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EdTech Tutorial: How To Use Kahoot! To Gamify Your Classroom

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Kahoot! is a really fun and motivating app for learning. Games and quizzes which incorporate videos, images and diagrams can be created by the teacher and then students can compete against each other.

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kahoot - create quizes to compete against students own high scores

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kahoot - create quizes to compete against students own high scores

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https://www.techlearning.com/how-to/what-is-kahoot-and-how-does-it-work-for-teachers

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Kahoot! is a digital learning platform that uses quiz-style games to help students learn by making the information engaging in a fun way.

As one of the biggest names in quiz-based learning, it's impressive that Kahoot! still offers a free-to-use platform, which makes it highly accessible for teachers and students alike. It's also a helpful tool for a hybrid class that uses both digital and classroom-based learning.

The cloud-based service will work on most devices via a web browser. That means this is accessible for students in class or at home using laptops, tablets and smartphones.

Since the content is categorized, it makes targeting teaching age or ability-specific content easier for teachers -- helping to reach students at many levels.

This guide will lay out all you need to know about Kahoot! including some helpful tips and tricks, so you can get the most out of the digital tool.

What is Kahoot!?

Kahoot! is a cloud-based quiz platform that is ideal for students and teachers. Since the game-based platform allows you to create new quizzes from scratch, it's possible to be creative and offer bespoke learning options for students.

Kahoot! offers more than 40 million games already created that anyone can access, making it quick and easy to get started. Ideal for hybrid or distance learning, when time and resources are at a premium.

Since Kahoot! is free, it simply requires an account to be created to get started. Students can use Kahoot! across most devices from any location with an internet connection.

(Image credit: Kahoot)

How does Kahoot! work?

At its most basic, Kahoot! offers a question and then optional multiple choice answers. This can be enhanced with rich media such as images and videos to add more interactivity.

While Kahoot! can be used in the classroom, it's ideal for remote learning use. It's possible for teachers to set a quiz and wait to see the scores as students complete it. Or they can carry out a live hosted quiz using video - with third-party apps such as Zoom or Meet - to be there as students are working through the challenges.

While there is a timer-based quiz mode, you can also choose to turn that off. In that instance, it's possible to set more complex tasks that require research time.

Teachers can also review results and run analytics from game reports for formative assessments so as to better judge progress being made in class.

To get started head to getkahoot.com and sign up for a free account. Select "Sign Up," then pick "Teacher" followed by your institution be it "school," "higher education," or "school administration." You are then able to register using your email and a password or with a Google or Microsoft account - ideal if your school already uses Google Classroom or Microsoft Teams.

Once you're signed up, you can get started making your own quiz or using one of the many options already created. Or go for a bit of both, building a new quiz but using the half a million question options already available on Kahoot!
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Who can use Kahoot!?

Since Kahoot! is online-based, it will work across most devices, including laptops, tablets, smartphones, Chromebooks, and desktop machines. It runs online in a browser window as well as in app form, with iOS and Android versions available.

Kahoot! works with Microsoft Teams, allowing teachers to share challenges more easily. In the premium or pro versions, this provides more options, such as the ability to co-create Kahoots with colleagues.

(Image credit: Kahoot)

What are the best Kahoot! features?

Ghost
Ghost is a great feature that allows students to play against their own previous high scores, making a game out of improving performance. This allows for going over a quiz more than once and helping to make sure information sinks in at a deeper level.

Analysis
Improve each student's understanding by using the analytics of results to see which student has struggled and with what, so you can help them in that area.

Copy
Take advantage of the wealth of quizzes created by other educators and already available on Kahoot!, which are available to use freely. You can even combine multiple Kahoots for an ultimate quiz.

Assess students first
A Kahoot quiz can be a great way to check students' knowledge before you start teaching a subject to help avoid making it too simplistic or too complicated for the class.

Use media
Add in videos right from YouTube very easily. This is a great way to have students watch and learn, knowing they're going to be questioned after the video ends. You can also add in images and, in the case of the iOS app, your own drawings.

Kahoot! best tips and tricks

Drive the class
Set a quiz at the start of class and adapt your teaching for that lesson based on how everyone does, letting you tailor it to each student as needed.

Save time with pre-written
Use questions that are already in Kahoot! to build a personalized quiz but without having to take the time to write out every question -- the search works well here.

Play with ghosts
Use Ghost mode to allow students to progress against their previous high-score. A great way to compare the start and end of a lesson to see improvements.

Let students create
Have your students create their own quizzes to share in the class, helping others learn but also showing you how much they know in order to create.

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What is Kahoot! and How Does it Work for Teachers? Tips & Tricks

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Kahoot! is a digital learning platform that uses quiz-style games to help students learn by making the information engaging in a fun way. As one of the biggest names in quiz-based learning, it's impressive that Kahoot! still offers a free-to-use platform, which makes it highly accessible for teachers and students alike.

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Gimkit is a game show for the classroom that requires knowledge, collaboration, and strategy to win. Get started for free!

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Virtual scavenger hunts- tool for gamification

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Virtual scavenger hunts- tool for gamification

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It's time to put the 'active' back into active learning techniques! Take education beyond the classroom by creating hands-on learning and interactive experiences that fit into your timetable.

So, how does it work?

Unleash the creativity!

Craft Goosechase Experiences for lessons, field trips, PD days, open houses, or any school event! Conjure up Missions or use the Experience Template Library for inspiration.

Invite your students or staff to play

Students participate on mobile devices using the Goosechase app. It's easy to use for any age.

Reuse for other classes

Save time by reusing your Goosechase Experiences year after year, with multiple classes, and by easily sharing with other educators.

I'm ready, what's next?

It takes less than 10 minutes to create your first Goosechase Experience. And it's free. Get started today.

How do schools use Goosechase?

Goosechase is more than a scavenger hunt app for teachers. Reimagine lessons, make high-impact learning a breeze, and boost collaboration with student engagement strategies that actually work.

Teach interactive lessons

Keep your students on their feet, quite literally, and encourage active learning every day! Take the learning off-site too, for field trips, outdoor education or virtual classrooms.

Don't worry, your students don't get to have all the fun! Create an inclusive PD day that helps staff members connect with colleagues, set personal goals, and become familiar with the school environment.

