Learning in games and games in learning

Abstract

People learn something all their life. However, in the begging, as children they learn through playing. The purpose of this thesis is to define the way how games and learning, very well known to everybody aspects, collaborate with each other when people become adults. This connection is researched in this thesis from both sides: from video games perspective as well as from educational perspective.

Every human has a need of learning. When this human learns or cognize something, he feels satisfaction, and his motivation to continue increases. There are 2 types of motivation: external and internal. Internal motivation makes people want to achieve goals by themselves, while external motivation comes from outside and do not last long.

Gamification is one of the ways to use game’s mechanics for educational purposes. It takes different elements of games to increase motivation of students.

Quantitative and qualitative methods use in this research. Such as survey and expert interviews.

Games’ mechanics as well as games themselves can improve the effectiveness of learning processes. Video games can be more effective than standard learning systems such as school or online courses, because of their ability to provide an enjoyable environment for experiments. Gamification as a way of using some of games’ mechanics can help and motivate students to proceed within learning courses.

There are a lot of diverse types of video games players. And they all could have varied reasons to play video games. However, for many players the possibility to learn and cognize something is especially important. This makes games more attractive. And games with stronger cognition possibilities can hold players longer.