Student Engagement in my Project

The article deals with keeping students engaged through the idea of gamification, the key point being that in order to be fully immersed in a project students should both want and like what they are doing.  

I think that the thing about a game in general that keeps a person engaged is that it is not repetitive. Like the article said that a game is layered into many goals and typically there is more to every goal than its predecessor. There is always a new element at each level that provides a new challenge for the player and keeps him hooked as there is no monotony. Layering the game in increasing order of difficulty encourages the person to go on. As the article stated that 'engagement occurs when the brain is rewarded', when a person easily completes the relatively easier introductory levels, he/she feels elated at their accomplishment and have a renewed will to go on. Their 'victory' serves as a reward for their brain as it stimulates both feelings of wanting and liking. If faced with something difficult right in the beginning they might feel discouraged.

I liked the above mentioned ideas and plan on implementing some of it in my teaching. For example, instead of directly aiming for the 'boss battle'- which are the tests and exams students give-I plan on structuring a game like scenario where I would give students several activities and reward them with points. This method would even take homework in its stride and make it less of a burden and more of a challenge to the students. For example, after a class I could take a short interactive quiz from the students; this would also give me the opportunity of obtaining the feedback from the students. The students would be rewarded points for each correct answer. Using technology, I could use softwares like Microsoft PowerPoint to create interactive quizzes, crosswords etc. Then I could give them their homework project as a sort of a next level and again award more points. At the end of the week we can take one step forward and divide the students into groups and ask them to prepare for the big game where the groups would be competing against each other (a sort of a multiple-player game!). The students would have to revise and go through all the work done in the course of the week and then have a debate on the topic to hone their collaborating skills, as they would have to work as a team, as well as their thinking power and speaking skills. Here again technology would come into play as the students will make use of the web to gather information and research a given topic.  Then we could have a computerised question/answer round with a time limit. When the students pass a level and go to the next the time limit could be decreased, making it harder. The students could be presented with challenging questions where they would have to discuss and answer.  So basically by the time the date for the main test/exam arrives the students will already be well prepared and will not think of it as a burden.

I loved the idea of having somebody to both 'like' and 'want' something to keep him totally and whole-heartedly engaged. Being the educator, I could encourage the students to want to learn by outlining the benefits of being a well educated person at present  and in the future. Basically, the main reason that people study is because they 'want' to learn not because they 'like' to learn. Everyone wants to be educated and to earn a degree, but the liking element is mostly absent. They just think of it as something they have to do.  This is especially true for teenagers. They just want to pass high school so that they can enter into colleges and build their carriers. However, now through the implementation of gamification in teaching, students will also start ‘liking’ studying. Thus, by default, students will be kept engaged. 

Also, it is very important to set up goals and objectives prior to teachings. This will help the students to know exactly where they will stand after the lesson and what they should be looking forward to.

To top it all, one of the catchiest lines in the article for me were- 'During assessments, explain why answers are correct or incorrect, or provide links to where the appropriate information can be found. Never just say, "That's wrong. Try again."' This is very important and something we, educators, often miss out on. It is crucial to explain to the student why he is wrong and how he could correct himself.

In the end, it would be very necessary to reward the learner in front of his peers. A simple round of applause by fellow peers can do wonders in terms of motivating a learner and encouraging others to try and achieve the goal next time.

To conclude, I would say that gamification in a non-game context, ie in education, serves as an excellent medium to keep learners engaged.