This document summarizes the key differences between gamification and game-based learning. Gamification typically involves applying game design principles to non-game contexts to make them more fun and engaging. In education, gamification can be used to motivate learner behaviors through techniques like points, levels, challenges etc. Game-based learning instead uses existing games to teach subject matter, by linking gameplay to defined learning outcomes. While both can benefit education, gamification aims to modify behavior through fun experiences, whereas game-based learning uses games as a "playground" to experiment with concepts. The best approach depends on the specific teaching objectives.

1. “Gamification vs.
Game-Based Learning: Theories,
Methods, and Controversies”
Sherry Jones
sherryjones.edtech@gmail.com
@autnes
October 25, 2013
http://bit.ly/gamifyvsgbl2
“Gamification vs. Game-Based Learning: Theories, Methods, and
Controversies” by Sherry Jones is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

2. Gamification
Game-Based
Learning (GBL)!
Although the terms Gamification and Game-Based
Learning (GBL) have been used interchangeably, they are
2 very different approaches to transforming social
situations with game-like experiences. Let’s address the
theory and methodology behind Gamification and GBL to
understand why the 2 approaches are gaining steam in
education.
Ready? Let’s Go!

3. Theory: What is Gamification?
“Gamification typically involves applying game design
thinking to non-game applications to make them more
fun and engaging . . . . Gamification can potentially be
applied to any industry and almost anything to create fun
and engaging experiences, converting users into players.”
-- Gamification.org
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German-style_board_game

4. Methodology of Gamification
In education, we can use
game design principles to
change non game-like
classrooms into fun and
engaging game-like
environments, for the
purpose of motivating
and changing learner
behaviors.
Some principles . . .
● Points
● Levels
● Challenges
● Quests
● Rewards
● Leaderboard
● Achievement Badges
● Feedback Loops
● Progress (Status Bar)
● Conditions
● Context
● Complexity

5. Why Gamify?
“63 percent of respondents
agreed that making
everyday activities more
like a game would make
them more fun and
rewarding.”
“More than half said that if
a layer of competition were
added to their everyday
routine, they’d keep a
closer watch on their
behaviors and activities.”
-- JWT Intelligence (Jan. 14, 2011)
Read more:
Gamification Encourages:
● Fun
● Intense Focus
● Competitiveness
● Collaboration
● Camaraderie
● Retention
● Mastery (Fail often until
problem is solved)
● Meaningful Choices
● Productivity
● Joyful Optimism
● Creativity/Exploration

6. Gamification is Everywhere!
“By 2014, more than 70 percent of Global 2000
organizations will have at least one "gamified"
application, according to Gartner, Inc. Analysts said that
while the current success of gamification is largely driven
by novelty and hype, gamification is positioned to become
a highly significant trend over the next five years.”
-- Gartner Research (Nov. 9, 2011)

7. Effectiveness of Gamification?
“A Gigya survey showed gamification also increases
participation in online communities, with an average of 13
percent more comments, 22 percent more sharing on
Twitter and Facebook and 68 percent more content
discovery.”
-- Stop Press (October 2, 2013)

8. Let’s See Gamification
in Action!

9. Linkedin Gamified (Status Bar)

10. Nordstrom Gamified (Exp. Points)

11. FourSquare Gamified (Badges)

12. Kickstarter Gamified (Rewards)
Neverending Nightmares by Matt Gilgenbach on Kickstarter

13. College Syllabus Gamified (Levels)
Lee Sheldon’s Gamified Syllabus

14. Gamifying Class: Benefits+Problems
Benefits
● Make Classrooms more
fun and engaging.
● Motivate Students to
complete activities.
● Help Students focus and
be more attentive to
what they are learning.
● Allow Students engage in
friendly competitions
with peers.
Problems
● Gamification can
become become
predictable and boring.
● Poorly designed
gamified activities can
seem meaningless (if
learning objectives are
not well defined).
● Gamification can seem
manipulative (ethical
questions arise).

15. Theory: What is Game-Based
Learning (GBL)?
“Game based learning (GBL) is a type of game play that
has defined learning outcomes. Generally, game based
learning is designed to balance subject matter with
gameplay and the ability of the player to retain and apply
said subject matter to the real world” (Wikipedia).
In other words, game-based learning is the use of games
(analog or digital) for teaching a subject matter. The idea
is to get students to play with already made games to
fulfill a learning objective.

