Beginnings of gamification
The roots of gamification can be traced to more than a hundred years ago, when Kellog’s cereal started giving away Funny Jungleland Moving-Pictures for free, after buying two boxes. Although it might seem strange, and may not be classified as gamification today, the motivator- fun- is what laid foundation for what we now know as gamification. The idea continued developing, and in 2011 the concept took off and many corporations started incorporating its elements into their campaigns (McCormick, 2013). That same year, Deterding et al. define gamification as the use of game design elements in non-game concepts. In this context, it is important to differentiate game from play, one being structured, the other much less so (Deterding et al., 2011) .
Potential in-classroom use
This begs the question- could these strategies, developed (mostly) through marketing tactics, benefit education in any way? The structure implied in game could be used to direct and guide students towards learning goals through rules and achievements. It could certainly motivate individual, as well as group effort in classroom settings, especially when it comes to revisions before exams. One important thing to note is how gamification differs from so-called “serious games”, which are fully designed for non-entertainment purposes, whereas, as stated before, gamification uses game elements for other purposes (Deterding et al., 2013). Gamification is already present in some Croatian classrooms, for example, in the form of the app Kahoot!, which allows teachers to make custom quizzes and approximately determine how their students are handling the material they’re learning (Gustović Ljubić, 2016).
Benefits of gamification have also been recorded in the EU, concerning social inclusion, spreading EU values, civic engagement, training and capacity building, as well as education and awareness. Gamification enabled EU citizens to participate in shaping EU policies through platforms like Citizens’ Dialogue and Europeana and connect them through collective action and solidarity. It also helped workers get familiar with new rules and regulations in their workspace. When it comes to education, it helps teach young people about languages, histories and institutions of different EU countries. The Europe Game is one of the projects involving gamification- it simulates decision making in the European Parliament, through which players can better understand how complex governing is (My Creative Networks, 2024). In this moment, the European Commission offers 196 courses on their European School Education Platform (European Commission, 2025).
In 2020, a board game named “Zadnja šansa” (“The last chance”) was released as part of the project “Nova pravila igre” (“New rules of the game”) in Croatia, and it focuses on ecological sustainability. The game is accessible to everyone in libraries, gaming associations and on the website of SMART association (SMART, 2020) which means it could be used in schools to educate students on the importance of taking care of the environment, especially now as the EU is moving towards more green policies.
Research
In 2014., Dicheva et al. published a paper reviewing published works concerning the application of gamification to education, explicitly discussing the use of game elements in education: “The use of educational games as learning tools is a promising approach due to the games’ abilities to teach and the fact that they reinforce not only knowledge but also important skills such as problem-solving, collaboration, and communication”. Its’ marketing roots are mentioned, as is its’ ability to shape a user’s behavior- next to eBay (an e-commerce platform) and Foursquare (a website that helps owners develop businesses based on their location), educational sites like codeacademy.com and khanacademy.com are given as examples that use game elements (in this case, badges) as rewards for completed courses. This leads to a very important question of whether game-like implementation can motivate learners and enrich their experiences regarding education. The authors came to the conclusion that, while there is (was) not enough data nor conducted empirical research, they agree that, if implemented correctly, gamification has great potential to improve learning. They also noted that computer science/IT educators are the first ones to implement gamification in their courses. Their final note is that educators must not forget to include elements that encourage development of intrinsic motivation in students and limit themselves to extrinsic rewards (Dicheva et al., 2015).
Gamification was also researched in higher education. In 2015., Buckley et al. noticed the lack of motivation and engagement in Millennial students, which prompted them to do investigate the effects on gamification in undergraduate and postgraduate students. It is important to note that the number of undergraduate participants was 142, but there were only 19 postgraduates. The gamified learning activity was based on tax calculation and their knowledge of national taxation system- the difficulty was adjusted to the students’ education level. After group discussions in focus groups, researchers concluded that undergraduates were more eager to participate and liked the experience because it was not strictly theoretical. Postgraduates, however, were not as pleased with it, as they felt the stakes were too high to “play games”. This points to many variables which must be taken into account in the process of gamifying a course or a class- class size, perceived stakes and level of education (Buckley et al., 2017).
