Differences Between Gamification and Game-based Learning

Reading Time: 2 minutes

One is a game, and the other only seeks to imitate games for didactic purposes. Find out which is which.

Differences Between Gamification and Game-based Learning
Gamification and game-based learning. Photo: barcelona.cat/Marc Gómez
Reading time 2 minutes
Reading Time: 2 minutes

Gamification and game-based learning are excellent resources for maintaining student attention.

Student attention is one of the most necessary pillars of a quality educational experience. Different teaching strategies have been developed to maintain student attention. Among those are both gamification and game-based learning.

Throughout diverse articles and webinars, we have covered some fundamentals of gamification, including projects where game-based learning has been applied. We often get comments with questions about how gamification differs from game-based learning. Below we will define both, emphasizing their descriptions and various uses in the teaching-learning process.

Gamification

Also called ludification, gamification is a teaching strategy that incorporates elements of game design and mechanics. The designed strategy or product is not a game itself, but it is nourished by recreational dynamics to motivate students to stay attentive and perform the class exercises.

The idea is to create an attractive teaching environment for the student that facilitates commitment to meaningful learning. Gamification can be used at all levels of education, from preschool to graduate school, and for training and workforce integration.

Examples of gamification can be found in the Nike+ app, which allows the user to set concrete goals and rewards and social interactions to keep students motivated. Another example is the app Habitica, a task checklist that takes elements of a role-playing game to feel that every daily task is an adventure within an RPG (ROLE-PLAYING GAME).

Game-based learning

This approach uses games as a means of instruction. The teacher develops or selects playful support material or content specifically to reinforce a particular topic or lesson.

Already existing games are almost always available to help teachers, but there have been cases where teachers have invented them to share with their students. For example, Jeopardy or Marathon is a fun way to go through resume material or Guess Who to remember essential figures of certain periods in history classes. For the most creative teachers wanting to develop their own projects, there are tools to create playful learning experiences from scratch.

Serious Games

Serious games are a third option very similar to the concepts of both gamification and game-based learning, and they can generate confusion about what distinguishes the three. These are games specifically designed for both having fun and teaching something.

One of the most transcendent serious games is the Microsoft Flight Simulator that revolutionized how pilots-in-training manage virtual resources. A Force More Powerful is another excellent example. The Breakaway Games studio created this experience to teach nonviolent resistance during armed conflicts under the historical framework of the Serbian war.

An outstanding Mexican entry to the serious games market is  Lost. Professor Ernesto Pacheco designed it to teach students to make logistical decisions and understand why they made them.

If you want to know more about gamification, game-based learning, and serious games, check out our EduTrends report in English and Spanish and our most recent webinar on gamification.

Did this article clarify your understanding of each of these educational strategies and their differences? Have you used any as a teacher, or have you been a student in a class where they have been applied? What was your experience? Tell us in the comments.

Translation by Daniel Wetta.

Sofía García-Bullé

This article from Observatory of the Institute for the Future of Education may be shared under the terms of the license CC BY-NC-SA 4.0