The Benefits of Game-Based Learning: Strategies for Incorporation

7 Strategies to Incorporate Game-Based Learning

Ask any urban parent what they are most worried about in their children’s upbringing, and they will unanimously complain about kids spending way too much time playing online games. Even though we are well into the digital era, there is still a common perception that being online for longer hours or playing online games is detrimental to children’s development. However, this could not be more untrue. Of course, I am not promoting the idea that children should spend the entire day staring at the screen, but there are numerous benefits of gaming-based learning that have been proved through studies.

There are complex reasons behind this university assignment help, which I am not describing here. But I can certainly list down some of the benefits students can enjoy through game-based learning and how we can incorporate these strategies efficiently –

Before we know the benefits of the strategies, we should know what game-based learning is. It is nothing but a modern teaching approach that uses customized or third-party content to teach students but in a gaming environment. The main aim of this kind of approach is to make the who education system interesting and motivate the students to learn new skills with lesser stress.

Here are ten advantages of implementing game-based learning –

1. Helps to retain learning insights
2. Stimulates the imagination

• Learn through familiar devices

1. A lifetime learning experience
2. Learn through practical experiences
3. Helps to simplify complex concepts

• Improves sales
• Reduce chances of failure in real-time

1. Collaborating with the team
2. Better receptivity to learning

To avail of these advantages, game-based learning strategies should be implemented in all forms of education. Here are seven strategies that educational institutions should implement to drive motivation and engagement –

1. Take students on personalized journeys

The best way to motivate students to learn is by engaging them on an enticing personalized journey. Many institutions prefer prearranged courses to educate the students. Instead of doing so, they can make game-based templates to offer an experience that focuses on the preference of the learners. This approach may involve techniques like customized characters, avatars, personalized game paths, and difficulty levels for each stage.

2. Sell stories, not short narratives

Have you wondered how popular TV shows pull their viewers every week or every month? That trick is quite simple; they sell a compelling story every week. From “FRIENDS” to “Brooklyn 99”, they maintained a high TRP only through gripping stories.

Similarly, you need to design a game-based learning strategy around a solid storyline. The story should have a purpose and should motivate the students to advance and discover what will happen next. Many digital educators make the mistake of coming up with short narratives which seem disconnected and fail to make a solid impact.

3. Learning instead of competing

The common notion about games is that some will win while some will lose. However, in game-based education, you should not promote any kind of competition. In the GBL context, students can only learn instead of focusing on “winning”.

Instil the idea that they should focus on only learning. Give every student enough opportunities to “lose” so that they learn. In game-based learning, there should not be any “game over” if one makes a mistake. This strategy encourages the students to go back to the learning process and try finishing the modules despite multiple errors.

4. Give feedback, not results

Just like the strategy should be to foster learning instead of competition, the end results of game-based learning should end with feedback and not results. There is no better way to boost student motivation than encouraging, promoting, and guiding them continuously through game-based learning.

When students can learn without worrying about the result, they can learn freely with no stress. The instant and continuous feedbacks enable the students to introspect and take necessary steps to better themselves while being in a “game”.

5. Position it as a team game

While designing and implementing game-based learning modules, position the learning modules as team games rather than individual sports. This helps young minds to understand the benefits of working as a team. They learn to collaborate with other students, which is a skill everyone needs during advanced classes. This also fosters healthy competition among students, and they learn how to work together to achieve a bigger goal.

6. Make it mobile-friendly

The current crop of students is very comfortable with mobile phones. Almost everyone carries one and spends a lot of time looking at mobile screens. Moreover, there has been a steady proliferation of mobile games. So, it is only logical to design any game-based learning modules as mobile-friendly. Introduce small-footprint games, download-friendly content, and make the games more interactive.

Making the game-based learning modules cell phone-compatible also makes them much more accessible, and students can learn any time they want with a few taps.

7. Keep offline learning modules

Most of the game-based learning modules available are online courses. However, another strategy to make my assignment more popular is implementing offline courses. Features like an offline library, where students can download courses and study at their pace, can be a welcoming introduction. Moreover, the option of “playing” offline helps many students to learn on the go or during traveling when the internet connectivity is unstable.

Wrapping Up:

Game-based learning is already creating a stir in the education sector. Students and parents are understanding the benefits of this form of learning, and this is paving the way for more innovative strategies. However, it must also be remembered that L&D teams cannot replace traditional learning methods completely. The traditional methods are also needed, but modern educators can certainly integrate the game-based learning style into the traditional methods, to yield better results. This style improves the “stickiness” of the students, leading to more engagement and huge payoffs. So, by following these seven strategies, game-based learning materials can be successfully deployed, thus improving traditional learning methods and revolutionizing the education sector.

Author bio:

Henry Brooks is a leading professor in a reputed college. He has huge experience in technology and IT. He also offers logistic simulator assignment help to students on behalf of MyAssignmenthelp.com.