Gamification as a Tool for Digital Innovation in Education – The Case of SimBrand

Abstract

THE AIMS OF THE PAPER

Increasing student satisfaction is an indispensable task in higher education by creating courses that arise and maintain students’ interest and give them practical experience. Gamification, which is one of the most important trends in digital educational innovation today, can help us to achieve this goal. The aims of the paper are to explore the conceptual framework, characteristics, positive and negative effects, limitations and success factors of gamification. This paper also makes an attempt to present students’ perceptions on gamification through the case of SimBrand software.

METHODOLOGY

Besides reviewing the relevant Hungarian and international literature, in this paper we present how gamification can be used in marketing courses in higher education 

through the case of a brand simulation software called SimBrand. In order to assess the students’ perceptions on gamification, we have conducted an online survey among students already participated in the simulation game.

MOST IMPORTANT RESULTS

The students really prefer non-traditional (i.e. online, gamification-based) learning over traditional learning and consider the online training (gamification) to be significantly better than a traditional marketing course. With the help of gamification students’ performance can be increased making good use of the high technological orientation of Z generation and their “positive” addiction to games.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Based on our empirical findings it can be concluded that incorporating gamification into higher educational courses is highly recommended despite its limitations since this methodology meets the challenges of practice-orientation. In addition, it is very popular and considered to be useful by students. It works highly effectively in the cases when we want students to understand and practise online collaboration, team decisions, decision support analyses and holistic marketing.

Acknowledgement: “The described article was carried out as part of the EFOP-3.6.1-16-2016-00011 “Younger and Renewing University – Innovative Knowledge City – institutional development of the University of Miskolc aiming at intelligent specialisation” project implemented in the framework of the Szechenyi 2020 program. The realization of this project is supported by the European Union, co-financed by the European Social Fund.”