Break out of your classroom's boundaries and run school-wide events. Get students excited about a spirit day, involved in a fundraiser supporting a local cause, or get parents involved with interactive open houses.

Goosechase ideas, ready to go!

Choose from an ever-expanding library of Experience templates. Including hundreds created by educators just like you! With a variety of subjects and engaging activities for use in-person or a digital classroom.
Get inspired

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Resources to educate and inspire

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K-12 Educational Tool To Make Learning Fun | Goosechase

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Boost learning by making the curriculum fun and interactive. Engage students of any age with easy to run, reusable experiences that take education beyond the classroom.

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Discover five ways to gamify your classroom to boost engagement, collaboration and learning.

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Everyone loves games.

Albert Einstein himself indicated they are the most elevated form of investigation. He knew games are avenues for something deeper and more meaningful than a childish waste of time. Games promote situated learning, or in other words, learning that occurs in groups of practice during immersive experiences. Oftentimes, playing games are the first method children use to explore higher-order thinking skills associated with creating, evaluating, analyzing, and applying new knowledge.

See also 50 Questions To Help Students Think About What They Think

This article is written in two parts. The first, written by Ryan Schaaf, Assistant Professor of Technology at Notre Dame of Maryland University, introduces gamification in an educational context, its many elements, and some products that emulate gamified practices. The second part, shared by classroom teacher and coach Jack Quinn, provides a firsthand account with perspective from a gamified learning practitioner. Below are our combined insights.

Gamification In An Educational Context

Games have many elements that make them powerful vehicles for human learning. They are commonly structured for players to solve a problem; an essential skill needed for today and tomorrow. Many games promote communication, cooperation, and even competition amongst players. Some of the most immersive games have a rich narrative that spawns creativity and imagination in its players. Finally, depending on how they are designed, games can both teach and test their players. They are incredible packages of teaching, learning, and assessment.

The structural elements of games are also especially suited to serve this current generation of learners. Commonly known as gamification (or gameful design according to Jane McGonigal), this approach of adding game elements such as storytelling, problem-solving, aesthetics, rules, collaboration, competition, reward systems, feedback, and learning through trial and error into non-game situations has already experienced widespread implementation in such fields as marketing, training, and consumerism with rampant success (see http://www.cio.com/article/2900319/gamification/3-enterprise-gamification-success-stories.html) for more details.

In the education realm, gamification is starting to pick up steam. With success stories such as Classcraft, Class Dojo, and Rezzly leading the charge, the potential for gamification to spread to more and more classrooms is a forgone conclusion. There are also pockets of educators in the teaching landscape that are designing their own 'gamefully-designed' learning environments. The next section explores such an environment by sharing Jack's experiences with his own class.

See also 10 Specific Ideas To Gamify Your Classroom
Gamification: From Theory to Practice
I have been involved with gamification for quite some time now. In my 9 years of experience, I've found games are great at resolving several common classroom issues such as: student participation/talk time, student engagement, differentiation, data tracking, and increasing student achievement.

As an ancillary language teacher on Jeju Island in South Korea, gamification helped me increase student talk time by 300%. My 250 students completed over 27,000 'quests,' a.k.a. additional homework assignments they chose to do. My top 10% of participants spent an hour outside of class speaking their target language daily. I was even startled on more than one occasion to arrive early to work and find my students had beaten me there and were eagerly awaiting my arrival so they could begin their daily quests.

As a classroom teacher in the Houston Independent School district serving schools with a 95% free and reduced lunch population, I have taught both 3 rd- grade reading and 5 th- grade science. Each of these is a state-tested subject (that I taught for two years).

On average in my first year of instruction, my students have performed 1.39 times the district norm and 1.82 times the district norm in my second year teaching the subject. Or put another way, traditional methods would take 14 to 18 months to achieve what I can do with games in 10.

I credit much of this success to following the advice of Gabe Zicherman from his Google Tech Talk, Fun is the Future: Mastering Gamification , where he advises game designers to "incentivize whatever you want people to do." (Zicherman, n.d.)

As such I strive to identify the key actions my students need to practice then build games and reward systems around those actions.
12 Examples Of Gamification In The Classroom 1. Giving points for meeting academic objectives
Do students need to be citing details from the text and evidence for conclusions in class discussions? Answers without evidence are now worth 1 point, a correct answer with 1 piece of evidence is worth 2 points, a correct answer + 2 pieces of evidence = 3 points.
2. Giving points for meeting procedural/non-academic objectives
Need to solve a classroom issue such as shortening the time it takes to check homework? All students who have their homework out ready to be checked before being prompted by the teacher now receive 2 points.
3. Creating playful barriers
These sorts of barriers can be academic or behavioral, social or private, creative, or logistical. The point is, one of the primary tenets of gamification is the use of encouragement mechanics through the application of playful barriers-challenges, for example.
4. Creating competition within the classroom
Teacher vs. Class: Students must follow a rule that the teacher sets. Anytime a student follows the rule, the Class gets a point. Anytime a student does not follow a rule, the teacher gets a point. This is particularly great for introducing procedures and behavioral expectations. If the Class wins, use a sustainable reward, such as a 1-minute dance party, extended recess time, or fewer homework problems.
5. Comparing and reflecting on performance in nuanced ways personalized for each student
At the end of some video game levels, the player's performance is broken down into countless details offering enormous data, achievements, and ways to reflect and document their performance and compare with others.

For example, one game might offer statistics of which objectives were met and how, assigned a 'badge' based on that particular performance 'style,' then track every minute detail around that performance you can imagine: total number of jumps, number of enemies alerted, number of different ways a specific problem was solved, etc.
6. Creating a range of unique rewards desirable for a range of unique students
In my class, students get sunglasses to wear until the period is over at 5 points, the privilege to take off their shoes at 10 points, a positive text to their parents at 15, and if the high score is over 15, whoever has it may 'steal' the teacher's chair.
7. Using levels, checkpoints, and other methods of 'progression'
Track points over multiple classes, when students reach an important milestone such as 100 points let them level up, as they progress further give out sustainable milestone rewards, such as eating lunch with the teacher or a free dress pass (if your school wears uniforms).

Competitive students will race to have the highest level in their class and grade which can be leveraged by creating quests that require them to recruit lower-level students in quests that require both to practice target skills.
Other Examples Of Gamification In The Classroom
8. Grading backward- start grading at 0 instead of 100. Every assignment, demonstrated mastery of skill, or desired behavior earns points for them towards 100/letter grade/certificate, or whatever reward you'd like to provide.

