Gamification: Learning made fun with Genially

This is a sponsored post written by Margarita Gonzáles Del Hierro from Genially

Do you ever feel like your students need a little extra push to keep going? You see them looking frustrated and ready to give up. Are you looking for new ways to maximize learning in your class?

What is Gamification?

Gamification takes typical game playing elements such as scoring points, competition, and rules of play and applies it to other areas of activity.  It helps your students find the fun in the little things and enjoy each of the classroom activities no matter how daunting they may look at first. With gamification, learning becomes fun!   

How is Gamification good for your classroom? 

When your students are working on a complex assignment and fail, they can easily lose motivation and interest. However, the situation changes if they are playing. Let's think about video games for a second. When we play, we become super powerful beings that are able to overcome any obstacles in our way. We are more likely to try again and again until we succeed. But why?

Games motivate us. They excite us. A game is a perfect mechanism that places us into a new role and makes us want to give the best of ourselves. This brings many benefits to your class:

• Your students become the protagonists of the activity. You will be making them feel like part of the learning process, maximizing their potential.
• Games increase concentration; chances are it will be easier for the class to solve complex problems if they are playing.
• When we play, we encourage persistence, and we are more likely to keep trying when we fail. This will lead to better results in the classroom and beyond. In other words, you will be preparing them for real life.
• Games boost collaboration and teamwork. Every team member will want to contribute. Participation in the classroom will increase.

All of this sounds almost too good to be true, right? Now, how do we make it happen? What do we need? It's easy with tools like Genially.

Genially is a web tool that helps you to bring your content to life and create interactive communication experiences. There are thousands of templates available which are organized under 12 categories that will inspire you to create all of your classroom learning materials: presentations, posters, infographics, maps...and of course, games, quizzes and breakouts!

Genially comes with hundreds of other resources, effects, animations, and incredible functionalities like audio recording and integration capabilities. If we combine all of these features with a super intuitive and easy-to-use interface, the rest are essential tools in your classroom toolkit.

How can you use Genially for Gamification?

Easy! A basic gamification example is this click-to-action creation! We can become Anubis and explore the weighing of the heart ceremony, or just compare two ideas to develop in a project.

We can create a quiz with just a few clicks and captivate your students while you challenge their knowledge of a certain topic. Check out this example of a storybook quiz template:

Quizzes are great for breaking the ice at the beginning of a lesson or to test how much your students know about the subject matter you are about to introduce.

Lastly, we can create complex escape games easily with Genially. How? With well-crafted breakout templates like this one that are ready to use, edit, and make your own. Watch your students get curious, motivated, and soon want to play and participate! Will they survive this journey in time?

5 Step Gamification

The moment has come. Start creating your own Genially quizzes and escape rooms and get your students engaged through play. Create games that will help review content, or challenge your students to create their own.

1. Define

The first step is to define your game starting with its pillars. Think about your classroom context and try to match your game with the curriculum, both in terms of content and goals. How are you going to measure results, what tasks you will include as well as the theme and timing are aspects to consider.

2. Plan

It often helps to create a diagram on paper first, especially for the most complex breakouts. This way you will ensure your slides are well organized and that your audience will go through the game and will be able to make sense of it and solve the challenge.

3. Choose

Go to Genial.ly and select a template! Choose among quizzes, escape rooms, board games and puzzles. There are so many options!

4. Edit

Add your own didactic materials and ask questions making use of the interactive elements and resources from our library to enrich your creation. Include elements that will allow your audience to touch, explore, and discover, maximizing student involvement at every level. You will be creating a memorable experience. Bring your resources to life with animations that will draw their attention. Learning will flow!

5. Share

Create hype and share your creation through your preferred channels and platforms! Discover all the options here.

Great! Now you have learned how to create interactive gamification experience in an easy and meaningful way. Register for free at www.Genial.ly and create your first game like this one:

Click HERE to try Genially for FREE!