Gamification Benefits: Part 3 – Visible Learning

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Back in Part 1 of my Gamification Benefits series, I mentioned that one of the alluring aspects of video games is that they offer objectives or tasks and then reward players on completion of those objectives or tasks. For example, a player's task might be to complete a level within a certain amount of time, and the reward for doing so might be an in-game trophy or a star on the level menu. While a few pixels on a screen might not seem like much, some persistent gamers will spend hours trying to complete a difficult objective so they can say "I did that! Look, here's my trophy to prove it!" This goes to show that even the smallest reward can motivate people to put more effort into completing a task than if they were not rewarded. Not everyone has the dedication to put in hours upon hours of effort, but even the less motivated usually take longer to give up if some sort of bonus is involved.

Now, what does any of this have to do with learning? Well, as I discussed earlier, motivation is lacking in many secondary schools. Students just aren't interested in and engaged by their classes, and for many, homework is an object of dread and hatred. But what if they were given incentives? What if they earned a video game-style achievement for doing all their homework for a month or asking, say, ten good questions in class over a certain period of time? What if, instead of getting a fraction and a letter grade on a test, students earned a number of points proportional to how many answers they got correct and then were able to "level up" upon reaching a certain number of points?

What I am describing is a class leaderboard and achievement system. It's a fairly recently-developed idea that has already shown success in several classrooms. A class that uses a leaderboard and achievement system becomes very similar to a video game. At the beginning of the year or course, students create a username to be displayed on the class leaderboard. As the students complete homework, assessments, and presentations, they receive points based on how well they perform. Upon reaching a predetermined number of points, students "level up" like in a video game. At any point throughout the year, students can check their position on the leaderboard and see how they are doing in comparison to their classmates. Most people naturally like to compete, so the majority of the students will want to reach that coveted #1 spot on the leaderboard.

What about those students who are not as academically driven or are not as confident in their academic abilities? That's where the achievement system comes in. In a class achievement system, students are awarded electronic achievement badges for completing objectives provided by the teacher. These objectives can be anything, from getting a perfect score on homework to having perfect attendance to completing an extra credit project. A balance of academic and non-academic achievements will engage students of multiple types, not just the academically-driven ones. To combine this with the leaderboard concept and sweeten the deal for students, each achievement can be worth a relatively small number of points that go toward a student's leaderboard progress.

These two systems, when combined, go a long way toward making students' learning visible; they can see that their experience is increasing, both on the leaderboard and in their learning of class material. They also get a concrete reward for doing well, instead of just seeing a letter that measures their degree of success. The concept of earning points in particular can completely change a students' view of their performance: instead of starting with 100% at the beginning of the class and then having their grade decrease from there, students start at zero and work their way up to a goal from there. They get a concrete affirmation that their experience is increasing, both on the leaderboard and in their learning.

I'll be getting into more detail about specific ways to gamify your class, including class leaderboard and achievement systems, in my upcoming Pros and Cons series, so be sure to check it out when it's posted!

Until next time!