Gamification: What you can ultimately achieve by making learning fun

The chances are you’ll have heard of the term ‘gamification’ by now. The art of applying games-based elements to teaching; it was the educational technology buzzword of 2012 – and saw teachers both dive in with joy, and groan at the thought of games in the classroom, in equal measure.

But with 5 million people now spending an average of 45 hours a week on games, there’s no denying the game industry is big.

With leader boards, learning games and Open Badges, your VLE is the perfect starting point for employing a gamification-based learning strategy for your class. But with your learning platform as your starting point, how can you start to bring game-based elements into learning – and what can you ultimately achieve with gamification?

Get their attention

The idea of gamification was borne out of the fast-growing games market of the 1980s. Simple games began to take a more educational-based route, with real-life aspects becoming part of the gameplay. Before long, the idea was flipped – with game-like aspects introduced to learning.

With so many children and young people spending time on games, they’ll be completely familiar with how games work – what’s expected, how to succeed, and the subsequent rewards. Building learning into a game, or a gamified learning activity, won’t take long to explain – learners will pick up the basics almost instantly.

Giving them a medium they understand and recognise from the outset means they will be hooked from the word go.

The lure of Moodle’s Open Badges will soon get them working. A way of recognising and rewarding accomplishments, badge systems are already well established in computer games, and like computer games, learners will want to earn the most number of, and the most prestigious, badges.

As explained in this Mozilla white paper, the beauty of Moodle is they won’t be restricted to the classroom; on the contrary, anywhere, anytime access to their learning platform will mean learners are engaged for much longer periods of the day.

Moodle’s Open Badges can be used to recognise any achievement. They can be created by the school to give to students, and with each badge containing metadata – including what the badge is for, when the badge was given and who by – they can be carried all the way through the student’s learning life. Open Badges aren’t restricted to your Moodle either; they can be displayed on the ‘backpack’, ‘pinned’ to a student’s profile – but can also be added to CV, or displayed elsewhere online.

Improve collaboration

Key to your Moodle VLE’s survival is collaboration. Particularly back in the early days of the learning platform, many schools adopted this new, digital-age way of working but gave up on it within months. Simply, they struggled to understand and see the benefits of a VLE.

Aside from the fact that some schools adopted cheap imitations of the Moodle idea, but with half the features or functionality, just not enough people were using them. Just like any community, VLEs need multiple users actively engaging to keep them alive.

Think of how many games work: often in teams, a number of people working hard to be successful in any given task. With a learning platform accessible to students whether they’re at school, at home or at a friend’s house – basically, anywhere with an internet connection – learners will continue collaborating outside of the classroom to help reach their common goal.

As this case study explains, cooperative working is an invaluable skill when learners enter the world of work – and therefore gamification, through improving collaboration, is preparing young minds for real world problems and challenges.

So, collaborative working will improve the experience and success of your Moodle in school. And likewise, your learning platform can make collaborative learning much easier!

Watch grades go up

Kaplan University reported last year how implementing a gamification strategy paid dividends.

The American University wanted to improve pupil engagement and interaction with both their work and their fellow students. They decided to employ gaming techniques such as leaderboards, challenges, quests and badges to make learning more fun in the classroom, and found that bringing out students’ competitive streaks via their learning meant time in the classroom increased and, ultimately, grades went up.

In fact, after implementing gamification techniques, the failure rate actually dropped by 16%. Additionally, time spent in class was up to 10% higher than previously, and the number of posts on online discussions rocketed, too.

The idea of ‘do this, be rewarded with this’ is a strong incentive for learners to work harder – and with Moodle, you’re giving them the tools to be more actively engaged in a way of learning they enjoy.  

Plus, not only does gamification improve engagement, build collaborative working and ultimately help to improve grades, it actually helps to build better students overall. Placing students in a gamified real-life environment means they have to solve real-life problems. This is great for lateral thinking, and therefore expanding the mind, and helps a learner to apply solutions to different situations.

