Gamification is a particular way to increase student interest and engagement. Gamified learning adds game elements to traditional education, such as competition, music, rewards, rules, and more. The purpose of gamification is still primarily testing, but in a game without game environments. Generally, it adds game mechanics or game elements to websites to attract consumers and students.
We’ve come across many gamification platforms such as Quizzes, Kahoot, etc. As it turns out, based on my personal experience, I do think gamification makes me feel more involved. Although its primary purpose is to test students’ mastery of knowledge, I will not reject this test in this process. On the other hand, a lot of routine testing I think of it as a task. I remember a lot from an activity when I didn’t feel excluded from it.
For example, when I was in college, my professor would prepare a game for us every week, Kahoot. This is a site that fully meets the principles of gamification. First of all, each of us is an individual, and students need to earn points to compete for the top three (the top three get an extra 1% of participation points). My favorite part of this activity is its background music. Earworm’s music keeps playing during the game, which I think will be a very effective memory point. Second, the game mechanic is that the faster and correct answers are given within a limited amount of time will result in higher scores. Students will try to answer every question because of motivation (1% participation score). I think this kind of gamified learning allows me to believe in the process of learning and allows me to earn points through learning. It’s like when puppies learn to sit down and give commands and rewards. So motivation and memory points are essential in gamification. Kahoot does an excellent job of remembering facts, not just the background music, but the shapes and colors of each option (triangles are red, hexagons are blue, circles are yellow, squares are green).
However, I think what needs to be improved is that in the process of playing this game, although everyone is fair, there must be some top-notch students in the class, they may get the top three every time, if it goes on for a long time, the lagging students will lose interest and motivation. But during exploration and learning, gamification increases our interest and engagement compared to traditional testing.
Hi, Jingjing
Kahoot is a game tool that I am very interested in. I first learned about this software through your introduction. With the software you shared, I think Kahoot is more interactive for students than Quizlet, and it is more interesting to improve the self-testing method. It is straightforward to use for everyone, and the speed and correctness of the answers give the learner a more emotional and accurate result. The faster they answer, the higher the correct rate, the more effective the learning outcome. It increases the learning atmosphere in the classroom and makes us more interested in learning, and the interaction between the teacher and the students is improved. I think this software will also be helpful for my future learning, and if I have the opportunity, I will use it as one of my learning tools.