Gamification platforms applied to education environments

Abstract

Gamification, or the use of game elements in non-game contexts, has been identified as a really interesting technique for improving motivation, effort and many others positive values usually appearing in games. While it has already been applied in different areas like marketing, human resources and even in cultivation of customer loyalty in the education field it has just been installed. The goal of this TFC is to define gamification concept and present the best known gamification techniques and game mechanics elements that could be used to get a motivating gamification experience. Part of this analysis consists in presenting a number of arguments both for and against of using this method in schools. The result of the analysis identifies the need of a gamification platform. This result leads to the second part of this project, researching which are the current existing platforms in the education field and group them based on their main features. A platform of each group has been chosen to design different gamification experiences. In the last part of this project a use case for each selected platform has been designed, identifying and defining all the necessary steps to make the gamificated activity as motivating and enriching as possible for both: the students and the teachers.