What’s the Difference Between Gamification and Game-Based Learning?
An increasing number of educators are using gamification and game-based learning to teach youth new knowledge and skills. Here’s why.
Have you ever heard the words gamification or game-based learning and wondered what the difference is between the two? Or have you seen the increasing attention being given to game-based learning and wondered if it is supported by sound science, or whether it’s an overhyped fad? Well, I can share a little bit more information about that.
Here at foundry10, like an increasing number of learning organizations, we collect and conduct research about how youth learn while playing all different types of games. We also highlight what ongoing research is saying about the benefits of game-based learning, and when research shows it is most effective, when it is not, leaving viewers with a few key definitions and a simple framework for thinking about this.
What is Gamification?
Some people apply the term gamification to any game or game-like structure that’s used for learning or in an educational setting. There’s a lot of truth to that, but when we think about the effectiveness of these types of tools, and think specifically about how we define different kinds of interactions with games, researchers and teachers typically use that term in a particular way. Researcher Sebastian Deterding defines gamification as “the use of game-like elements in non-game settings.”
For example, maybe you’ve seen a chore app that awards points and rewards for children for completing tasks. That’s an example of gamification. Similarly, other game-like elements that pop up in non-game settings are badges. Gamification is often applied to structures where there are game-like elements such as point values, like a classic classroom quiz game, or a structure where people are racing against a clock for productivity or to achieve some sort of ranking.
Even a lot of things we think of as games, such as the classic math learning game Math Blaster, memory flash card games, or one of the many typing games structured in a game-like setting are considered gamification.
The point is, gamification occurs when people take the sorts of things you typically find in games like points and badges and timing and scores, and wrap them around a practical activity that is very much not a game.
What is Game-Based Learning?
On the other hand, game-based learning is a field of practice that involves designing a game to specifically behave more closely to the way things do in the real world. Game-based learning involves thinking about a game as a model of what takes place in the real world, much the same way you might use a model plane to learn something about real planes, or a model skeleton to learn something about human anatomy.
With game-based learning, the model that the game represents will typically have more accurate physics, chemistry, biology, historical behaviors, and things that we see in the real world.
For example, the game Kerbal Space Program accurately models rocketry and physics, the game Civilization to some degree accurately models the factors that cause the growth in evolution of human civilizations, and even the classic history game The Oregon Trail accurately models the types of resource management and decision making required of pioneers on that trail in the 19th century.
What’s the Difference Between Gamification and Game-Based Learning?
Research shows that gamification can indeed have impacts on learner motivation when engaging in a task, but in many other ways the benefits of gamification are very limited. On the other hand, there’s a growing field of research showing that when learners engage with game-based learning, when they actually play through games that represent models of those things in the real world, they come away with an increased understanding and an improved mental model of the content represented in the game.
In this respect, game-based learning has wider applications for deeper learning than gamification when incorporated into the classroom.
Further Reading
Learn more about foundry10 Games and Learning research and explore research on gamification and game-based learning below.
Gamification
- The Gamification of Learning: a Meta-analysis | Educational Psychology Review
- The Impact of Gamification in Educational Settings on Student Learning Outcomes: A Meta-Analysis, Educational Technology Research and Development, 2020-Aug
- Gamification and learning performance: A systematic review of the literature
- The role of gamified learning strategies in student’s motivation in high school and higher education: A systematic review — PMC
Game-Based Learning
- Foundations of Game-Based Learning
- Applying game-based learning in primary education: a systematic review of journal publications from 2010 to 2020
- A systematic literature review of games-based learning empirical evidence in primary education — ScienceDirect
- A systematic review of mobile game-based learning in STEM education | Educational technology research and development
