Traditional teaching methods could be more engaging for students, leading to boredom and decreased motivation. Teachers need to solve this important issue, and the best way to do this is by introducing gamification in education.

The first instance of gamification is linked to Dmitri Mendeleev, the scientist who created the Periodic Table framework. He loved playing card games and wrote each element and its key properties on a card for easy retention.

If this technique is adopted in schools, it will help students achieve more in their studies. How? That is what we will discuss in the rest of this article.

What is Gamification in Education?

To understand the concept of gamification, it’s important to first define what a game truly is. A game is an interactive system that starts with players being assigned abstract challenges under specific rules and ends with a quantifiable outcome.

This activity is often accompanied by excitement and engagement because it stimulates both extrinsic and intrinsic motivation in players.

Teachers want their students to feel the same way about their studies, but students don’t find the traditional teaching style interesting.

To address this, the stakeholders decided to take advantage of the rise of education software by integrating the fundamentals of gaming into the learning process.

The aim is to stimulate both extrinsic and intrinsic motivation in students while learning. This Is called gamification in education.

Benefits of Gamification in Education

1. Motivational Boost

One of the problems in schools today is the lack of academic engagement among students. This is because the students have no motivation to participate in the learning process.

The role of motivation in the student’s success cannot be overstated, and teachers have an important role to play in this.

They have to ensure their students are motivated to learn, work hard, and push themselves to excel. One way to achieve this is through the gamification of learning processes.

With gamification comes grading systems like leaderboards, badges, and points that keep students engaged through the learning process.

One of the many tools used in the classrooms today to encourage active participation is Socrative. With its “Space Race” feature, teachers can divide their class into teams and have them compete against each other in a quiz.

Students are very competitive, but if the activity is conducted in a healthy way, it removes any form of pressure they may have, turning the competitiveness into an advantage.

2. Adaptive Learning

Adaptive learning is one of the main benefits of gamification in education. Gamification makes individualized learning styles possible in the classroom, making the learning process more inclusive for every student.

With tools like Socrative, Kahoot!, and Duolingo, a teacher can adjust the learning material’s content, pace, and difficulty based on the performance and preferences of each student.

Hence, a group of students who are yet to fully grasp the idea of series and sequences can get simpler questions while the other group works with questions that meet their level of knowledge.

The two teams or individual students will complete the course but at their individual pace, moving gradually between difficulty levels.

3. Improved Retention and Recall

Anyone who has ever played a game before understands the allure of trying to improve one’s “High score” because we know we have what it takes to do better. Gamification brings this allure into the classroom.

Like in games, this learning style offers replayability, encouraging students to keep practising in order to improve their scores on the leaderboard. This results in better retention and recall of the course content.

Brainscape, for example, uses a technique called “confidence-based repetition”, where a flashcard is given to each student, and the flashcard is upgraded as their scores get better.

The card is designed to be appealing and fun to use, making the learning process more enjoyable. Thereby promoting the retention of the learning material.

This approach taps into the human’s innate desire to be better. When done properly, teachers can dramatically increase retention among their students with gamification.

4. Improved Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving Skills

Gamified classwork, quizzes, or homework encourages students to attempt questions in creative and critical manners without the fear of criticism.

This could be done by giving questions that require out of the box thinking, such as creating a virtual reality room and asking students to solve clues that would help escape the room.

According to the National Technical University of Athens, Greece, gamification improved students’ achievement by 89.45% compared to traditional teaching methods.

The most popular software used for developing this kind of quiz is Microsoft’s MimioConnect. MimioConnect is an online blended learning platform that allows teachers to augment instruction, making it easier for them to teach and students to learn.

With Mimioconnect, teachers can build game-like elements in quizzes or tests that can be scored and recorded as assessments.

By integrating gamification into education, teachers are discovering new ways to develop engagement, critical thinking, and collaboration among their students.

5. Real-Time Feedback

Gamification in education allows students to get real-time feedback on their performance and makes them understand where improvement is needed.

The feedback instills a growth mindset in the students, and when combined with a rewarding system like badges or verbal praises, it makes the learning process more engaging. It gives the students the assurance that their efforts and achievements are noticed.

There are many Edtech tools that serve this purpose and one of them is MagicBox, an online gamified learning platform that can help teachers generate multiple-choice quizzes and provide immediate feedback about the learning process of each student.

It was developed by MagicEdTech, the 2024 winner of the 1EdTech Power Learner Award. This prestigious award highlights how big a role they play in transforming the EdTech Industry.

Wrapping Up: Where Improvement is Needed

While gamification in education has many benefits to it, there are places where improvement is needed. Among them is a proper consideration of learning materials in the usage of the gamified tools. Gamification should be a thoughtful process, not a superficial engagement.

Education stakeholders need to put systems in place to ensure teachers are using these tech tools adequately. The usage must be properly integrated into the school curriculum so that it doesn’t become a distraction.

Lastly, the stakeholders should work towards making gamified Edtech tools accessible to all students, especially those with limited access to the technology.