9. Creating challenges with more than one way to be solved and emphasize the different approaches.

10. Giving learning badges instead of (or in addition to) points or grades.

11. Letting students set their own goals, then track their own progress in a fun/visual/social/personal way.

12. Helping students assume specific perspectives in learning-as a judge, designer, father, etc. This element of fantasy role-play is a big draw of video games.

13. Incentivizing student 'exploration' of content by offering bonuses, 'easter eggs,' and other benefits of achieving supplementary goals beyond the main lesson objective itself.

14. Create problems or challenges with more than one way to solve

Bonus: Using a scoreboard seating chart

Draw or project a seating chart onto a whiteboard/screen, and then award students points for all activities that you want to incentivize with sustainable rewards/recognitions at different point levels.
Conclusion
Make sure to be creative and respond to student interests. In my class, students don't take practice tests; they battle the evil emperor, Kamico (the maker of popular test prep workbooks used at my school). We don't just test objects for conductivity; we search out the secret object which will turn on the alien spaceship's 'prepared to launch' light.

While students are collecting points, leveling up, and competing against each other, I am collecting data, tracking progress, and tailoring the rules, rewards, and quests to build positive class culture while pushing student achievement. Students become eager to participate in the activities that they need to do to improve, and when students buy-in, they make school a game worth playing.
References & Further Reading McGonigal, J. (2011). Gaming can make a better world. | TED Talk | TED.com [Video file]. Retrieved from: Schaaf, R., & Mohan, N. (2014). Making school a game worth playing: Digital games in the classroom . SAGE Publications. Schell, J. (n.d.) When games invade real life. | TED Talk | TED.com [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/jesse_schell_when_games_invade_real_life Zicherman. (n.d.). Fun is the Future: Mastering Gamification [Video file]. Retrieved from youtube.com 12 Examples Of Gamification In The Classroom

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12 Examples Of Gamification In The Classroom

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Examples of gamification include additive grading, using levels of progress, creating learning badges or trophies to include, and more.

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Gamification and game-based learning are each buzzwords (and buzzphrases) in education. Each can offer your classroom something, but many mistake one for the other.

Can you tell the difference?
The Definition Of Gamification
The definition of gamification is the application of game-like mechanics to non-game entities to encourage a specific behavior.
What It's Not
Gamification is not game-based learning, nor does it require students to play games, with toys, use electronics. It also doesn't necessarily require you to create elaborate systems of experience points, unlocks, and badges (though you could).
When Does It Make Sense To Use?

1. To encourage a specific response or behavior

2. To increase the visibility and perceived importance of otherwise 'minor' and less visible actions

3. To promote competition; to engage students

4. To help students track their own progress

Examples
Leaderboards (e.g., Class Valedictorian), badges, trophies, points systems, XP, 'unlocking' certain content via mastery of preceding content.

As stated, gamification is the process of adding game-like mechanics to non-game entities. Another way to think of gamification is 'encouragement mechanics.' A system of carrot sticks to promote desired behavior.

Letter grades are a kind of gamification. Let's make a game of collecting the most valuable letters. Same with GPA, gold stars, student of month, trophies, certificates. Perform this action in this game according to these rules and get this reward.

In How Gamification Uncovers Nuance In The Learning Process, Terry Heick wrote that "life is itself 'gamified'-loosely, through informal social competition ('keeping up with the Joneses'), to the buzz extreme couponers get comparing receipts, to comparing 401k portfolios, gaining access to 'Platinum' or 'Black' credit cards, or collecting frequent flyer miles. Even sticking a push-pin into the map of every traveling destination you've ever visited is a form of 'gamification.' As are Boy Scout Badges. You're making a game out of something that isn't."
The Definition Of Game-Based Learning
The definition of game-based learning is simply learning through games.
What It's Not
Obsessing over video games, nor does it absolutely require you or students to play the games (though ideally, you would); it also doesn't require video games-that would be video game-based learning. It is simply the use of the inherent design of most games (more on that below) to learn.

Learn what? That depends-could be simply becoming better at the game, but in most educational settings, students will instead learning academic and non-academic content by playing games.
When Should You Use Gamification?
This is likely another post-or entire course-of its own but a few ideas and rules for using gamification in the classroom?

1. To differentiate or personalize instruction

2. To motivate students-whether previously disengaged or already excelling

3. Promote critical and strategic thinking

4. To support both struggling and talented students

5. To clarify learning progress for other stakeholders-parents, for example

6. To improve the potential of existing learning models like project-based learning or blended learning

Among the ideal uses of game-based learning is learning simulations. Historical simulations like Civilization V are powerful learning tools, as they allow students to sit with, analyze, interaction with, and otherwise struggle with complexity.

They force players to play the rules of the game's universe (or they are designed to let the players create their own rules). This requires students to understand complex ideas-resource management, political tactics, diplomacy, communication, etc. Unlike a traditional lesson or activity, in game-based learning, unless the student refuses to play they have to learn the rules, and then respond to a constantly changing world.

Games of any kind-whether serious games like Civilization V, Assassin's Creed, simulations like 'The Universe Sandbox'-encourage practice, competition, self-direction, scaffolding, collaboration, trial-and-error persistence, patience, strategic thinking, self-efficacy (for some), and a variety of other important possibilities.
The Difference Between Gamification and Game-Based Learning
So what's the difference?

Gamification is first and foremost about encouragement mechanics and the system that promotes them, while game-based learning is first and foremost about the game and its cognitive residue (whether from the game's content, or academic content). One can use the other.

They both can lead to content mastery, but neither are expressly designed for classroom use-which is why, done well, your students will probably like them.

The Benefits Of Gamification: student engagement and motivation, can encourage creative and complex thinking, resource management, prioritization, and other critical thinking skills; transparency of a wider number of skills and competencies versus traditional teaching and grading models, target specific competencies or skills, emphasize intrinsic motivation (versus extrinsic), possibility of improved socialization
The Difference Between Gamification And Game-Based Learning

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The Difference Between Gamification And Game-Based Learning

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Gamification and game-based learning are each buzzwords (and buzzphrases) in education. Each can offer your classroom something, but many mistake one for the other. Can you tell the difference? The Definition Of Gamification The definition of gamification is the application of game-like mechanics to non-game entities to encourage a specific behavior.