Later, in their 2018 paper, Jerry Chih-Yuan Sun and Pei-Hsun Hsieh mentioned research previously done which centered aforementioned Kahoot!, which noted that its’ competitiveness helped students pay attention. However, their main critique of Kahoot! was that while it does promote student-student interaction if played in groups, it doesn’t promote teacher-student interaction, which ultimately lead to conclusion that it leaves a lot to be desired for and a new tool was needed to test the effectiveness of interactive response system (IRS). After conducting their own two-week study with 7th grate Taiwanese English students with a gamified IRS developed specifically for the study, they came to the conclusion that a gamified IRS improves intrinsic motivation and interest, as well as attention and emotional engagement (Sun and Hsieh, 2015).
Conclusion
It seems that since its’ beginnings gamification has had a positive image in researchers’ eyes. Most of them see the potential in it, as it engages students, makes learning a fun experience and allows them to better communicate with their teachers and colleagues. While it may not be completely suited for the highest level of education (postgraduates), when presented to young people, gamification has a positive impact on learning.
Croatian, and Western Balkan students in general, could potentially greatly benefit from gamification, especially in early learning. Western Balkan has a plethora of traditional children’s games that offer a great basis to connect them to school-related tasks and build upon. A simple game that has potential to be used in early education is laštik/lastik/gumi-gumi (elastic), which can include any number of players and only requires a piece of tied elastic. It can be modified to connect physical education and mathematics, developing motor skills while also reviewing addition and subtraction material by counting the amount of times someone successfully and unsuccessfully attempted to jump over the elastic.
It seems that the current research points to gamification being beneficial to education. Much more research would be needed for any form of radical change, but implementing small amounts of gamification throughout classes would possibly improve the learning process.
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LITERATURE
Buckley, P., Doyle, E., & Doyle, S. (2017). Game On! Students’ Perceptions of Gamified Learning. Journal of Educational Technology & Society, 20(3), 1–10. http://www.jstor.org/stable/26196115
Darina Dicheva, Christo Dichev, Gennady Agre, & Galia Angelova. (2015). Gamification in Education: A Systematic Mapping Study. Journal of Educational Technology & Society, 18(3), 75–88. http://www.jstor.org/stable/jeductechsoci.18.3.75
Deterding, Sebastian & Dixon, Dan & Khaled, Rilla & Nacke, Lennart. (2011). From Game Design Elements to Gamefulness: Defining Gamification. Proceedings of the 15th International Academic MindTrek Conference: Envisioning Future Media Environments, MindTrek 2011.
Gustović Ljubić, H. (2016.) Kahoot! kvizovi u nastavi https://www.profil-klett.hr/kahoot-kvizovi-u-nastavi
McCormick, T. (2013). ANTHROPOLOGY OF AN IDEA: GAMIFICATION. Foreign Policy, 201, 26–27. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24575963
Sun, J. C.-Y., & Hsieh, P.-H. (2018). Application of a Gamified Interactive Response System to Enhance the Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation, Student Engagement, and Attention of English Learners. Journal of Educational Technology & Society, 21(3), 104–116. http://www.jstor.org/stable/26458511
SMART, December 18, 2020, Isprintajte vlastiti primjerak društvene igre “Zadnja šansa”!, https://www.smart.hr/isprintajte-vlastiti-primjerak-drustvene-igre-zadnja-sansa/
My Creative Networks, European Union and Gamification, October 9, 2024, https://mycreativenetworks.com/news/2186039
European Commission, Course catalogue, https://school-education.ec.europa.eu/en/learn/courses?&keywords=gamification&sort_by=search_api_relevance