While gamification may hold much promise for teaching CS education, there are some limitations and constraints that are keeping educators from incorporating it in practice (Chee & Wong, 2017).
Higher Education VS. K-12 Education
Before delving into the issues of what is hindering the integration of gamification in CS education in the K-12 context, let us first take a quick look at the current state of gamification in higher education. It seems that gamification is making its way faster in higher educational institutions (Hung, 2017). You may have heard of Kaplan University’s successful implementation in creating a gamified system for their introductory programming courses; they reported that gamification encouraged learner participation and engagement (Shane, 2013). Under Resources, you will discover studies affirming the success of gamification when applied effectively and meaningfully in a variety of disciplines in the higher education context. Needless to say, this approach seems to tackle the low-hanging fruit of K-12 education (Behnke, 2015).
Challenges of Incorporation
These are just a few of the main restricting factors to gamification. Feel free to add your thoughts (to the prompts or others) as to why these elements would hamper the incorporation of gamification in teaching.
- Most educators do not possess game design skills or knowledge of gamification nomenclature.
- Integrating game design principles within varying educational experiences is challenging and time-consuming, especially for educators who are new to the gamification of instruction or have no guidance or support at their disposal.
- Gamification is not a strategy an educator can make up as they go. First, educators must determine which learning objectives can be achieved through gamification. Second, game-inspired learning elements and instructional tasks must align with these learning objectives, so that competencies can be transferred to the learner and demonstrated outside of the game. Conversely, learning objectives need to be connected to the game context for students to benefit from the entire experience.
- The diversity of learning styles and personality traits impact student responses to the gamification of instruction; some studies have found that students, who possess a more active or global learning style, are motivated by gamification. Extraverted students seem to like gamification, while conscientious students, who lean towards a traditional, structured learning environment and are more interested in achieving high marks, have a negative perception of gamification (Buckley & Doyle, 2017).
