Expanding the scope of learning

Think of the first time you tried riding a bicycle. You were likely introduced to it as a form of play, you experimented with the environment around you, built confidence step by step, learned from feedback as you picked up the skill of cycling. We learn by doing it. In most schools today, we begin with children sitting on benches and starting to learn in a more formal “one-size-fits-all” approach with an emphasis on rote learning. As we reach college, this can go beyond 100 students in a classroom. Are students equipped to learn and master skills to be successful in their careers?

What’s holding them back? Imagine you had a “smartphone” that was always static and could never be updated. Education feels that way for a lot of students. Education needs to be dynamic and adapt with the times, just like your real smartphone. Schools and colleges primarily enable students to learn to earn grades, be steered towards the process of earning them and less towards the process of gaining skills and knowledge. With repetitive assessments, students start to build a crippling fear of failure, and lack of experimentation. In recent times, the mode of online learning has added more layers of difficulty with social isolation, ambient distractions, screen fatigue and poor connectivity.

What are true motivators and goals for our students?

In psychology, self-determination is an important concept that refers to each person’s ability to make choices and manage their own life. This theory suggests that people are motivated to grow by three psychological needs: Autonomy – to be in control of their own behaviors and goals, Competence – the need to gain mastery and learn skill, Connection – the need to experience a sense of belonging or attachment .

How can gaming help?

Gaming is a space that is free of judgment, you are allowed to experiment and fail. It’s your own personal space. When you fail a level in your game, you don’t quit. Instead, you pick yourself up and find ways to better yourself and beat the next level. Sometimes, with the help of your peers and friends forming better social connection along the way. With creative and visually engaging challenges, games can be designed to encourage the learning activity to be the reward itself. You can also add progress markers in the game letting students know they are moving forward with rewards, badges and incentives and showing them the path to mastery. Mastery can be made fun with leaderboards and healthy competition with clearly defined milestones and paths to achieve them. Games can be an effective addition to the teaching toolkit and can enhance what teachers can achieve with a class of students.

The ed-gaming experience can further be personalized to the student by tracking patterns in consumption, their learning styles with an emphasis on learning by doing and using audio, video, and textual content. A gaming experience will have a far better recall than rote memorization. Aspects of learning that need memorization can be gamified to retain better and reinforced via assessments that can take the form of quests and fun exercises. Gamification creates a growth mindset and takes away the fear of failure.

With reducing attention spans, students are looking for reasons to care about what they are learning. They are looking for mechanisms to be more autonomous and express themselves creatively. Gaming might just be one of the tools to help them get there. It is important to note that teachers, pedagogy and learning paths are at the core of effective learning at scale. Gaming can only be an effective tool to address engagement challenges, social isolation, and a path to mastery if the core is in place.

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