What are the potential drawbacks of using gamification for e-learning?

Gamification in learning aims to boost learner motivation, enhance course completion rates, and sustain engagement. It suits Gen Z learners who enjoy serious games for education and revitalizes dull content. However, it might deter older learners and distract Gen Z from true understanding, turning learning into a competition for points and badges. If not well-balanced, gamification adds superficial value, incurring significant costs for implementation and maintenance, potentially requiring expensive devices for access, and disrupting the learning process. It can lead to misguided motivations, dropout rates, distraction, and even unethical behavior, undermining the core learning objectives.

While gamification makes learning more engaging, it does not always guarantee improved learning outcomes. Learners at times become more focused on ‘Winning the game’ than on mastering the content. This is where the necessity for assessment becomes evident acting as a bridge between the motivational aspects of gamification and the core educational objectives...

When adding game elements to a task, it's crucial to do it correctly. Just having game-like features or a leaderboard doesn't mean it's true gamification. Proper design ensures it's engaging and matches learning goals. Always prioritize the learner's experience and make sure the game aligns with their needs

I have some experience with gamifying my courses, and it worked out OK. That being said, I now tend to gamify certain activities in a class without gamifying the entire course. The biggest pitfall I have encountered is when students focus more on the game elements than what they are supposed to learn from gamified experience. The game element (points, leaderboards, etc.) might reward the wrong thing, such as submitting assignments quickly rather than slowing down and being thorough. Another challenge to consider is that not all students like competition. For every person who is motivated to "win" or finish near the top, there might be a student who loses motivation because they don't like to compete.

Knowing your audience is key. One would imagine that gamification goes down better with a younger audience, but we've held sessions where older audiences have dived in without encouragement and younger participants required more attention. Sometimes younger audiences (particularly teenagers) may think that the use of gamification is your belief in their immaturity, and therefore reject it.So knowing your audience and communicating with them as to why you are using a gamified method will help set the scene.

Gamification is often the garbage wrapper put around mediocre content. You cannot merely add a scoreboard and points to training and call it gamified. If training is intended to be interactive, make it gameful. Build it from the group up with gaming interactions at the core of the experience that enhance the learning. It doesn't have to be a win-or-lose, maximum score style interaction. Make meaningful choices of how a game element like platforming or puzzle solving enhances the transfer of knowledge. In a world where most humans play games of some sort, it's on us as designers to implement gamification well. Learners can tell right away if the gaming elements are done well, or if we're just pandering to the latest craze.

You have to create a system that is inclusive and gives everyone a chance to excel. If the leaderboard leaders are so far ahead of the pack, it will disincentivize any newcomers from even participating. It needs to balance the experience for the spectrum of participants.

Understanding what can be considered "too many game elements" isn't easy. Further to that, studies have shown that while learners do improve their overall performance (information recall etc) when courses integrate elements of gamification, their original enthusiasm for game elements in courses wears off over time. It is important to alter the type of game, think quizzes as opposed to gamified project based learning activities which induce strong emotions, as well as avoiding over exposure.

Overdoing gamification can backfire. It's like too much seasoning in a dish; it ruins the taste. If every element is gamified, learners might lose focus. Balance is key. Just like a well-seasoned meal, a mix of gamified and traditional elements ensures e-learning remains engaging without overwhelming learners.

Not all learners are motivated by gamification elements (competition, points, challenges, and rewards) in similar ways. And while it is true that gamification leverages people's natural desire for achievement, designers must be mindful of diminishing marginal returns. Therefore, relying too much on gamification will distract from the learning objectives. The purpose of using gamification for e-learning is to enhance engagement, provide enough motivation, and achieve desired outcomes in a balanced, intentional way.

Gamified solutions such as Leaderboards and Ranked lists can be double-edged in this regard, in that they can promote healthy competition/adoption but also lead to people feeling surveilled. Having an option of appearing anonymous is one way to solve this, and speaks to the article's suggestion about maintaining transparency.

Gamification can be a total "game changer" in most educational spaces. One of the most problematic drawbacks is privacy, especially in the k-12 education space, where minors' data and learners' privacy can be violated. So educators and trainers should be thoughtful about consent.

It is also important to be mindful of the data privacy regulations in each country or region. Some countries require that their citizens’ personal data be stored in servers within their territories, which may limit the application of leaderboards and other applications of gamification that store and display personal data. Similarly, local and corporate cultural norms may also run contrary to certain applications of gamification. Teams may require a collaborative rather than competitive design. These highlight the need to understand your audience and the environment they are in to make the best use of gamification especially when personal data is involved.

Gamification is also believed to increase "Wokeness" among its target audience due to some of its inherent agendas inbuilt & incorporated by the creators, as observed by some experts. It can be used as a powerful & effective tool which can be used to change the very meaning of the subject itself like "Democracy" can be interpreted as "Demo-Crazy" by the creators! ??????

Leaderboards or rankings can adversely affect less-confident learners, confirming their preconceptions that won't succeed in the course or curriculum. They may struggle, disengage, or simply withdraw. Collaborative tasks and the gamification of group work can mitigate this risk.

