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The educational niche is highly competitive. And due to the combination of powerful external actors like the global pandemic and the rapid development of the IT industry, the situation isn’t going to change drastically any time soon. In fact, the number of educational businesses that operate online is expected to grow.
In this regard, entrepreneurs have to understand not only how to create an educational app, but how to make it unique and appealing to the end user. One of the most popular tools that help to make a solution more marketable is gamification. This editorial was created to cover the topic of gamification in educational apps and determine if it actually is that effective, or if it is just another buzzword business owners shouldn’t really pay attention to.
The concept and techniques
The concept of gamification isn’t that hard to comprehend. In a nutshell, it’s adding game elements to a process that isn’t a game. And while gamification in educational apps is one of the most common ways to utilize this method, it can be applied to other industries as well. Marketing, healthcare, gambling, and even politics are among the niches that successfully implement gamification and benefit from it.
Basic strategies of gamification include rewards to stimulate the desired behavior and gratify the user and competition to keep the engagement level high. Which techniques can be used to incorporate gamification in educational apps? The selection is pretty wide.
According to Statista, the most common gamification elements American business tends to use include:
- Badges
- Points
- Rewards (virtual or physical)
- Leaderboards
- Levels
However, there are more gamification techniques than these five. There are also progress bars, challenges, performance graphs, avatars, teams, and different types of narration. The greatest thing about these elements is the fact that a business owner doesn’t have to choose just one. Actually, when it comes to gamification in educational apps, the winning strategy is to combine multiple methods to create a unique experience.
For example, Duolingo, one of the most popular language-learning platforms in the world and a gamification connoisseur, utilizes almost all of the techniques listed above. The users compete in leagues, and each of those has a leaderboard. While learning a chosen language, they earn badges for specific achievements and a certain amount of points for completing the lesson. There’s also a virtual currency called lingots that can be spent on in-app purchases. Moreover, Duolingo has an exclusive set of characters that appear during the lesson and encourage a user along the way.
Obviously, Duolingo’s approach will not work for everybody. However, it perfectly illustrates the concept of gamification in educational apps and how an entrepreneur can get inventive with it to cater to their audience.
The benefits
One of the first things business owners want to know about introducing game elements to the software is the list of perks it might bring. In other words, the most frequently asked question is, “Is gamification in educational apps worth it?” Well, considering the fact that the value of the global gamification market nearly tripled over the course of five years is the best proof that using this approach for an educational business has a lot of advantages. Now let’s examine the benefits in detail.
Skyrocketing engagement
Bringing engagement up is probably the biggest reason for introducing gamification in educational apps. It is a surefire way to keep the users invested in the learning process. Game elements make it easier for the student to go through even the most complicated topics without getting bored. Moreover, when competition gets added into the mix, it fuels the interest and passion for studying. As a result, users keep returning to the app regularly and stay motivated longer.
Ability to lead users to a specific action
It’s so much easier to gently guide a student to perform a certain task or action through the game than without it. Do you need a person to learn a specific number of words, remember a certain action pattern, use your app every day, or master a particular technique? Just add a challenge that requires a user to do just that and provide a reward. It will significantly increase the chances for a positive outcome.
Retention rates go up
It’s great to learn something new, yet an educational app can be called effective only when it helps users not just learn, but hold on to the newly acquired knowledge. Studies show that gamification helps us retain new information and utilize it when needed more easily. This is exceptionally useful when your app is aimed at teaching the users not just facts but practical skills, e.g., speaking a foreign language, touch typing, or driving.
User experience improvement
The whole point of gamification in educational apps is to make the learning process which can be boring, exhausting, and overall challenging more fun, pleasant, and easy. Essentially, the goal is to create a user experience that will assist the student’s progress, help them eliminate possible blockers, and achieve educational goals. If implemented correctly, every action taken by the user within the app is easy, motivating, and uplifting.
Investment in accessibility
Educational apps help users learn at their pace whenever it is comfortable for them. And learning apps with gamification elements take that idea even further. Game techniques can make the educational content relevant to a larger audience, including people with special needs. At the same time, if reaching out to a wide audience isn’t something you plan on doing, there’s always an option to select specific gamification elements that will work best for certain demographics.
The challenges
Some might think that implementing gamification in educational apps is a win-win that has no pitfalls or drawbacks. In fact, even such a useful addition to a learning system can be incorporated strategically. Otherwise, the results can be far from satisfying. So let’s list the most common gamification mistakes entrepreneurs make.
Lack of balance
Always remember that gamification is a “cherry on top,” a technique that is aimed at enhancing the learning experience, not interrupting it. And when too many game elements are introduced at once, they for sure can overshadow the main purpose of an app, which is learning.
It is a good idea to test everything out prior to the app launch because you want to make sure everything is just right: the challenges aren’t too easy or too hard to complete, the rewards are not too frequent or too rare, the storytelling is not distracting, etc.
Audience mismatch
Even the same gamification elements can be altered in a way to meet the audience’s expectations. For example, challenges, rewards, and encouraging messages in an education app for children will drastically differ from those in an app for adults. When a mismatch happens, the users may find gamification annoying and distracting, not fun and motivating.
It gets especially tricky when you want to build an application “for everyone” because there always be users that will not like the approach you’ve decided to take. The goal here is to make sure that this particular segment of the audience is a minority, while most of the students enjoy the app.
Zero progress
No, this one is not about educational progress. We’re talking progressive value of the rewards. Typically, when a person starts to use a learning app, the tasks are simple at first but get increasingly harder as time goes by. Many platforms that utilize gamification in educational apps somehow forget that the rewards should be harder to get and more valuable as well. Otherwise, the user loses interest in the app and essentially quits.
Wrapping up
We hope this editorial helped you understand gamification better and encouraged you to at least consider it for your project. This method can really boost your platform’s visibility and popularity, give the software the competitive edge it needs, and bring you profits. Take your time perfecting a strategy that will work for you, and best of luck!