Harnessing the power of video games to improve student achievement in higher education

Educators are slowly coming round to the idea that the massive appeal and variety of experiences within video games can be tapped into to create richer, more personalised, educational experiences, which could suit the current generation of learners in higher education more than traditional methods of teaching and learning alone. What is unclear, however, is how games can be applied within higher education courses and the type of learning outcomes they are most suitable for. The purpose of this paper is to draw on a range of studies into gamification and examine its usefulness as an educational tool on university courses. I will focus first on the growth of gamification and how it compares as a learning tool with other teaching methods. I will then examine the educational value of popular video games. The next section will consider the main attributes of gamified systems, drawn from studies into educational games in a higher education context, and I will subsequently give examples of different types of gamified systems that have been used in universities. Following this, I will compare some primary research studies into gamification in higher education. Drawing on this information, as well as my reading, I will try to identify types of gamified learning systems that have motivated university students to engage with learning and achieve their learning goals, as well as any that have been less successful. The results will show that while students generally perform better on courses that employ gamification
elements, this is not universally true.