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The Power of Gamification in Education | Scott Hebert | TEDxUAlberta

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(SEE UPDATED VERSION, LINK IN DESCRIPTION) What is Gamification? A Few Ideas.

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Gamification 101: How to Enhance Your Lesson Plans With Games

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Gamification 101: How to Enhance Your Lesson Plans With Games

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Technology has opened up new worlds for teachers that most wouldn't have dreamed of a few decades ago. Students can get and give instant feedback, schools can connect and learn together from around the world, and there are hundreds of education games and activities across the web.

One of the main features that has caught on recently is gamification. More educators are using technology to discuss concepts through games, rewarding students with points and badges.

How does gamification work in the classroom? What subjects can it be applied to? It's time to answer those questions so you can gamify your lessons effectively.

What is Gamification in a Classroom Setting?

Gamification is the process of bringing elements of gaming to your lesson plans. It doesn't mean replacing your lessons with games, but rather adding certain attributes (like point systems and badges) to make the content more engaging, explains the team at Kids Academy.

While gamification has become increasingly popular as students grow connected to their smartphones and gaming apps, there are other factors at play. Laura Ascione, managing editor at eSchool Media, looked at some of the factors driving game-based learning in the classroom. A few of the reasons the trend has caught on include:

There are high levels of demand from educators who are curious about this option.

Gamification is already taking hold in corporate training.

Many of these apps are easy to use and compatible with existing technology in the classroom.

Essentially, teachers who want to try gamification can find a few free tools and resources to see what their students think. If the class responds positively, the demand for more will grow.

In fact, schools have technically used gamification for years in the form of test scores and grades, writes Laura Lynch at WordPress learning management system LearnDash. "When you think about it, grades are similar to leveling up in a course, or achieving a high score on a leaderboard. The main reason we don't think of grades as gamification is because they're not fun. Grades aren't a game. They're final."

However, when done well, gamification can reduce the stress of test scores and make learning fun. The best teachers present games that reinforce the lessons and apply them in ways that make those lessons stick.

Why Should You Invest in Gamification?

There are many reasons to consider investing in gamification in your classroom, whether you teach lower-level elementary students or prepare advanced high schoolers for college.

Kids Like Playing Games

Teachers tend to give up crafts and games as students leave their early years of learning. Fifth grade teacher Emily Dixon, the 2018-19 Bryan County teacher of the year in Georgia, says teachers switch to worksheets and note-taking as if students grow out of playing games and learning in a fun way.

"When kids are bored, that's when we see disengagement. I realized that I needed to give my students a reason to care. We have to humanize school. We have to make kids believe that they are doing something for a reason, for a purpose."

Games Reinforce Lessons and Promote Problem-Solving

Another reason gamification is popular is because it provides hands-on outlets for students. Game-based projects are meant to turn students into problem-solvers, honing future-ready skills they can use in any subject or situations, writes Aleksandr Hovhannisyan at Classcraft.

"Regardless of what you're teaching, the key is to get students thinking and answering questions, not just reading and memorizing," he says. Instead of students trying to remember abstract concepts they learned in a lesson, they're able to apply those ideas in games, which boosts both comprehension and retention.

"Gamifying your classroom can be as simple or as complex as you choose to make it," says elementary teacher Amanda Moore. She gamified her classroom to create an engaging way to deliver online lessons related to reading and math. This turned traditional learning into a motivating challenge, with characters and a storyline. Students earned points for their work and teamed up in groups to defeat villains or level up. Moore says that she had researched gamification, but had never expected to see the engagement in the classroom and the results that she did.

How to Bring Gamification to Your Classroom

While gamification is popular with students and many teachers, there are some pitfalls to this form of learning. Follow our guide for starting with gamification so you can avoid these common issues.

Look for Easy Ways to Bring Games to Your Learning Environment

You don't need to invest in apps and other expensive learning materials to create a gamified classroom, emphasizes former math teacher Joseph McAllister, now learning environment advisor at technology solutions provider CDW-G. "Teachers can create digital breakouts using several Google functions, including sites, forms, drawing, and slides," he explains as one example.

Jennifer Prescott, a middle school French and Spanish teacher, chose a superhero theme for the gamification of her class. Students created avatars using basic vocabulary and gained experience points by completing grammar quests. These avatars were created with colored pencils and markers.

"Students were engaged and working at their own pace," she says. "The project lent itself to extension activities and allowed student agency in directing the project." They could choose which lessons to focus on and solve them on their own time.

McAllister adds that teachers benefit from gamification by receiving instant feedback on what students understand and where they get stuck, which indicates those lessons on which they need to spend more time.

Develop Rewards Based on Your Lesson Plans

It is possible for students to become so focused on the game and point system that they don't pay attention to the lesson, warns the team at early learning curriculum software provider, Waterford. To counter this, they encourage teachers to come up with rewards that are directly tied to the lesson.

For example, students that win a science-based challenge can help you complete a hands-on experiment in front of the rest of the class. Alternatively, as students reach certain levels, they can participate in various activities like shooting off a bottle rocket with soda and mentos or making slime.

The fact that gamification is associated with rewards, using badges and points, can actually be counterproductive. "Obviously we can't treat students like Starbucks customers," says Matthew Farber., Ed.D., former high school teacher, now assistant professor at UNC Colorado. "The journey is to build mastery. The better way to gamify is to put students in an inquiry-based or project-based learning experience. Or give them a task in a narrative frame."

This adds meaning to the gamification process. Instead of distracting students or giving the smartest kids the most badges, teachers can develop lessons that build on each other and help students challenge themselves to grow.

Secondary school teacher Jess Houser says she gamifies student writing projects. Students start out as novices and work up to legends (modeled on the action role-playing video game Skyrim) by gaining experience through writing activities. This encourages students to write more, but in a directed way where they are learning new concepts and putting ideas into practice that are in line with the school curriculum.

All of the rewards and upgrades she uses are tied to the lessons and the core goal of writing better.

Don't Overwhelm Students With New Tools and Ideas

Pace yourself as you teach your students. It's easy to get overwhelmed with the technology and learning options available to you. Upper elementary teacher Tammy DeShaw suggests introducing a new tool or a new concept to your students, but not both at the same time. This is because your students will be focusing on the technology and the game, not the learning material.

