Motivations by Nichole Burrows (CC BY 2.0)
In the last blog post, I talked about gamification and education. In this one, I would like to write about gamification and motivation.
Gamification can be used in different areas. As I wrote in the last blog post, using gamification in education can motivate students’ engagement. According to Alsawaier (2017), “The use of gamification could provide a partial solution to the decline in learners’ motivation and engagement the schooling system is facing today”. So, what exactly is the effect of gamification on motivation and how does it work?
The effect of gamification on motivation can be clearly shown by listing some examples. For instance, imagine you are a student, and you are now listening to a teacher. This teacher is teaching in a very traditional way, he is reading complex points in a common tone. So in this case, do you feel drowsy? Do you feel that you do not want to continue listening to him anymore? Now let’s move to another teacher’s class, she is leading a quiz game about the knowledge that she is teaching, and the students who get it right get candy from the teacher! So if you need to make a choice to attend one of the classes taught by the two teachers, which one would you like to choose? I do believe that you will choose the second teacher, as she could motivate students’ engagement with learning by playing small game with them and providing rewards.
Rewards by GotCredit (CC BY 2.0)
In the example I list above, you may realize that one of the key elements of gamification is shown, which is rewards. According to Boulet (2016), gamification can stimulate students’ motivation to learn, and students will work hard to get rewards. However, the effect of gamification on motivation can be both positive and negative, and it depends on the target user. For some students, if there is no reward, they will lose the motivation to learn, and they may even not complete the task. So that’s why gamification’s effect on motivation depends on the user itself. For me, gamification can really arouse my enthusiasm for learning. We should try to avoid some of the potential negative effects of gamification, and at the same time, we should believe that using gamification is a good way for us to stimulate and maintain motivation.
Reference List
Alsawaier RS (2017) ‘The Effect of Gamification on Motivation and Engagement’, International Journal of Information and Learning Technology, 35(1): 56-79, http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/IJILT-02-2017-0009
Boulet G (23 July 2016) ‘Gamification And Motivation: It’s The Content That Matters, Not The Container‘, eLearning Industry, accessed 26 April 2021.
GotCredit (16 March 2015) Rewards [photo], Flickr, accessed 26 April 2021. Available under Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0).
Nichole Burrows (19 June 2015) Motivations [photo], Flickr, accessed 26 April 2021. Available under Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0).
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