A recent study made by MIT Sloan School of Management has shown that by borrowing different tools of the gaming industry, online learning becomes easier for students. They connect better with the lessons and activities and it also improves the learning outcomes.
“Gamification could be revolutionary for education, and a godsend for students with more visual and collaborative learning styles. Take the chat window, which facilitates the wisdom of the crowd. With technology, we can engage a much broader set of students with diverse learning styles, and supercharge the impact of their efforts. Even after this pandemic is over, there's no putting this genie back in the bottle”, says Andrew W. Lo, Professor of Finance at MIT's Sloan School of Management and Principal Investigator at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.
Now, more than ever, the pandemic has challenged educational institutions. Traditional teaching methods cannot be used in the same way in the digital field. Students tend to be more attentive when they are close to their classmates and in a classroom. Gamification can create the same engagement and attention in an online setting. Starting to work with tools that come from the gaming world can be beneficial for learning.
“The ideas and techniques the researchers borrowed from videogame makers include using strong narratives throughout their lectures, providing students with constant streams of input that engage as many of the senses as possible, and giving them opportunities to join in the action to keep them feeling connected”.
Other key points to take in consideration:
The study also showed that gamification in online classes provided greater opportunities for:
Networking: class interaction allowed students to connect with people from other countries and industries easily.
Mentorship: Interaction with industry leaders.
Experiential learning: connecting with the class by engaging different senses and taking action
Career development: Research projects with real companies that allowed them to get job interviews