Additionally, you don't have to gamify your whole curriculum. Start with a few lessons that are relevant and see how they work.

"Don't overuse rewards and don't try to gamify anything and everything that happens in your classroom," advises edtech writer Livia Mihai. "If all your energy goes into gamification, there's not much left for other learning activities, which are still important in the development of children."

You may find that some lessons are better learned through group projects, worksheets, or simple presentations.

Additional Resources for Gamifying Your Classroom

There are dozens of teachers willing to share their stories of what worked and what didn't. Plus there are additional resources on the web that you can turn to.

In an article for ASCD In-Service, MacKenzie Masten points to several resources you can turn to for help with gamifying your lessons. She sorts them by category so you can see which ones are free to use.

Chris Mumford at Hey Teach!, a publication for educators issues by Western Governors University, shares an infographic teachers can use to introduce gamification to their classrooms. It follows many of the same principles discussed above: Start simple, develop a storyline for students to follow, track points for rewards, and share your enthusiasm with students. If you're having fun with your students, then your students will have fun with you.

Images by: Katarzyna Białasiewicz/©123RF.com, rawpixel/©123RF.com, venturaartist,

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Gamification 101: How to Enhance Your Lesson Plans With Games | Ozobot

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Technology has opened up new worlds for teachers that most wouldn't have dreamed of a few decades ago. Students can get and give instant feedback, schools can connect and learn together from around the world, and there are hundreds of education games and activities across the web.

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HMH Classcraft pairs ELA and math content with research-based lesson plans resulting in reduced educator planning time and increased student engagement.

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Since the majority of students play video games at home, it shouldn't come as a surprise that 70% of teachers saw an increase in student engagement when using educational video games. Have you ever tried playing games in class? Since nearly 80% of learners said they would be more productive if their learning was like a game, maybe you should give it a try in your class!

If you are a professor thinking about adding gaming to your curriculum, understanding the benefits and drawbacks of gaming in the classroom is important. The information in this article should be able to help you with your decision. Many instructors have led the way in researching this topic and are using games to motivate students in their classrooms.

An Overview of Gamified Learning

The definition of gamification in higher education is a teaching methodology that creates a game-like scenario around the course curriculum and the objectives of the course. The purpose of these game systems is to promote student engagement and motivate students to participate in the course activities. The concept of gamification in higher education has become popular with a wide range of companies that have created game platforms for many different subjects.

If used properly, many professors have found that by using games as a motivator in their classrooms they have improved course assessment results and have students that are attentive and productive. Research and science-based games are even working on real-world problems by motivating players to help.

Critics claim that gamification is a fad that doesn't help teach students anything meaningful and many professors scoff at using games in their college classrooms since they do not see it as serious learning. While it's true that gamification has become a large part of K-12 classrooms, there are many opportunities for gamification in higher education as well. There is enough research on both sides of the argument to support either view so here are some pros and cons to help you determine if a gamified classroom is right for you.

What is Gamification in Higher Education?

Games, in any form, increase motivation through engagement. Nowhere else is this more important than education. Nothing demonstrates a general lack of student motivation quite like the striking high school dropout rates: approximately 1.2 million students fail to graduate each year (All4Ed, 2010). At the college level, a Harvard Graduate School of Education study "Pathways to Prosperity" reports that just 56% of students complete four-year degrees within six years. It's argued that this is due to current systemic flaws in the way we teach; schools are behind the times. Watch a single lecture on innovation trends in education, and the presenter likely notes the striking similarities of a modern-day classroom and one of the centuries past. It's been proven that gamifying other services have resulted in retention and incentive. For example, website builder DevHub saw a remarkable increase of users who finished their sites shoot from 10 percent to 80 percent. So, in theory, it should work for schools as well.

How Can I Gamify Education In My Classroom?

Educators have tested this theory and seen positive results. There are a variety of ways to introduce your classroom to gamification in higher education and we're providing you with just a few ideas. We hope to spark a discussion on gamifying higher education so that educators can discuss the topic more thoroughly and provide examples in which they have used gamification to make learning more engaging.

1. Gamification in grading: One success story is Lee Sheldon, a professor at Indiana University, who gamified his course by abandoning grades and implementing an "experience points" system. Students' letter grades are determined by the number of points they have accumulated at the end of the course, in other words, by how much they have accomplished. Because of the extracurricular interests of the current college-age generation (games!), Professor Sheldon attributes success to the fact that "the elements of the class are couched in terms they understand." Students are progressing towards levels of mastery, as one does in games. Each assignment and each test feels rewarding, rather than disheartening. Using experience points allows educators to align levels with skills and highlight the inherent value of education.

2. Award students with badges: For each assignment completed, award students with badges. This may seem like a regression back to Kindergarten stickers of gold stars, but it's working for Khan Academy. As students watch instructional videos and complete problem sets, Khan Academy awards them with points and badges to track progress and encourage perseverance. Western Oklahoma State College is implementing this form of gamification into their technology classes, with badges like "Moodle Noob No More," or, a personal favorite "Drop It Like It Hot" to indicate mastery of Dropbox. However, as previously noted, it's important to add value to the badges, like bonus points, skill levels, etc.

3. Integrate educational video games into your curriculum: The use of games allows students to fail, overcome, and persevere. Students are given a sense of agency-in games, they control the choices they make, and the more agency students have, the better students do. Instantaneous feedback and small rewards (or big ones, like winning) are external motivators that work. Case in point, Mr. Pai, a 3rd-grade teacher on a mission to make learning fun. He disrupted the traditional classroom setting by introducing the Nintendo DS, among other technology, into his daily curriculum. Students practiced math and language through the use of computers and video games. In just eighteen weeks, his class went from a below 3rd-grade level to a mid-fourth-grade level.

4. Implement a class-wide rewards system: Encourage camaraderie among students by setting up a rewards system where students achieve something as a team. For example, set a goal of 80% of the class passing an exam. As a reward, give the entire class bonus points or even a party. That way, students are working to master the material together instead of competing, and the highest-achieving students will help those around them.

5. Gamify homework assignments to encourage informal learning: Ultimately, educators hope games translate learning into informal environments. There simply aren't enough hours in the day for an educator. Games allow the curiosity-and the learning-to continue after the bell rings.

