Experience points to improved learning with gamified activities

Gamification is defined as ‘the application of game design elements in non-game contexts to improve user engagement’. Successful game elements are those that enhance, not distract, from the learning intentions, such as choice, challenges that offer instant feedback, and rewards. For a gamified learning project I am doing in class at the moment, I wrote a spreadsheet that acts like a game for the children. They complete independent activities and gain experience points, which are called XP, for doing so. They enter this XP on their spreadsheet next to the activity and once they get enough, they level up. The next levels open up different activities that they can do.

Earn free time

They also earn ‘free time’, that is measured as a percentage of the XP that they gain. There are rules around taking the free time, which I talk about and explain when I launch the project. There’s also a story that runs behind the spreadsheet as well.

I’ve been running this for about five years and, each year, the children contribute their ideas and we change the spreadsheet together. It started off just being for reading and then they convinced me into including all sorts of other activities, including maths, writing, and others. As such, the sheet of today is quite different from the one I introduced back in 2018!

By Lisa Everett, Nukumea School

Having the spreadsheet allows me to give the students agency over their learning. They choose the activities they want to do. There are too many for one student to complete in a week, so there is lots of choice. It also stops the children from interrupting me during group lessons asking what they can do next.

Questions and quests

For anyone interested, there are some simple ways to gamify a classroom. Things like:

• Create a system where students earn points for homework, correct answers on assignments, or for answering questions;

• Turn lessons into quests where students can have the choice of what they do; and

• Create achievements for activities. Rewards could include leaderboards, extra time for assignments, students creating their own quests, and badges for achievements.

Enjoyment and ability

The results of my project have been positive. For reading, both the students’ enjoyment and perception of their own ability has increased from before to after the inquiry. Pre and Post Probe tests were completed on a sample of students across a range of academic level. These results show the impact over only eight weeks. All students tested show accelerated learning over the course of the inquiry.

I am thinking of expanding on the project (perhaps even get it coded into a proper game). From July, I am starting my Masters and am hoping my studies will give me the vehicle in which to look into the expansion.