If you would like to see how Moodle and gamification can help engage your students more, please get in touch.

4 challenges international schools face with e-learning providers

Over the past 15 or 20 years, we’ve watched as the Internet has made the world a smaller place.

There’s no reason to have to wait days or weeks for information or correspondence. In fact – there’s no reason to have to wait minutes any longer.

The world wide web has provided us with the means to communicate and discover the information we need by just clicking a mouse, or tapping a screen. Learning has evolved alongside the growth of the Internet, too. Online learning is become less of an option, and more of an essential part of everyday school life.

But what happens when you or your school is looking to move to an online learning platform – and the best options are from overseas providers? Is that an issue? We’ve looked at four challenges faced by international schools when dealing with an overseas learning provider, and how best to get around these potential barriers.

 

On-boarding is a struggle, and the language barrier doesn’t make it easier

Adopting an online learning platform in your school or college, or even just moving from one online learning provider to another, is a big change.

It’s a bit like moving house – finding what you need is tough because things are in a different place, or you keep getting lost, or not everything is ready when you want it to be.

It’s made tougher still if the online learning provider is overseas – and particularly if there’s a language barrier.

Choosing a VLE that’s easy to use will make a massive difference. If the system is intuitive, and ‘does what you’d expect it to do’ there will be less of a struggle convincing staff and students to use it. Additionally, it means you’re less reliant on the provider to train and support you all the way through.

Speak with other schools in your area, see a few demonstrations, and check the testimonials of any learning platform provider you’re considering. Even a short demo should give you an idea of how easy a given VLE is to use.

 

The support might not be there when it’s needed

Of course, being overseas generally means a time difference, and a time difference means your working hours will not be exactly the same as those of your provider.

On top of that, online learning by its very nature means it’s accessible anywhere, at any time.

Make sure your provider can be there whenever you need them, to provide help and support, and fix any issues that may arise. It would also be beneficial if your provider is accessible via different communication channels – be that phone, email or chat. The last thing you want  is for your VLE to hinder learning – so make sure the support is in place to prevent that from ever happening.

 

You’re finding it’s down to you to set the agenda

If you’re only at the design stage of your learning platform and you’re already chasing your new learning platform provider for designs, project dates or contracts, you know you’ve got a problem.

Ensure you chose a provider that appears to be proactive right from the word go. By that, we mean a provider who’ll come to you with suggestions for the design of your VLE, and who will look at the size and needs of your school and come back to you with a fantastic, bespoke solution – rather than you having to work out for yourself what you need.

Ask them how they see the learning platform developing over the coming years, and how a VLE in your school will transform learning. Ask about forthcoming developments and how their learning platform can keep on improving and supporting your students’ learning.

Choosing a proactive learning platform provider should pay off weeks, months, or years down the line, when they’re suggesting changes and updates to your VLE, and showing how developments in technology will benefit your school more and more.

 

The provider is not used to working with schools overseas, and don’t understand your needs

There’s always a first time for everything – but do you want to be the first school to be working with an overseas VLE provider?

Always go with a provider who has experience of working with international schools. They’ll already understand all of your needs and expectations, and may have a good idea of how other schools in your country are developing the provision of learning to students by going online.

Check out any case studies the provider has on their website, or a ‘recent work’ section. It’ll give you a good idea of whether they can work with schools in other countries or not. Also, simply getting in touch and chatting to them about your VLE requirements will give you an idea of whether they’re going to understand your school’s needs.

Above all, when choosing an overseas online learning platform provider, make sure you’re 100% confident that they can transform learning in your school. If, after discussing your needs with them and seeing a demonstration of their solution, you’re not convinced – look elsewhere!

Saying that, there is little reason why working with most overseas VLE providers shouldn’t run smoothly. With the system being online, they can make changes, offer guidance or repair problems instantly from their own location.

The Internet has made communicating and discovering the information you need an instantaneous experience – so don’t see working with an overseas online learning provider a challenge – see it as broadening your choices, scope and experiences!