Mostly everyone loves playing online games these days. Unfortunately, as an adult, we have a lot of responsibilities to do. Hence, gaming is often seen as wasting time. But what if we can play games while still getting some benefit?
There are many articles explaining how gaming is one of the best ways to learn and develop skills. The joy one feels when gaming can significantly improve learning. If you’ve never heard of this and are full of doubt, you can read our article about learning and gaming. There are even many studies saying that we learn when we play; and even more so, we learn things better when we play.
Play by FLIP is bringing you the game-based learning approach, where we design and create fun learning experiences via online games. Yep, online games. Here we learn about “serious” topics by playing online games. With this approach, we don’t have to feel guilty or unproductive when playing games, because we’re actually learning at the same time!
How will games improve our learning performance? There are at least three ways. First, games enable the ‘flow’, which research says correlates with the learning process. The second one is that this approach makes it possible to choose our own study time, whenever we’re ready. While the third one is that it allows the learner to get a whole and smooth learning experience. Each will be discussed below.
The chance to be in the “flow”
Some of us may have done something that made us feel “absorbed”. There’s something that makes us totally immersed until we ‘lose ourselves’, and our consciousness is focused on that time and space only.
This state is called “flow”. The theory about “flow” was presented by a psychologist named Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in 1990. He said that during the ‘flow’ state we are at the peak of our concentration. We forget the time at once because we want to, and even try to, keep doing the thing we do. People will experience ‘flow’ naturally when they do fun activities like art, sport, writing, gaming, and other challenging and fun activities.
Studies find that ‘flow’ correlates with the learning experience, especially on online learning schemes. A study says that ‘flow’ can increase participants’ motivation to review their lessons. Besides that, ‘flow’ also helps the participants maintain focus and spark learning motivation.
The game-based learning approach has a special characteristic that goes along with the criteria of people experiencing ‘flow’, which is the increasing difficulty level from one mission to another, hence the player gets constant challenges. In game-based learning, the players also get live feedback on their learning performance while playing, and it will motivate them to get better. With well-designed games, the players also get the chance to immerse themselves in the process of solving all kinds of challenges. The game also provides a safe space to make mistakes and learn from them.
Flexible Learning Time
Game-based learning allows us to learn in our own time. There are a lot of reasons why this makes things much easier, especially with a large amount of daily agenda and responsibilities. In a scheduled class, it’s very possible that we’ll have to sacrifice our other responsibilities. We may lose focus or need to multitask because we can’t afford to quit or take a break. Consequently, the targeted result is not achieved.
Attending game-based learning classes gives us the freedom to set our own schedule, and most importantly, set our own minds and mood before learning. Therefore, we have the chance to process the materials better and we get maximal results. Even more, the features in the games allow us to repeat and enjoy the learning experience as much as we want.
A whole and smooth learning experience
Game-based learning is designed to prioritize structured learning design principles with strict trials that make comprehensive learning possible, from sparking learning motivation, material explanation, exercises, and learning effectivity measurement. All these components are put into the form of a game designed to make it not resemble studying. Every stage of the learning transitions smoothly along with the gameplay. When the game ends, the player can actually feel like they’ve learned something from the gameplay.
With that many benefits we can get from the game-based learning approach, maybe it’s time to move on as soon as possible and change the way we’ve been learning. Don’t get tired of learning, because life never stops teaching. It teaches us to develop and grow as a person.
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