Games and learning – how to engage everyone
Motivation is key, when it comes to engaging students and teachers to use new learning technologies and teaching methods and to develop the skills needed in the digital age. Game-based learning, game design and gamification are elements that found their way into higher education to support teaching and learning scenarios, especially because these methods can be used to engage students and teachers in the long run.
However, just applying game design or gamification to courses does not guarantee, that these methods are successful. To find out what really motivates students and teachers, we need to look behind the scenes: We need to see what the key factors are that make students and teachers want to use new learning technologies in higher education. We need to focus on their motivation, and therefore we need to focus more on human-centred design – especially for blended and distance teaching and learning scenarios.