Pros of the Gamified Classroom in Higher Education
1. Increases Student Engagement
Studies have shown that students are more likely to spend time playing a learning-based game if you are using a reward system. Badges and points help translate the work the student is completing into a tangible benefit. By increasing engagement, you'll also see a rise in learning retention through gamification of learning. Students will be able to relate to the content easier through practice than just reading or watching a lecture.
2. Creates Enthusiasm
Gamified learning can be used to foster feelings of enthusiasm towards the subject matter, especially in subjects that students struggle with, like math. By creating a gamifying learning with rewards, students are becoming excited and competitive while learning through quizzes, polls and other collaborative learning methods with their peers.
3. Provides Instant Feedback
Most gamification apps or systems allow for instantaneous feedback, which students can use to see where they stand among their peers. This information can push a student to try the quiz or activity again to get higher placement and creates motivation for further student engagement.
4. Makes Social Connections
In higher education, we often find that students have trouble creating social connections with other students in their courses. Gamified classrooms, seated and virtual, help students who have trouble with social interaction and give them a reason to work together. This is especially true if you create team competitions that require students to collaborate on challenges.

Cons of the Gamified Classroom in Higher Education
1. Decreases Student Attention Span
Critics of gamified learning believe that the fast pace and immediate feedback create issues for students' attention spans. Students may begin to expect the same kind of responses from all parts of their education and won't find it, leading to frustration.
2. Cost
The costs of gamified learning are varied based on the type of system you are using. There may be equipment, software, and training costs for instructors. Sometimes these costs are passed on to the students through registration fees and course codes that must be purchased, creating a higher barrier to entry into the classroom. There are often support or maintenance-related costs for systems that are delivered online or are hosted in your campus environment.
3. Student Assessment
When choosing a game it is not often clear how the results of the gamified learning activity will tie into your course assessment. While most games have a built-in way to track progress, you will need to find a way to translate the student's game progress into fulfilling objectives. It is not always easy to find a good fit between the games on the market and your course materials so this can be a time-consuming process.
4. Game Logistics
Many times, setting up a game for your course requires a lot of prior planning and logistics. Questions you need to ask are: Will students be able to play the game at home? Is there an additional cost if they use it outside of the classroom? Are there enough computers available for students to play the game in class? Do I want to use class time for students to play the game? Most of the time you will need to sit down and play the game yourself all the way through, which can take about 40 hours before you fully understand the game and objectives.

Gamification Apps and Tools

Gamifying your higher education classroom through online tools and platforms can help engage your students in course content and helps them connect with their classmates on a deeper level. Here, we share some tools that help you bring enthusiasm, connection and competition to your course.

1. Kahoot: Kahoot allows instructors to design their own multiple-choice quizzes for both formative assessments and informal quizzes. To participate, students answered timed questions, where they are ranked based on their speed and accuracy. It can be accessed via Kahoot! app or web browser.

2. TEDEd: TEDEd houses hundreds of educational videos \with an accompanying app where instructors can create interactive video lessons based on their course concepts, with quizzes, discussion prompts and other activities.

3. Gimkit: Gimkit gives instructors the opportunity to create their own gameshows that students can answer on their own devices. Working at their own pace, students work on question sets until they reach mastery to ensure they've fully comprehended course concepts.

Conclusion

While the topic of gamified learning has been around for years, it is just now hitting its stride in higher education. The global gamification market is projected to grow from $9.1 billion in 2020 to $30.7 billion by 2025. There are many opportunities for new and exciting games that will help us increase student engagement in our seated and online classrooms.

These pros and cons are important ideas to consider when choosing how games could support your college classroom. If you love the idea of motivating your students through points and badges, gamified learning may be for you, but if you struggle to prioritize your time when it comes to course development, gamification may not be the right choice. Starting small and giving yourself lots of time for planning is the key to success.

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How to Bring Gamification Into Your Classroom | Top Hat

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Use these gamification strategies in your classroom to increase participation, engagement, loyalty and competition. Check them out now!

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14 Ways to Gamify Student Engagement & Learning

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14 Ways to Gamify Student Engagement & Learning - CampusGroups

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14 Ways to Gamify Student Engagement & Learning Continuously evolving trends and technologies change the way people acquire information. For college students facing demanding schedules, heavy workloads and an often overwhelming amount of content consumption, campus administrators and facu

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5 Effective Ways to Gamify Learning in Higher Education

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5 Effective Ways to Gamify Learning in Higher Education

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Mastering of gamification techniques requires a lot of detailed planning and restructuring of existing teaching methods by educators. The strategy can only be successful if it is integrated into the curriculum holistically. Here are some of the ways in which higher education institutions can successfully use gamification in their classrooms -

1. Implement Gamification in Grading

We can't possibly deny the fact that the traditional grading method is key to evaluation and the overall learning experience. But, by tweaking the approach of evaluating assignments and score accumulation, educators can bring a real difference in the learning outcomes.

The idea here is to gamify the course by replacing the grades with a more engaging 'experience points system' where students' grades can be determined by the number of points accumulated by them at the end of the course. This way, students can progress towards different levels of mastery (similar to games) with every single assignment/test that feels rewarding to them.
2. Point-Based Rewards System
Incentivization is an extremely powerful motivator for children and adults alike. Similar to video games, earning points motivates students and helps them feel rewarded for their efforts. Based on your classroom activities, you can create a point-based reward system, offering points on multiple aspects such as on-time completion of tasks, classroom participation, or anything else you would like. The points system you use should fit the classroom style and help your students track their progress.

The point-based system can even be used to supplement your grading. For example, if students earn a certain amount of points, you can either boost their final grade or drop their lowest grade. Apart from motivating students to participate, it also helps them feel rewarded for their efforts and allows them to enjoy the class time more.
3. Promoting Quests
One of the smart ways educators can gamify learning in their classrooms is by turning each week of the semester schedule into a kind of quest where students get the chance to earn badges for both completion and mastery. The strategy here should be to reward student accomplishments with appropriate badges instead of grades to represent their achievements as more than just academic.

