Playing games

Higher Education has been slow to embrace a technique and concept used extensively by corporate educators, many employers, social media and sport - gamification. (click on the link to provide a full explanation in the context of the undergraduate degree).

PICTURE COURTESY OF COOLDESIGN AT FREEDIGITALPHOTOS.NET

Key concepts in gamification are:

• The sense of competition - we love to win;
• Risk and Uncertainty - the unknown - not everything can be controlled by an algorithm;
• Opportunity to put lessons to use (feedback plus repetition)
• Complexity - just like real life, and
• Reward - Normally the warm glow of a job well done...but virtual badges and icons seem to work reasonably well too.

Oh, and another vital couple of ingredients:

• Imagination from the tutor and the students, and
• Risk (again) - but this time on the part of the tutor, it's so much easier to conform to traditional lecture and seminar formats.

So, what's stopping you?