While ease of gamification is arguably one of the key benefits of e-learning and getting learners to explore wide range of professional environments (e.g share trading or logistics management games), and learners generally percieve such games as fun, it is important to acknowledge a serious potential drawback. Gamification celebrates the spirit of competitiveness and as the learners are going to proceed to compete against one another, their study paradigms are likely to shift from LEARNING to WINNING. It can often lead to opportunistic or adventuristic game strategy selections as opposed to optimal ones just for the sake of winning the game. Likewise, some strategies/options may not be given a go in fear of ''losing the game''!

Gamification,especially the digital ones-as I am so biased to digital technology,is suiting all learning styles, but not teaching styles.The issue is always in the creator and designer of the game.It must be goal-directed aiming to fulfill and match with the ILOs and required graduate qualities. By the way, Gamification can work at all domains,Knowledge;skill and attitude as well as all processing levels like on analysis, synthesis and evaluation levels.But again this depends on the designer. It suites the digital generation, increases the motivation to very tough concepts and boring content.It enhances the transfer of learning to real life situation and let the student visualizes and realizes better what would be the future role look like.

Combining digital game and digital game boards with physical world and real people in the same location can be a challenge but it is very rewarding experience. This is effective team building when people can immerse into fictional digital game play but still physically be co-located doing things together. Pokemon Go being the good example of this idea. There are great examples of gamified geolocated solutions (Geocaching etc.) but they are not very inclusive and obviously are vulnerable to many technical glitches and a headache for planners & organisers.

E-learning companies have created a lot of dead ends over the years with funding money and energy being poured into expensive and ultimately useless learning video games. It is much better to train teachers in something easy to pick up like Twine, so they can begin creating and sharing by themselves

Gamification is a powerful tool that is becoming increasingly popular. But that power comes with great responsibility. In our efforts to design engaging learning, we sometimes find ourselves adding interaction/gamification just for the sake of it, not for a specific learning purpose. Gamification must always be used to support and facilitate learning. The only way to be sure it is doing so, is to have a strong evaluation method. If you find yourself unable to gather clear evidence of how the activity contributed to learning success, you might rethink whether the investment in gamification was the best call. It is important to focus on how it will align with your assessment and evaluation BEFORE you even think about development.

One of the pilots I was involved in from years back was gamified experience using a "Visual Diary" for reflecting the experiences of vocational students doing on the job learning part of their studies. They got points and rewards from every entry (reflection and feedback) they made. However it was not easy to retain their experiences in writing afterwards. By giving the extra points for visual note (image, video) accompanied with text they were more motivated and able to provide feedback afterwards. The retention & reflection of the learned topic was far better with visual aids. The competition with the others made them also try a bit harder and even show off a bit with their achievements when results and reflections were shared with group.

The following is most valuable: "To avoid this, gamification should be integrated and aligned with the learning evaluation and validation processes, and supported by data and research." Strategy is about choices and tradeoffs, but it is also about measurement and outcomes. And there can only be proper measurement with proper validation and assessment; hence, these processes must be developed beforehand and based on desired outcomes, benchmarks, and goals.

I agree, but on some level, just getting learners ENGAGED with their studies in the first place is the most important hurdle, at least for now.

The issue with gamification is overcoming desensitization. In a world where learners are familiar with video games, it's difficult to make simple gamification elements like badges or progress bars as thrilling as actual video games. However, this does not mean that gamification should be disregarded – in fact, it is crucial. Just like video games or social media, we need to reward learners for their engagement and accomplishments. Reward users for answering quizzes or providing feedback with real incentives or monetary savings, or allow learners to personalize their content delivery. By incorporating deeper and well thought out gamification elements, we make e-learning more creative and engaging.

In my view sometimes gamification can lead to superficial engagement, where learners tend to focus more on achieving rewards than on the actual learning content. This can adversely affect concept understanding and retention. Overemphasis on leaderboard style learning can create stress and anxiety for some learners. Moreover, in many given environments, not all content can be gamified. Some topics require a more traditional and serious approach.

Make it optional. This one basic approach ensures that those not wanting to engage in this way are not forced to whilst giving the option to those who desire it. This means not making it an essential part of your approach. It's also very important to understand what does/does not resonate with your audience. You may think they want to earn badges or have a leaderboard, but you may be surprised. Some simple research at the start can save you a lot of wasted effort. Finally, avoid getting stuck in a tech bubble. Great gamification is all about utilising game mechanics to support learning, not about a tab of settings on the LMS.

Realistic business simulations with real figures are a great and effective way to practise and learn decision making in safe environment. However many of them lack other gamified elements which would introduce fun and also a bit more emotions to the event. Emotions, as we know, are an effective retention element. AI supported conversational chat bots are also an interesting potential option to introduce Voice of Customer (VOC) to the experience.

Gamification can sometimes be too engaging, driving students to focus more on the overpowering game elements than the study material. Alternatively, a poorly designed game(s) can be boring, frustrating, or irrelevant for the students. Either way in my opinion gamification leads to superficial learning or creates an ethical dilemma.

Gamified eLearning is often compared to casual games. It’s aimed to be as fun as possible to keep the learners within the course for longer. The problem with this approach is that it assumes that people will behave at work as they do in their spare time, but people have a choice to pass their spare time as they wish. At work, employees don’t have that luxury as they’re pressured to complete their jobs on time. Their priority is therefore to complete the eLearning as soon as possible. Gamification should be a token of appreciation for their time and a means to communicate a topic effectively rather than an incentive to prolong a learning experience as this could result in frustration.