For example, a learner group in any specific class can earn a badge by successfully conducting a presentation or facilitating a chapter recap.
4. Create Competition Within the Classroom
Being creative and responding to student interests goes a long way in successfully gamifying a classroom. Make sure that as learning progresses, students are collecting points, leveling up, and competing against each other to build positive class culture while pushing student achievement. This is particularly useful for introducing procedures and behavioral expectations in the classroom.
5. Encourage Teamwork
Gamification of your classroom should be done in a way that boosts the classroom morale and allows your students to play in teams. Getting students to learn, play, and participate together cultivates a great learning atmosphere and inculcates the value of working together.

As they work in their teams, you can allow students to share rewards, points, or even power-ups. Students will definitely want to work harder to help their team and make their teammates win. This gets much more interesting and energetic when they can share the points/rewards and cheer their teammates on.

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Gamification: 5 Effective Ways to Gamify Learning in Higher Education

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Mastering of gamification techniques requires a lot of detailed planning and restructuring of existing teaching methods by educators. The strategy can only be successful if it is integrated into the curriculum holistically. Here are some of the ways in which higher education institutions can successfully use gamification in their classrooms - 1.

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Gamification and active learning in higher education: is it possible to match digital society, academia and students' interests?

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Gamification and active learning in higher education: is it possible to match digital society, academia and students' interests?

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Gamification and active learning in higher education: is it possible to match digital society, academia and students’ interests? - International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education

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This study aims to examine whether it is possible to match digital society, academia and students interests in higher education by testing to what extent the introduction of gamification into active learning setups affects the skills development demanded by the workplace of the digital society of the twenty-first century, the academic achievement standards claimed by the academia, and the satisfaction with the learning process required by the students. Our results provide statistically significant empirical evidence, concluding that the generation of a co-creative and empowered gameful experience that supports students’ overall value creation yields to satisfactory active learning setups without any loss of academic achievement, and allowing to develop a series of skills especially relevant for twenty-first century professionals.

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Revealing the hotspots of educational gamification: An umbrella review

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Revealing the hotspots of educational gamification: An umbrella review

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Author links open overlay panel Ahmed Hosny Saleh Metwally a , Lennart E. Nacke a b , Maiga Chang c d , Yining Wang e , Ahmed Mohamed Fahmy Yousef f

Show more

Abstract

With gamification flourishing in popularity in educational research, it is essential to synthesize the expanding literature on educational gamification. The current umbrella review aims to comprehensively canvas the disparate findings and conflicting conclusions by critically examining educational gamification reviews. We included 46 reviews of state-of-the-art gamification published between 2016 and 2020. The critical analysis of these studies resulted in extracting six fundamental gamification research areas in education, namely: (1) concept and theoretical knowledge, (2) design, (3) development, (4) impact, (5) personalization, and (6) higher education. It also revealed that systematic reviews were the predominant analysis type. Our umbrella review illustrates the ongoing need in educational research for carefully structured examinations and rigorous methods that validate gamification's instructional advantages.

Introduction

The gaming industry's development has promoted online video games that attracted a large segment of gamers. Using educational games seems to be a practical approach in learning and teaching because of its positive impact on learning outcomes. Applying game design mechanisms in another context enforced the emergence of gamification. Thus, gamification uses game elements, representing parts of a gaming system, for gameful design in a non-game context (Deterding, Dixon, Khaled & Nacke, 2011).

Gamification in education is a practical approach that incorporates game elements and gameful experience into the learning processes (Dichev & Dicheva, 2017). It refers to employing the knowledge of designing game mechanics in the educational field to motivate students to achieve learning outcomes. Gamifying education has the power to use multiple mechanisms to incentivize learners to participate in learning, and often, just for the pleasure of playing, the possibility of winning or participating without receiving any reward. Gamification practices are based on educational psychology when the intervention treatments are connected with motivation, learner autonomy, cognitive, and social and emotional aspects (Busarello, Ulbricht, Fadel, & de Freitas e Lopes, 2016).

Gamification literature, in general, is rapidly growing in the educational field. The growing interest in applying gamified design elements in educational applications stimulated gamification publications' academic field and encouraged further research to maximize the learning outcomes. In this sense, the educational domain was surrounded by literature that employed gamification solutions with several research approaches, including quantitative and qualitative methods. These implementations investigated diverse outcomes in different conditions, design frameworks, and study contexts, which created one of the research gaps in educational gamification, namely to verify its impact on the learning process.

With the increasing popularity of gamification and the mixed success of its educational implementations, recent reviews focused on prior literature by summarizing the research's current state of the art. The current research evidence shows that gamification research is still in the early stages (Koivisto & Hamari, 2019), and the practical implementation of educational gamification has outpaced the understanding of its method and techniques (Dichev & Dicheva, 2017; Landers, Bauer, Callan, & Armstrong, 2015).

Existing reviews have addressed the impacts of using game elements on learning outcomes (Antonaci, Klemke, & Specht, 2019; Huang et al., 2020). The most common learning outcomes are motivation, engagement, performance, attitude, and interaction (Antonaci, Klemke, & Specht, 2019; Zainuddin, Chu, Shujahat, & Perera, 2020). Substantial reviews attempted to evaluate and compare gameful design and gamification frameworks (Garone & Nesteriuk, 2019; Mora, Riera, González & Arnedo-Moreno, 2017; Rauschenberger, Willems, Ternieden & Thomaschewski, 2019). Furthermore, gamification review studies have extended their scope to focus on the published literature in a particular gamified application or educational setting. Gamifying massive open online courses (MOOCs) has spurred interest as an emerging gamification practice in higher education (Khalil, Wong, De Koning, Ebner & Paas, 2018; Rohan, Pal & Funilkul, 2020). Gamifying software engineering (Peixoto & Silva, 2017), engineering education (Milosz & Milosz, 2020), and educational peer review activities (Indriasari, Luxton-Reilly & Denny, 2020) have received increasing attention in the field. Nevertheless, in terms of published review types, the educational gamification field encompasses systematic reviews (Hallifax, Serna, Marty, & Lavoué, 2019; Van der Poll, Van Zyl, & Kroeze, 2019), systematic mappings (Alhammad & Moreno, 2018; Dalmina, Barbosa & Vianna, 2019), meta-analyses (Bai, Hew, & Huang, 2020; Fadhli, Brick, Setyosari, Ulfa & Kuswandi, 2020), and other review types. This promotes gamification knowledge dissemination with a significant contribution. However, the scattered knowledge in published reviews derived from various syntheses has left a knowledge gap that entails identifying the main themes in the educational gamification field and recognizing the current state of the reviews.

