Personalization and Individualization of Education through Gamification

Nowadays, it is incredibly demanding for a teacher to personalize their classes to fit every student’s needs. Every pupil has a different learning style, sources of motivation, and learning problems or disabilities that should be considered during the teaching process. This blog focuses on gamification of the learning process and how it can provide various solutions for individualizing and personalizing education.

Gamification can be broadly defined as a process of applying “game design elements in non-game contexts” (Deterding et al., 2011). This phenomenon tracks back to 2010 when it entered the mainstream vocabulary and quickly became quite a trend (Dichev & Dicheva, 2017). Since then, it has been widely used in almost every discipline — marketing, fitness, business, and education is no excuse. But what makes gamification so popular? And how can it be used in education?

Games are generally considered to be fun. Their interactive element engages with the constant need for inputs. On top of that, games are also powerful learning tools by design. They allow people to repeat model situations in a safe environment until they either come to the desired solution or master a skill needed to succeed. They also provide immediate feedback. According to Erickson et al., this feature allows the students to evaluate their learning and see their progress more effectively. (Erickson et al., 2020). Furthermore, games include numerous reward mechanisms, such as achievements, point systems, or badges, that trigger dopamine release in our brain upon receiving, thus bolstering motivation (Koepp et al., 1998). Considering everything mentioned above, game mechanisms have the unique ability to keep the player constantly motivated while also willingly learning and adapting to new things while playing and having fun.

On the contrary, current teaching methods are often considered outdated and boring. When game elements and game mechanics are applied at school, it “…can motivate students to engage in the classroom, give teachers better tools to guide and reward students, and get students to bring their full selves to the pursuit of learning” (Lee & Hammer, 2011). The implementation process varies greatly.

On a single-class level, an online tool Kahoot! can be used. It uses popular quiz-game methods to interactively test students. The quizzes can contain pictures, polls, or puzzles and can be played live or at an individual pace at home, taking different learning styles into account. The platform also provides both the students and teachers with immediate feedback — students are awarded points for correct answers, and can later see their position on a leaderboard, and the teachers can see the success rate of the students at the end. These statistics provide the teachers with data that can be used to improve otherwise a very rigid experience such as testing.

On the subject level, a higher degree of individualization is possible. The lecturers in D-INFK in Switzerland have been using individualized dashboards for students to track their progress and a reward system consisting of bonus learning materials for active students. In that way, they can better tailor the education process for student groups with diverse levels of knowledge (Fässler et al., 2018).

On a classroom level, ClassCraft, an online classroom gamification platform, uses game elements such as personalized avatars, experience points, and leveling up to motivate students. It provides the teachers with tools to reward students for good behavior and punish them for undesired behavior with real-world consequences. Furthermore, ClassCraft has an option to create personalized learning adventure quests for the students. The quests are highly interactive and take different learning styles into account.

Gamification has the potential to move education closer towards the nowadays very desired more personalized and individualized approach. However, many researchers still argue, that there is not enough data and research to support these hypotheses (Dichev & Dicheva, 2017) and overall that gamification should be handled with caution (Lee & Hammer, 2011). On the other hand, considering that current e-learning gamified platforms are designed to be heavily data-driven (thus providing more solid facts and figures), there is a great chance that we will see more used cases of gamification in education in the near future.

References:

1. Dichev, C., & Dicheva, D. (2017). Gamifying education: What is known, what is believed and what remains uncertain: A critical review. International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, 14(9). https://doi.org/10.1186/s41239-017-0042-5
2. Deterding, S., Dixon, D., Khaled, R., & Nacke, L. (2011). From Game Design Elements to Gamefulness: Defining Gamification. Pages 9–15. https://doi.org/10.1145/2181037.2181040
3. Erickson, A., Lundell, J., Michela, E., & Pfleger, I. (2018). Gamification. In R. Kimmons, The Students’ Guide to Learning Design and Research. EdTech Books. https://edtechbooks.org/studentguide/gamification
4. Fässler, L. E., Dahinden, M., Sichau, D., & Probst, O. (2018). Individualize learning through gamification and real-time dashboards. Special issue: ETH Learning and Teaching Fair 2018 proceedings, 1(1).
5. Koepp, M., Gunn, R., Lawrence, A. et al. (1998). Evidence for striatal dopamine release during a video game. Nature, 393, 266–268. https://doi.org/10.1038/30498
6. Lee, J. J., & Hammer, J. (2011). Gamification in Education: What, How, Why Bother? Academic Exchange Quarterly, 15(2), 1–5. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/258697764_Gamification_in_Education_What_How_Why_Bother