How Video Games Can Change Education

Video games could change education by rewarding students for their knowledge and abilities.

In this post, I will not discuss how video games could teach students. But I do think that video games could revolutionize the process of teaching. Here, I will be discussing how video games could change testing.

Let's think of two students, Student A and Student B. Student A has mastered the material in math class, while Student B has not.

Both students take the same quiz on a computer (we will assume there is no cheating).

Student A aces the quiz and Student B fails.

Now we introduce the video game aspect. Because Student A did well, she gains powerful buffs or upgrades in the video game.

Because Student B answered fewer questions correctly, she gains weaker buffs or upgrades in the video game.

Both students receive randomized codes connected to their quiz results. They enter the video game and play. Student A enjoys the powerful buffs she attained from her mastery of the math material.

Student B plays the game with weaker buffs but still has fun. Hopefully, she will be motivated to study the material so she can master it and attain the powerful buffs that Student A enjoyed.

The video game could be single player or multiplayer. It could be in any genre.

One potential benefit of this approach is that it could make the process of learning and testing more engaging and interactive for students. Instead of simply taking a traditional paper-and-pencil test, students could participate in a gamified test that provides feedback and rewards for their progress. This could make the learning process more enjoyable and help students stay engaged.