Our research efforts seek to synthesize a remarkable amount of research to support or reject the reported results or present an overview of different perspectives by employing review-based evidence. Although existing reviews on educational gamification are helpful for developing knowledge of gamified education, they focus on summarizing results or mapping published research to provide evidence derived from reviewing gamification literature within one particular scope. Besides, their disparate findings and conflicting conclusions made it difficult to recognize prominent contributions which draw a more coherent picture. Therefore, we go beyond an overview and provide a comprehensive umbrella review of gamified education research areas. The current review allows the findings of independent reviews to be accumulated in one venue.

This review aims to provide a reliable overview of research in this field and reveal the hotspots in the review studies for enriching the topic. We distinguish the similarities and differences in the educational gamification review results critically; and outline future tracks of gamification research in education. Given these objectives, this review seeks to answer the following research questions:

1

What is the distribution of educational gamification reviews regarding the domain, year, review type, and review resource from 2016 to 2020?

2

What are the current state and prominent inclusions in the recent reviews of educational gamification research from 2016 to 2020?

3

How far do the similarities and differences of educational gamification review results go?

4

What are the future tracks and trends of gamification research in education?

This research is important and timely because it provides a comprehensive synthesis of educational gamification reviews by critically analyzing the review papers that sought to reflect on the state-of-the-art. It also clarifies the current research directions in the gamification literature relating to the education and learning process and practices, giving a comprehensive view of the publications in the field, which is understood as evidence-based gamified education. To the best of our knowledge, this review is the first umbrella review in the educational gamification field that includes educational technology, computer science, games research, human-computer interaction (HCI), and other related disciplines to create a holistic understanding of educational gamification research. Conclusively, it suggests possible future research tracks that could narrow existing research gaps.

Section snippets

Methods

We clustered gamification literature reviews to identify interlocking and distinct patterns for providing an accurate picture of the field considering the current educational technology trends. Therefore, we critically synthesized previous reviews to compile an overview of reviews (Aromataris et al., 2015; Paré, Trudel, Jaana & Kitsiou, 2015). We applied a systematic mapping process to create a classification scheme of the selected reviews (Petersen, Feldt, Mujtaba & Mattsson, 2008) and used

Findings

This section outlines the main domains in a thematic classification based on carefully analyzing the reviews and understanding the review inclusion criteria. It will objectively examine these studies' findings and outcomes using a topic-by-topic approach to understand these dimensions comprehensively.

Discussion

We synthesized 46 reviews on educational gamification to critically summarize the recently published reviews conducted to date. Most gamification studies were conducted in the social sciences and engineering/computing subjects (Huang et al., 2020). Education, teaching and learning, engagement, motivation, behavior change, and gamified design are arising concepts and most are covered in gamification research; besides, Self-Determination Theory, Flow Theory, and the MDA framework seemed to be the

Summary

The critical analysis of state-of-the-art educational gamification studies aimed to provide a crucial overview of research in the field over five years from 2016 to August 2020. It resulted in six vital hotspots of educational gamification research, namely: concept and theoretical knowledge, design, development, impact, personalization, and higher education from 46 collected reviews. According to the published review papers, most gamification reviews are conducted in design, followed by higher

Funding

Lennart Nacke's research support was made possible by his NSERC Discovery Grant 2018-06576, his Canada Foundation for Innovation John R. Evans Leaders Funds, the NSERC CREATE SWaGUR grant, and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Active and Assisted Living Program Exergetic grant.

Declarations of Competing Interest

None.

The authors certify that they have NO affiliations with or involvement in any organization or entity with any financial interest (such as honoraria; educational grants; participation in speakers' bureaus; membership, employment, consultancies, stock ownership, or other equity interest; and expert testimony or patent-licensing arrangements), or non-financial interest (such as personal or professional relationships, affiliations, knowledge or beliefs) in the subject matter or materials

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to the team members of the research group HCI Games Group at the University of Waterloo for their feedback and recommendations, which contributed to enhancing this review's quality.

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# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Revealing the hotspots of educational gamification: An umbrella review

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Author links open overlay panel Ahmed Hosny Saleh Metwally a , Lennart E. Nacke a b , Maiga Chang c d , Yining Wang e , Ahmed Mohamed Fahmy Yousef f Show more With gamification flourishing in popularity in educational research, it is essential to synthesize the expanding literature on educational gamification.

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How gamification motivates: An experimental study of the effects of specific game design elements on psychological need satisfaction

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How gamification motivates: An experimental study of the effects of specific game design elements on psychological need satisfaction

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Highlights

*
Motivational effects of gamification are analysed from an educational psychology perspective.

*
Gamification is not effective per se, but different game design elements can trigger different motivational outcomes.

*
A self-determination theory framework was used to study the effects of different configurations of game design elements.

*
Competence and autonomy regarding task meaningfulness was affected by badges, leaderboards, and performance graphs.

*
Social relatedness was positively influenced by avatars, a meaningful story, and teammates.

Abstract

The main aim of gamification, i.e. the implementation of game design elements in real-world contexts for non-gaming purposes, is to foster human motivation and performance in regard to a given activity. Previous research, although not entirely conclusive, generally supports the hypothesis underlying this aim. However, previous studies have often treated gamification as a generic construct, neglecting the fact that there are many different game design elements which can result in very diverse applications. Based on a self-determination theory framework, we present the results of a randomized controlled study that used an online simulation environment. We deliberately varied different configurations of game design elements, and analysed them in regard to their effect on the fulfilment of basic psychological needs. Our results show that badges, leaderboards, and performance graphs positively affect competence need satisfaction, as well as perceived task meaningfulness, while avatars, meaningful stories, and teammates affect experiences of social relatedness. Perceived decision freedom, however, could not be affected as intended. We interpret these findings as general support for our main hypothesis that gamification is not effective per se, but that specific game design elements have specific psychological effects. Consequences for further research, in particular the importance of treatment checks, are discussed.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How gamification motivates: An experimental study of the effects of specific game design elements on psychological need satisfaction

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Motivational effects of gamification are analysed from an educational psychology perspective. * Gamification is not effective per se, but different game design elements can trigger different motivational outcomes. * A self-determination theory framework was used to study the effects of different configurations of game design elements.