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Before the rise of education software, the most effective teaching method was ‘teach to the middle.’ This method was developed to balance teaching since students in a classroom are expected to have varying skill levels and learning abilities.

Although it helped to some extent, it did not help students achieve their maximum potential. With the rise of Education software, Students can now sit in the same classroom with the same teacher and learn at their own pace.

Today, Education software like Dreambox uses machine learning to gain insights into individual students’ strengths, needs, and preferences. These tools, like robots are changing the EDTech industry, resulting in improved academic performance and heightened student engagement.

4 Ways AI is Personalizing Learning Experiences

1. Adaptive Learning

The traditional curricula that we’ve been used to are static. However, with adaptive learning, the curricula become dynamic, evolving with each learner’s capabilities and understanding.

AI-powered adaptive learning tools analyze information about each student’s struggles and strengths to adjust the pace of delivery and course content accordingly. This approach results in better retention and improved overall learning outcomes.

The role of AI in achieving adaptive learning isn’t just customizing course content; it ensures active engagement with the course content. A popular example of a software that has successfully integrated adaptive learning is DreamBox Math. This K-8 online educational software is built to create immersive and interactive maths lessons that make learning fun.

With DreamBox Math, you will get valuable adaptive learning solutions proven by several third-party organizations to accelerate student math growth and achievement.

2. Support for Special Education

Another way AI is improving learning experiences is through education softwares that provides support for special education.

Some students have distinct learning needs in the classroom due to physical, mental, emotional, or behavioral conditions. The traditional class setting doesn’t often help them, but AI can help address their challenges.

For instance, we now have AI-powered speech recognition software like PODD Communication Books, which teachers can use to help students who cannot communicate effectively.

PODD is a symbol-based communication system developed for non-verbal individuals. The student can select images, words, or short phrases from the books to instantly generate sentences on a tablet or device to express themselves.

Similarly, AI-powered predictive text tools, like Co: Writer, help dyslexic students with their writing. They suggest likely words based on what the student has typed so far, reducing spelling challenges.

These AI tools are not only making education accessible to students with special needs but also ensuring that they can participate as much as every other student in the class during the learning process.

3. Intelligent Tutoring Systems

Another achievement of AI in personalizing learning experiences is through Intelligent tutoring systems.

It is expected that a student will experience difficulty with a topic that others are already good at. Intelligent tutoring systems can help the student without slowing down the learning process of other students. This tool serves as a private tutor for the student.

Intelligent tutoring systems have engaging features like gamification that make the learning process interactive. In fact, with these tools, students can virtually talk to the AI tutor, providing them with one-on-one guidance. Since these tools are available 24×7, i.e., even after class, students can get the help they require whenever needed.

One of the common intelligent tutoring tools in America is Khanmigo, developed by Khan Academy. It serves as a virtual tutor and debate partner for students and can be used by teachers to create lesson plans for individual students.

According to Forbes research, 97% of students favor having an intelligent tutoring system, and only a few expressed disagreement. Thanks to Microsoft making Khanmigo free for teachers, every school can integrate intelligent tutoring systems into their learning process.

4. Personalized Evaluation and Assessment

After learning, there has to be an assessment. AI is not only used to learn in a fun way, it is also used to conduct periodic evaluations of the knowledge acquired during the learning process.

With AI, teachers can develop assessments specific to each student’s optimal challenge level and give feedback to each student—a process that used to require many teaching hours.

One common educational software for personalized evaluation and assessment is Class Companion. With Class Companion, the teacher can develop personalized lessons, worksheets, and assignments. It also allows teachers to choose the assignment format, whether multiple-choice, short-answer, or math/coding problems.

When students submit practice work via the Class Companion app or browser, they immediately receive feedback on their answers, with detailed explanations for why responses are right or wrong. They can resubmit answers to practice challenging problems.

With AI, evaluation, and assessment are transformed from a tedious and non-interactive process into a seamless and interactive one, helping students achieve their maximum potential.

Wrapping Up: The Future of AI-Powered Personalized Learning

The future of education is promising as AI continues to personalize learning experiences. However, we must understand that embracing AI doesn’t mean replacing teachers. Nothing can replace high-quality human-to-human interaction. AI will evaluate that interaction and use it to improve the quality of education delivered by teachers.

In fact, one key area that needs serious attention is the training of educators on how to use AI tools like education softwares to improve traditional teaching practices.

This further proves that the importance of artificial intelligence in education is needed to provide interactive learning experiences to students in the classroom. This can be done by using AI-generated robots to transfer data that can be personalized to each student’s needs and queries. Perhaps we will have an AI-powered tutoring system that considers students’ interests, abilities, socio-emotional state, and long-term goals to create personalized curricula.

We can also look forward to a world where education is modified for students all over the world, regardless of geographical or socioeconomic barriers, to have access to high-quality learning resources. This means a student in a third-world country can have the same quality of education as a student in a first-world country. This isn’t a distant reality; it’s the direction we’re heading.

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