range of gaming features and concepts available to us when we use gamification in a learning experience. We’ll also explore whether these features manifest as design decisions that we need to make.
In our scenario above the team’s experience had been designed so that the gamification aligned itself to effective learning practices. In so doing the creator enabled the learners to realise the intended outcomes rather than being deflected by behaviours designed purely to optimise their performance in the “game”. However, that design process relied on a sound understanding of the science of successful learning in order to achieve its goals.
The impact of gamification on learning is often misunderstood by designers. In many cases “gamification” is seen as simply adding leaderboards and badges to existing activities and experiences without understanding how they will influence the learning outcomes that are sought.
To explore this subject let’s pose ourselves some questions. Can gamification support effective learning? Is so how can it be used in a constructive way?
To understand the answers we’ll break the subject down, starting with some familiar features and concepts from the many types of game that exist.
In the image above we have listed sixteen features seen in games that could potentially be used to gamify an immersive learning experience. But is there a clear mapping between the gaming and the learning domains that make these appropriate to use? Let’s look at a few examples to find out.
High Scores (and Leaderboards)
This is probably the most commonly observed concept in gamified learning. In it we give our player a score that corresponds to the level of achievement they have obtained. This is something we’ve been doing for a long time in learning, think of the marks and grades we received in our own experiences of formal education.
In gamification this concept can be extended further, with individual scores being ranked and published in leaderboards. This is used as a mechanism to encourage learners to better their score and ostensibly to improve their learning. However, competitive elements such as this are fraught with hidden complexity and are often poorly implemented in learning scenarios.
Whether to use high scores in our learning experience is clearly an important decision that will have a strong effect on learner behaviours and must be taken early in our design process.
Difficulty Levels
Many games we play will give us the option to vary the difficulty level. This can make our experience more challenging and thereby more interesting, giving increased playability and longevity to the game. It is also a concept we are familiar with in life, with us naturally being able to sense when learning is easy or difficult for us.
Therefore, being able to select the level of difficulty maps directly to the design of learning experiences. Although, the role difficulty plays in realising the learning outcomes may not immediately be obvious to us and is in some cases counterintuitive.
The decision on the difficulty of an experience is therefore another important decision we must make.
End of Level Bosses
Some of the earliest video games introduced us to the concept of the end of level “boss”. This is where we typically have to defeat a stronger or more challenging character in order to successfully complete a level. In a learning context this is very much akin to the “end of lesson” challenge or test we need to complete that consolidates our learning.
There are good reasons these checkpoints or gateways exist in many forms of learning and as a result there is another natural mapping between game concept and learning theory.
This ability to validate our own learning as we progress is important and shows how this game concept can work for us. We therefore have the option to to incorporate this feature into our design.
Achievements (aka Badges)
The concept of earning a badge or award as a result of completing a specific task should also be familiar to us. In both games and life we’re used to seeing people recognised for their achievements. This is no different to learning contexts, with the concept of the “gold star” for good work being introduced to many of us at an early age.
Achievements like this are primarily used as both recognition and motivation for the gamer and learner. It is therefore no surprise to see it used in both scenarios. It is also one of most commonly observed components of gamified learning, albeit often used in contexts where its impact on the learning is misunderstood.
Recognising achievements in learning is something we should always seek to do, but the emphasis placed on this and how it is done are important design decisions for us to make.
So from just these four game features we hope it is clear that there are compelling reasons to understand them in more detail. There are clear advantages to using these aspects of gamification in learning contexts, and more specifically in immersive learning. However, this comes with a warning that we must heed before including any of them in our design.
Each one of these gamification concepts has direct and indirect implications for the achievement of learning outcomes it is intended to help realise. These can be both positive and negative for the individual learner and as a result we need to understand them in more detail before we attempt to implement them ourselves.
This requires us to look at each in more detail to understand the learning theory and supporting research that underpins them. However, before we do that we should look at the fundamental reasoning behind their use in modern gaming and how this might differ from their use in learning scenarios.
What do we mean by this?
When we examine the reasons why the concepts discussed here are used in gaming, they are typically to enhance the player’s experience of the game. This can be to make the gaming experience more fun and more varied for the player and it can also be to keep them playing for longer.
This is especially true in modern videogames, where monetisation via adverts or paid-for add-ons, has made continued engagement with the game critical for the studios who rely on their associated revenue streams. As a result, design decisions for the game are made with these in mind and not solely the outcome where the player completes the game.
In a learning context we do not want our learners to be engaged with their task indefinitely. Instead, we have a clear goal we wish them to achieve in a finite timescale. As a result, many aspects of game design that are implemented for long term player engagement go directly against the learner outcomes we are seeking.
As immersive learning designers understanding this is one of the keys to successful design. We must ensure that our use of gamification incentivises the learning outcomes we are actively seeking for our players.
So to summarise our learning so far …
Gamification is a powerful tool that is available to the creator of immersive learning experiences of all types. However, we need to understand the impact of these concepts on the learning and ensure we design with this in mind.
We have established that a wide variety of game concepts can be used in immersive learning scenarios. If we as creators and designers want to use them effectively then we need to understand them in more detail so we can make informed decisions on when and when not to use them.
Each one of these has scientific study and learning theories to help us understand its effectiveness, but that as they say is another story …
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Martyn is a founder of chronyko who have over 15 years experience building and running escape games and many other types of immersive training and skills development experiences. He has seen first-hand how immersive learning can have a measurable impact. He is a passionate believer in how we can all learn from these experiences to better support lifelong learning for everyone.
