While students’ energy levels naturally decrease as they get older, most learners will have a naturally high energy level. However, when it comes time to do any serious homework or studying, their attention spans will drop. They give in to their more primordial psychological needs, and they become creative with how they avoid working. 

That’s why it is essential to bring an element of fun into your classroom, whether you’re teaching kindergartners or grade 12 students. Gamification is an excellent way to hold your learners’ attention spans and make them actually want to do the activity they were previously dreading. 

Let’s have a look at three of the most critical gamification principles for a gamified learning environment. 

Principle #1 – Rewards

Everyone enjoys positive reinforcement, regardless of how old they are – generally speaking, of course. However, it is a necessity for students. You should not reward them simply for the sake of rewarding them, but having small, consistent positive reinforcements will build up their confidence as they learn. 

This is called a rewarding gamified learning environment. The rewards can be quite simple, like a points system, and you don’t have to limit yourself. You could reward your students with thousands of points for completing one learning activity. 

In conjunction with a point system, it could be a leaderboard, which adds some friendly competition to the classroom. You will need to ensure that your learners are prepared for this reward since some might become more confident in their learning when competing against themselves from the previous day. 

Principle #2 – Progress Levels

You’ll notice that almost every game has a gauge for your progress. As you play, you will need to fill the meter, and when you ‘Level Up,’ you’re going to be rewarded, and, most importantly, you’re going to want to do it again. 

Your lessons are also based on your students’ progress, so combining the two concepts is relatively simple. When your learners know their progress in their learning journey, they feel empowered and will engage more with the material. 

You should consider that, when you are designing these progress levels, you should start with the more straightforward stuff, and gradually make the lessons more difficult. If your students fail first-try at a learning game, they’ll probably lose interest, but if they win at first, they’ll be motivated to stay on that winning streak. 

Principle #3 – Feedback

When we say feedback, we mean of the instant variety. At least, almost instant. Answering three different questions from three different learners is a challenge, and you’ve likely already been faced with that challenge. However, most games let the player know what exactly they did wrong, and when. 

Particularly with your online gamified learning activities, you can incorporate some instant feedback. If your learners know where they went wrong, they will be able to figure out how to improve the next time and avoid making the same mistakes. 

If they aren’t getting feedback, they’ll keep making the same mistakes and develop faulty knowledge or missing pieces. 

Concluding Thoughts

Gamification is becoming more and more popular, and it is proven to be one of the more effective approaches to learning. If you are looking to create a high-quality, gamified learning environment, be sure to follow the principles above.