Instead of courses consisting mainly of textbook learning and lectures, classes built using game mechanics such as badges, experience points, levels and leaderboards, boost student engagement by allowing students to choose from “quests” and progress at their own pace through a series of educational activities.
Students are motivated due to personal choice and meaningfulness, real-time feedback, the ability to collaborate or compete, and over time, they learn stay persistent in learning due to prior successes. Quest tasks can range from listening to a podcast, collecting and analyzing real-time data, or watching a short video to partnering with a classmate for discussion or writing a short essay. As students complete each quest, they can level up to new assignments on their journey toward an “A.” Teachers have the ability to approve quests or put them on auto-approval so students can keep progressing while waiting for their teacher’s feedback on milestone work. Early research showed that on average students remained more persistent in quest-based learning™ compared to traditional assignments, with over 92 percent of students receiving “A’s,” and over 65 percent who continued to quest in a course after they already earned an “A.”
More on Quest-Based Learning™, Dr. Chris Haskell
Infographic on the Gamification Education