5 Great Infographics That Explain Gamification

Gamification -- what is it? Check out the five inforgraphics we've rounded up for a visual explanation.

Gamification — what is it? The buzzword has been gaining a lot of popularity in the last few years, so there’s no doubt you’ve heard it thrown around at corporate meetings, education conferences and charity fundraisers. You may have even used the term yourself without fully grasping its value. So what does it mean? In short, gamification is the practice of taking the elements of gaming and applying them outside of the traditional gaming world. Business owners are doing it to train employees, corporations are using it to make marketing more engaging and educators are doing it to make learning fun.

If you follow some of the organizations in the Spark Network, you’re already familiar with gamification. It’s the driving force behind projects like Click! Spy School— a science education program that challenges kids to solve mysteries and complete covert missions using important science concepts as agents-in-training. It’s also what we were talking about in our blog post about digital badges. The concept of gamification is finding its way into more and more curriculums and learning tools, and it’s no wonder — it’s a strategy truly adapted to the needs of 21st century learners, and it’s one that gets results.

We thought we’d try something a little different this week and let a few infographics do the heavy-lifting in explaining gamification to you. Check out the five inforgraphics we’ve rounded up below. Read them, print them, share them, then stop by the Spark Network Facebook page to tell us which one you liked the best.