16. Why Use GBL in Education?
Why are Games Good for Learning by PIXELearning (Infographic)

17. Let’s See GBL in Action!

18. GBL Method - Physics + Angry Birds
The Physics of Angry Birds by Rhett Allain for Wired Science (Oct. 8, 2010)

19. GBL Method - Writing + Story Hero
“Logic Game: Story Hero” by Sherry Jones (Oct. 24, 2013)
Story Hero (The Game)

20. GBL Method - Math + Portal
Image: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2007/10/09/portal-almost-within-reach/
“Math of the Game Portal” by David Wees (Oct. 3, 2011)

21. GBL Method - History + Minecraft

22. GBL Method - School Curriculum

23. Research on Gaming and Cognitive
Health
● Gaming Linked to Greater Emotional Well-Being
During Aging, According to Study by Alexa Ray
Corriea (March 6, 2013)
● UCSF Study Shows Gaming Makes You Cognitively
Younger by Timothy J. Seppala (Sept. 5, 2013)
● “Video Games Can Help You 'See' More” by Journal
of Attention, Perception and Psychophysics (June 12,
2013)
● Video Games May Improve Reading Skills In
Children With Dyslexia: Study by Betsy Isaacson
(March 8, 2013)

24. Research on Gaming and Behavior
Improvement
● Video Game Takes Bold Step Against Youth Suicide
by Leslie Scrivener (Sept. 13, 2013)
● Video Games Do Not Make Vulnerable Teens More
Violent by Heidelberg (Aug. 26, 2013)
● Gaming Can Inspire Healthy Behavior, Study Shows
by Elizabeth Armstrong Moore (March 20, 2012)
● The Key to Unlocking the Virtual Body: Virtual
Reality in the Treatment of Obesity and Eating
Disorders by Giuseppe Riva, PhD (March 2011)

25. GBL Class: Benefits+Problems
Benefits
● Turn Students into
problem solvers and selfdirected learners.
● Foster Students’ design
thinking via game
making (create better
world systems).
● Allow Students to
engage in friendly
competitions with peers.
● Help Students learn to
analyze multimodalities.
Problems
● The Instructor, as the
sole troubleshooter,
must be quite familiar
with assigned games to
teach with them.
● Assigning games
without defining clear
learning objectives
reduces class time to
playtime only.
● Technology issues (PC
vs. Console gaming)

26. Not All Fun Activities Are Games
“Perhaps the best way to think about games in education
is not to automatically call everything that looks like fun a
‘learning game.’ Lumping all digital game approaches
together makes no more sense than a toddler’s inclination
to call every four-legged animal a ‘doggie.’”
-- Frank Catalano, Edsurge (August 20, 2013)

27. Let’s Play a Persuasive Game !
The Republia Times by Dukope

28. Let’s Play a Serious Game !
Acidosis by Twirlbound

29. Controversies

30. Criticism of Gamification:
The Loss of the Essence of Games

31. Gamification Produces ‘Skinner
Boxes’
“At worst, such [gamification] approaches mistake
games for Skinner Boxes, incentive dispensers that
dole out rewards for attention. But even at their best,
designers’ adoption of game principles run up against the
fact that games are fundamentally opposed to product
and service design principles. Games are inefficient; they
serve no purpose but to provide the experience that is
their very playing.”
-- Ian Bogost (September 19, 2013)

32. Gamification Eliminates the Spirit of
Games
“[Jane McDonigal] worries that gamification efforts fall
short when they adopt the mechanics of a game, such as
giving rewards for certain behavior, without adopting the
spirit of a game.”
“The good feeling you get when you play an engaging
game is what she calls ‘gamefulness.’”
“‘Lots of things have the bells and whistles, but not the
heart of a game,’ she said.”
-- Dean Takahashi on Jane McDonigal
(January 20, 2011)

33. Ethics of Gamification
“Whatever we do or refrain from doing, whatever we put
out there as a piece of design into the world has a
persuasive component. It tries to affect people. It puts a
certain vision of the good life out there in front of us.”
“Peter-Paul Verbeek, the Dutch philosopher of
technology, says. No matter whether we as designers
intend it or not, we materialize morality. We make
certain things harder and easier to do. We organize the
existence of people. We put a certain vision of what good
or bad or normal or usual is in front of people by
everything we put out there in the world.”
-- Sebastian Deterding (November 2011)

34. What is a Game, Really?
Game Definitions by Molleindustria

35. Games as Responses to
Postmodernism
According to Janet Murray, games answer the
postmodern problem of the multiplicity of meaning (no
single truth), because games offer systems that can help
“anchor” what we mean.
“Liminality in Games
● Games celebrate the magic of shared attention.
● Games celebrate the inventiveness of human powers
of symbolic communication
● Games create a space where we recognize the
plasticity of culture itself”
-- Janet Murray, Digra 2013 (August 26, 2013)

36. Conclusion?

37. Gamification vs. GBL
● Gamification = Turn the world into a playable and
meaningful game in order to achieve specific
objectives.
● Game-Based Learning (GBL) = Apply concepts to
interpreting the meaning of existing game worlds. Or,
reframe the game worlds as a “playground” for
experimentation and analysis of concepts.
Which One?: It all depends on your teaching objectives!
Want to modify student behavior? Gamify! Want to
“reframe” the world for students to experiment or test
concepts? Use GBL! Choose the method that best fits
your teaching objectives!

38. Questions? Comments?
Sherry Jones
Philosophy, Rhetoric, Composition
sherryjones.edtech@gmail.com
@autnes
http://about.me/sherryjones
Slideshow: http://bit.ly/gamifyvsgbl2