Gamified activities are known to increase learners’ intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. The need of the 21st century has evolved and goes beyond the academic curriculum. The educational content should be designed to inspire curiosity and creativity in kids. This will happen when the kids connect with the learning content, and games are an ideal bridge.
What is Gamified Learning?
The gamification of educational technology is a noteworthy enhancement to learning. Gamified learning is defined as the incorporation of game elements in an educational context. The game elements can include quizzes, points, leaderboards, badges, or digital rewards.
Games are fun. Kids and young adults enjoy the thrill of quests and rewards. For small kids, games enhance social and psychological development. Video and online games are the next evolution of physical games.
In gamified education, the aim is to engage young learners through educational-based game elements. This is so that they develop an enhanced interest in the educational content. The education metaverse is a great platform to implement such tools and techniques to improve learning outcomes.
The beauty lies in a well-coordinated strategic plan that matches game elements to the course objective. For example, if the focus is on peer-to-peer bonding, then teachers can award badges when students assist each other in completing a project.
Some of the significant benefits include:
- Better Engagement with Educational Content
- Better Connection with Peers
- Enhanced Problem Solving Skills
- Positive and Playful Learning Environment
Key components of Gamified Learning Experience
Playful learning implies using active and meaningful play activities to boost learning and enhance social connections. The Centre for Universal Education at Brookings has identified some key principles for what constitutes gamified learning. These are
Educational games should make students active participants and stimulate them mentally and physically.
- The purpose of educational games is to engage students and not distract them. The game design should be curated to involve and immerse the student in the educational storyline.
- Children should be able to connect to the game. It should be relevant and meaningful. The game content should not put them in unfamiliar territory.
- The social connection of deployed games should be high. Games should foster collaboration and teamwork.
- The gamified experience should allow scope for children to test out iterative hypotheses to solve a given problem.
- Most of all, the gaming environment should focus on offering a positive and joyful experience while imparting essential lessons.
How does the Metaverse Promote Gamified Learning
The Metaverse is well on its way to becoming the most exciting technology and a near-future version of the internet. It will enable humans to seamlessly cross between the physical and digital worlds to learn, work or meet up. It heralds exciting promises for the education sector. The metaverse allows students to have fun and design their own learning experiences. They can plan their learning goals, map their progress, and compare it with the group study goals.
To explain the power of the immersive experience it offers, one needs to believe that one is actually walking on the moon!! Or imagine a time line appearing and students picking any era of their choice to enter and witness it.
The metaverse will use immersive technologies like AR and VR to offer experiential learning. In the metaverse, students can put themselves in another person’s shoes to understand situations and contexts.
For example, students can empathize better with the climate crisis if they experience it first-hand. Metaverse games are engaging and immersive. Students can be taken through a game based on environmental issues. This can make them more aware about the real world situation. They can also be digitally rewarded for their actions like removing plastic from the oceans.
Another way the metaverse can make learning fun is through digital avatars. Students can design their avatars as well as learning environments.
In the metaverse, teachers and mentors can incorporate gamified educational concepts through virtual rewards points and even NFTs. Leaderboards can be used to showcase profiles and badges. Teachers can then focus on the student’s intrinsic motivation to succeed and learn more to achieve more.
Wrapping Up
Gamification is not merely a tool but can work as a teaching methodology that empowers the learner and gives space for independent thinking. Games are effective learning tools, allowing students to explore, play, and create. Children can learn without seeing it as a monotonous task. Many studies point out the effectiveness of learning when delivered in an enjoyable manner. Gamified learning is the future, and the metaverse is a natural enabler of it.
The education metaverse can easily gamify learning. The interactive, immersive, and virtual collaborations fostered by the metaverse can present educational content as games.
Institutional heads and educators can benefit from a metaverse investment guide to leverage the metaverse opportunity. For more details on it, connect with Edverse. Edverse is a pioneer in the space of the educational metaverse and aims to revisualize education and make it more relevant to the times.
