Gamification in On-Line Learning
co-written by Jessica Guichon & Jennifer Hillman
Gamification is an increasingly trending concept in the teaching realm, especially with artificial intelligence (AI) gaining speed. It is a topic that we both found interesting, but it has been more on the fringe of our experiences without either of us having in-depth knowledge of it. Asking ourselves about what advantages/disadvantages there might be to using gamification, and what types of gamification tools are available for educators, we thought it would be valuable to gain a better understanding of gamification and how it can impact learning. So, we started to play. Yes, quite literally we got to play…
What is gamification in on-line-learning?
Gamification is defined as “the process of applying game elements to non-game contexts.” It stimulates learners to engage in collaboration by inducing fun and friendly competition with peers, and it maximizes learning by improving motivation and engagement. This makes gamification especially useful for topics where boredom, repetition or passivity are dominant.
Academic research on gamification
As it is a significant educational trend, there is a fair amount of reliable research available on gamification in learning environments. Using Google Scholar, we looked at several articles published within the last 10 years. We had 3 that were peer reviewed - Gamification and Learning: a Review of Issues and Research (Faiella & Ricciardi, 2015), Reflection: Benefits of Gamification in Online Higher Education (Kaufman, 2018), and The Impact of Gamification on Learning and Instruction: A Systematic Review of Empirical Evidence (Zainuddin & al., 2020) - as well as one non-peer reviewed article, Game-Based Learning: Pros, Cons & Implementation Tips for Educators (Nisbet, 2024). From the research, we found a number of advantages and disadvantages to using gamification in learning:
Disadvantages
Advantages
The token economy. Students can become too focused on the rewards available in some gamification technology and lose sight of the value of learning
Gamification can require quick thinking from the learner. Some students may prefer to have time to digest the material and think on it before having to showcase what content they absorbed
Poorly designed games can be distracting and take focus away from other priorities
There can be technology learning curves associated with gamification
Integrating gamification into your teaching can improve the levels of motivation and engagement. Gamification can help educators “bridge the gap between passive stagnation in a course and active engagement with the course material to increase their grades earned and course-wide satisfaction”
Gamification based on a rewards system can motivate learners to work harder
Gamification is a way to introduce new technologies to students and help them have a better understanding of the options available to help them learn
Gamification can stimulate positive competition by revealing scores on leaderboards
It can encourage critical thinking skills and help the learner reflect on their own past experiences
“Gamified” educational tools that are available
So, what does gamification look like? We found that this article on the TOP 8 Great Gamified eLearning Examples in 2024 - by Sean Bui on the eLearning Blog - provided some great context. Here are a few of the examples Sean provided for on-line gaming tools, with videos so you can watch how they work in action:
We signed up for a free version of Kahoot, which is a popular platform to turn quizzes into interactive, competitive games. Games are available for up to 10 players to engage simultaneously, or you could invite people for asynchronous play. We found it super easy to get going very quickly, it was great to use in an on-line setting with a small user base, and it was a fun, engaging way to provide immediate feedback on learning.
The wildly popular Minecraft game has a learner edition - Minecraft Education! It allows students to explore, create and collaborate using the Minecraft 3D world. Students can build within it, work together to solve problems and complete tasks, work on communications skills and develop social and emotion learning on skills like teamwork and time management.
Duolingo is a well known platform to make learning languages easy and fun. With bite-sized lessons that are meant for quick daily dosing, it also uses points and reward systems to keep users motivated to make language learning a daily habit. It is less collaborative with others than some of the other platforms, but Duolingo does have a friend streak feature, where users can invite up to 5 friends to support and encourage each other to finish their daily lessons.
There is also support for Spanish, English and French learners with Duolingo Podcast, providing 300+ episodes of short stories for users to practice their intermediate level audio comprehension skills.
Quizlet has interactive flashcards, practice tests and study activities, so that it can be used to learn material as well as study and provide learning feedback. It also has the option to sign up for free, so educators can explore how they might use the program to create engagement.
Educators can use Quizlet live to create collaboration and competition during class. Alternatively, educators can also help students to use Quizlet for self-directed learning, encouraging students to create study sets, use study models or use learn mode to create a personalized study plan.
As another alternative, we also looked at a software tool specifically built for on-line education. Bramble and Bramble Broadcast advertises the capacity to talk, sketch and share resources in real-time, and it provides recording and transcription for later playback. We include it in this discussion because of an experience using Bramble with a large group (over a hundred participants) as a social interaction tool in a semi-formal setting. It had a video-game-esque display reminiscent of the game Animal Crossing, and operated much like a video game in how users interacted. Users created their own avatar and freely wandered through different spaces and rooms, engaging in conversations with people near them, playing games with other users, or collaborating in workspaces with whiteboards and office tools.
Insights for Teaching
After looking at the research, and literally getting to play some games in preparing this blog, we came to two conclusions for gamification in our future teaching:
There is a time and place for gamification. By incorporating game elements into “boring” tasks, the instructor has the ability to increase intrinsic motivation levels. We need to be mindful that the motivation created is intrinsic however, because when extrinsic motivation is increased, research shows that there can be a significant drop in intrinsic motivation, resulting in less enthusiasm for work.
It is important to check-in with students to gauge the comfort level of their interaction with different modes of gamification. Some students do not gain anything by competing with their classmates. The voluntary nature of student participation is a must as research suggests that the value of gamification is greater when students can choose.
Resources
Animal Crossing. (2024). https://animalcrossing.nintendo.com
Bramble. (2025). https://about.bramble.io
Bramble Broadcast, (2025). https://about.bramble.io/bramble-broadcast.html
Bui, S. (2024, September 3). TOP 8 great gamified eLearning examples in 2024. eLearning. https://flearningstudio.com/gamified-elearning-examples/
Duolingo. (n.d.). https://www.duolingo.com
Duolingo Podcast. (n.d.). https://podcast.duolingo.com
Faiella, F., & Ricciardi, M. (2015). Gamification and learning: a review of issues and research. Journal of elearning and knowledge society, 11(3). https://www.learntechlib.org/p/151920/
Kahoot. (2025). https://kahoot.com
Kaufmann, Daniel A. (2018). Reflection: Benefits of gamification in online higher education. Journal of Instructional Research, 7, 125-132. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1188367
Let’s Do Video (2022, June 28). Bramble - A new way to collaborate [Video}. YouTube.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjVePyvH_QM
Minecraft Education. (2025). https://education.minecraft.net/en-us
Nisbet, Jordan. (2024). Game-based learning: Pros, cons & implementation tips for educators. Prodigy. https://www.prodigygame.com/main-en/blog/game-based-learning/
Quizlet. (2025). https://quizlet.com/ca
Zainuddin, Z., Chu, S. K. W., Shujahat, M., & Perera, C. J. (2020). The impact of gamification on learning and instruction: A systematic review of empirical evidence. Educational research review, 30. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2020.100326
