Game design strategies that can be incorporated into distance education

Abstract

This article explains how learning theories based on games and gamification strategies can be incorporated into education, including distance education. This work is related to the three research levels proposed by Zawacki-Richter and Anderson (2015), involving research models (macro), technology and innovation (meso) and instructional design and interaction (micro). Its goal is to propose the outline of a theoretical model to gamify instructional design, which is referred to here as educational design. This is bibliographic and theoretical research, not empirical, involving a literature review on the use of games in education, gamification and instructional design. Principles and game design elements that can be incorporated into educational design are analyzed and discussed, and some categories are identified, such as game learning, fun combined with difficulty, powering up the control of the learning process on the part of the player, flexibility rules, gameplay to keep the player constantly challenged and motivated, game balancing to keep the player in a state of flow, mechanical asymmetric to diversify the experience of playing, customization of the player's experience, co-creation of games by the players themselves for mods, and ways of dealing with error and failure, which can be used for preparing a gamified theory of instructional design. The article suggests that this theoretical model outline can be empirically tested in the design of activities, disciplines and courses at a distance, to measure to what extent it can contribute to overcoming the rigidity of the models of traditional and Fordist instructional design, focused on education and content, toward more flexible models of educational design, focused on collaboration, interaction and learning.