DEFINITION

Gamification is a group of elements of games that are applied to a non-game-context. It includes challenges, levels, rewards, leader boards, avatars, points and so on. The definition was invented by the American developer Nick Pelling in 2002, who said that his aim is to set the mechanism of games in the web’s properties in order to grow up the engagement of participants.

This procedure can be a helpful resource for learning of youth people. According to Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, a Hungarian psychologist who dedicated most part of his studies to gamification, when we play videogames we enter into a “flow experience”. It means that we are completely focused on our activity, we feel much pleasure and distractions don’t affect our brain.

To create this flow experience is necessary to set a clear goal to reach, with the right tasks and instant feedback that confirm if you are performing successfully or not. It increases the motivation of people but doesn’t constrict them to make more effort and concentrate because it allows to enjoy and to gain some reward if they complete a challenge. So it contributes also to creating more engagement.

From 2010 gamification was introduced in many environments, such as education, health and fitness, and even in companies, where it was used for strategies of non-based learning. Workers can learn more effectively with the help of digital platforms and develop skills through educational games.

For example, with the application “Forest” you can plant a seed, but you don’t have to watch your smartphone because, if you do that, it won’t grow. It’s a simple game to test your capacity to resist to your impulse to see a mobile phone and focus on a specific job to do. 

Gamification, in fact, has great potential for learning and productivity, especially among young people, but in order to realize it, it’s necessary to generate a system of games that can be spread in organizations. To start the process we have to develop education about the benefits and the correct use of these topics, and that is the main aim of the GROW project. 

Talking about gamification is often mentioned the topic “game-based learning”, but it’s a bit different to plan a gamification strategy and to elaborate and applicate this concept to learning. “Game-based learning” means an approach that adopts some didactics’ techniques through the introduction of games.

While gamification doesn’t obligatory needs game to be inserted in some environments like schools, companies and organizations, game-based learning consists in apply games that stimulate people to play challenges and to earn some reward and points and, by doing this, to participate in specific learning.

There are two types of games that are been studied. The first is free play, where there isn’t a person who establishes rules and limits to play but you can set a character who acts in a determined way to resolve problems. For example, if you are hydraulic you can think about how to put pipes in a house by using a website in which you can see the map of the building, materials, and so on.

The second is guided play. Here levels involve adults to continue playing to win prizes but, more importantly, to learn with critical thinking. They have to choose what action to do and develop personal and technical skills and reinforce their knowledge about subjects that are part of the program of teaching. People can also discuss and work together because they have the same goal.

So game-based learning is restricted to singular activities of play, while through gamification we can find a lot of solutions and possibilities to learn in a non-game context. But remember that the first can be used only for educational purposes. On the job, there is a big demand for abilities in problem-solving and teamwork, and a possible way to implement them is through games.

In fact, we enjoy playing videogames or board games and this behavior, if it’s replaced when we’re working, can produce more effectiveness and precision in your task. It’s a way that young workers may choose to be advantaged in a competitive world in which personal talents aren’t enough anymore.