Gamification 101: An Exploration of a Gamified Instructional Approach

Introduction

Higher education is currently experiencing copious amounts of scrutiny regarding tuition costs, universal accessibility, and relevance (Chamorro-Premuzic & Frankiewicz, 2019; Ivancheva, 2020; Moore & Morton, 2017). These critiques have prompted higher education administrators and faculty to reexamine many of their current practices to lessen and, in some instances, alleviate such criticisms. As university administrators focus on solutions for the systemic issues associated with higher education, faculty have started to address some of the public’s concerns in a more micro way. More specifically, many faculty have begun to reexamine their pedagogical approach to instruction precipitated by decreased student engagement and overall satisfaction with course content and mode of instruction (Aiken et al., 2016; Brint & Cantwell, 2014; Kumar & Khurana, 2012). The impetus of this reexamination is a result of realizing that the lecture format is no longer sufficient for capturing student interests within a classroom setting. As a result, more and more faculty have started to investigate alternative pedagogies and one such pedagogical method is gamification of learning which uses commonly implemented game design elements in non-game settings to enhance assignments and increase student engagement by providing assignment choice and self-directed learning pathways (Deterding et al., 2011; Sampayo-Vargas, et al., 2013; Simões et al., 2013).

Often mistaken for gamification, educational games have been a part of the k-12 classroom routine for years, but they have been typically used for the exclusive purpose of teaching a specific academic skill such as grammar (Tuan & Doan, 2010; Yolageldili & Arikan, 2011) or problem-solving. This isolated and limited application of games resulted in them being used as a tool to supplement class instruction or assess content knowledge rather than being a pedagogy. However, due to the popularity of video game playing by student aged individuals over the last several decades, a new trend emerged. A select group of educators began recognizing the power and allure of video game playing on many young adult learners and started to explore ways of incorporating gamified or gamification elements commonly used in video games into their classroom instruction and course design (Dominguez et al., 2013). What started in the K-12 classroom as educational games has evolved into gamification of learning and has transitioned to university-level courses (Hill & Brunvand, 2017) across a variety of academic disciplines.

Gamification is not exclusive to the field of education, as evidenced by other professions that have embraced gamified elements by embedding them into their work culture. For example, over the last decade, gamification has made its way into various facets of both corporate and private industries at an increasing rate (Humari, 2017). This growth can be attributed to the many positive effects of gamification, which include user motivation, productivity, and the development of valued technology skills (Brunvand & Hill, 2018; Hamari, Koivisto, & Sarsa., 2014). By adopting a gamified approach to teaching, select higher education faculty across the country are redesigning their courses. Some are even conducting research studies that examine the effects of gamification. Results indicate gamification does have a positive impact on assignment choice and student engagement (Bencsik, Mezeiova, and Samu, 2021; Goksun & Gursoy, 2019; Tsay, Kofinas, & Luo, 2018). This empirical evidence provides faculty with novel options on how courses can be taught and designed through gamification.