The Benefits of Game-Based Learning

By Amrhik Sahota

Published on Fri Mar 25 2022 00:00:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)

Benefit 1: Student engagement

As we all know, engagement is key when it comes to learning and understanding for your students. When students are engaged with the topics and show a keen interest, they are more likely to achieve a conceptual understanding.

A study has shown that the element of challenge when playing educational games positively aids the engagement of students. The study goes on to show that player immersion or affective engagement was higher when the difficulty of the game between levels was changed.

Most high quality educational games available have been carefully programmed through years of research in order to increase the engagement of students. Intertwining the educational elements into the game mechanics has been key to Mangahigh. Our library of games focus on creating game mechanics that work in unison with various curricula whilst also using fun graphics to keep students engaged. Based on the results from the study mentioned, Mangahigh’s vast library of games uses AI to provide questions that increase or decrease in difficulty depending on the student’s performance, adding replay value and motivation to improve their understanding.

Benefit 2: Healthy competition between students

Presented in an encouraging, growth mindset environment, competition can challenge students beyond what their own individual learnings may provide. Digital resources like Mangahigh encourage students to compete and focus their efforts as opposed to pitching students like for like on the same questions. Features such as class rankings, certificates and prizes can be an excellent incentive for boosting class morale and motivation to achieve better grades.

Mangahigh encourages inclusivity and team spirit, whilst also allowing students to compete on their effort levels. This aids in reducing any “maths anxiety” as students feel rewarded for their individual efforts counting towards school scores, rather than their understanding of the topic alone.

Benefit 3: Continuous improvement

Educational games are carefully designed to challenge players into a zone of proximal development, where they are able to grasp an unaided understanding through continuous effort.

Through Mangahigh, students earn medals that correspond to their level of understanding for a specific learning objective instead of a letter grade or numerical score. Even when answering all questions correctly, a student won’t earn a gold medal on their first attempt of the game. This mechanic drives students to reattempt the activity multiple times, with increasing difficulty to improve their result as well as their overall understanding.

Benefit 4: Encourages fast strategic thinking

Fun and exciting learning games encourage fast and strategic thinking from players. Not only would this allow for them to use their logic in order to think ahead, it will help them to fully understand the topic with the right resources.

Mangahigh engrains mathematics into the mechanics of games on the platform seamlessly, rather than having a simple quiz with animations. This lets your students experience the fun of the game and learn the mathematical concepts simultaneously!

Benefit 5: Progress tracking

Another benefit of digital games-based learning is detailed progress tracking. Using premium learning platforms gives teachers an insight of the progress made by their students, highlighting topics that students understand or struggle with.

With this information, teachers can focus on lesson planning, with the ability to also assign specific tasks to individuals to assist in their learning of specific topics.

Mangahigh’s grid view makes it easy for teachers to identify the progress of their students through the entire curriculum and decide on what topics to focus on to further improve student achievement. The medal system also shows teachers where students are placing extra effort on the platform through various reports.

Games-based learning has become a valuable solution for teachers in keeping their classes engaged with school topics. Emphasis on trial and repetition helps students gain a broader understanding of the topic, with healthy competition also allowing for involvement and proximal development, all whilst having fun. Detailed reporting also allows for teachers to tailor lessons to assist in the learning of individual students.