Augmenting Open and Distance Learning through Gamification
Augmenting Open and Distance Learning through Gamification
Augmenting Open and Distance Learning through Gamification
S K Pulist
Abstract
"The distance learning and online learning have proved their impact at various levels of education during the past years. The comfort of the students and teachers in use of the educational resources at a distance has made the educational institutions to rethink about the integration of technology in their instructional design at different levels. The enabling provisions by the University Grants Commission of India through promulgation of University Grants Commission (Open and Distance Learning Programmes and Online Programmes) Regulations, 2020, have helped the ODL institutions to make use of online resources to the extent of 40% of the course content (UGC, 2020). This has made the ODL institutions to make experiments with the instructional design of their programme by integrating different learning elements to enhance the efficacy of their instructional methodology. Now a days the gamification is being tried in different areas such as production, marketing, sales, health, staff training and development, entertainment, sports, finance, social, ecological settings, etc., including the field of education (Miciuła & Miciuła, 2015). Use of Gamification in educational context is not very old though it is gaining momentum day by day. With continues growth, people are realising the importance of introduction of game mechanics in educational process. Games have been part of every culture and have been primarily used as a tool for entertainment. The advent of internet has helped the process of gaming to be online. Resultantly, a huge gaming industry has come up. The concept of gamification is comparatively new but the tools and techniques it uses are not new. It is believed that Nick Pelling first used this concept in the 2002 (Zichermann et al., 2011) though it became well known only after availability of internet after 2010. Gamification has become a growing trend of the 21st century. The organisations have been using the gaming elements in professional development of human resources. The concept is liked more by the Y and Z generations people who are part of the workforce (Miciula & Miluniec, 2019). In sales, sports, insurance and leisure industry, the customers are motivated to earn more and more points as bonus which are then discounted on purchase of some valuables. The organisations can make use of gamification for enhancing productivity of their employees and quality of the products (Para, 2021). Challenges are posed before the users in the form of games which they have to overcome level by level and earn bonus points. In education and professional training, the techniques of the game are used to solve real life problems making the process more interesting and engaging. The core components of gamification are Page | 2 engagement of the participant, change and reward behaviour, and problem-solving (Tkaczyk, 2012). According to Miciula & Miluniec (2019), the activities performed by the participants are directed towards specific goals other than mere game or entertainment. With the help of introduction of gaming elements, the boring stuff can be made interesting, and thus participants can be motivated to take active part in the process. The participants derive motivation through pleasure which is attained on account of “overcoming the next achievable challenges, competition, cooperation, etc.” (Miciula & Miluniec, 2019). While online learning is already using different components of synchronous and asynchronous mode for making learning more interactive, outcome-oriented and enjoyable, conventional distance learning also can be revolutionised with the implementation of game mechanics in instruction delivery. Gamification provides a learner-centred environment and, thus becomes more engaging and promotes learning through problem solving by posing challenges gradually level by level. It can be an enabling and game changer tool for enriching the learning experiences of the distance learners. The ODL institutions can use gamification as a teaching learning strategy alongwith other strategies, keeping in view the objectives of the content to be delivered. It can be implemented as a basic tool as part of the instructional design."
Reference
Pulist, S. K., & Sharma, R. C. (2024). Augmenting Open and Distance Learning Through Gamification. In Digital Transformation in Higher Education Institutions (pp. 87-102). Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/367340709_Augmenting_Open_and_Distance_Learning_through_Gamification
Keywords
gamification, learning, online