What
is the gamification?
In the book "Gamification in
business" by Gabe Zichermann, a leading expert of engagement strategies design
between the companies’ employees and customers, the founder and CEO of
Gamification Co, the gamification is the introduction of gaming techniques and
mechanisms into business (the word "business" can be replaced by
"training/e-learning", etc.).
In the field of
e-learning, we should separate the concept of the «game» and «game course».
The game itself consists
entirely of gameplay and mechanics. Even if it is an educational game, the user
mostly uses his existing knowledge and gets minimum of theoretical tips.
The
game "VSP Simulation", that we have developed, can serve as a good example
of such games. The player's task is to effectively manage a Sberbank branch,
i.e. to work with individuals, hire employees, motivate and develop them,
manage their schedules, avoid queues, keep customers happy, etc. This is the application
and honing the player’s existing knowledge. In this case, a person spends playing
100 % of the time.
Another thing is a playing
course. Its main goal is classification and acquiring new knowledge. The
forefront here is the learning. Only a small part is borrowed from the games,
just some of the game mechanics. In this case, most of the time — 80-90 % — a
person spends studying the material, training, testing and verification of his knowledge.
And only the rest of the time he can spend on viewing of his achievements, ratings,
the joy of getting new points, familiarization with the plot and so on.
For these reasons, several
statements from the book "Gamification in business" seem to us to be
a little bit exaggerated. For example: "Instead
of training isolation and turning it into an autonomous activity not related to
work, gamification offers a completely new method: learning as a continuous rest".
Learning is not easy
and cannot be a game in the full sense of the word. The Philosophical
encyclopedic dictionary gives the following definition of the word “game”: "The
game is unproductive activity that is not undertaken for practical purposes but
is for entertainment and fun, bringing joy in itself. The game is different
from both, labour and from purely instinctive action."
In case of gaming courses in
e-learning, the game mechanics only add the motivation and engagement. But
that's good!
