Today's college students can feel like they have a lot on their plate. They have a number of demands for their time, they need to study hard, and they also have to do assignments as well as participate in extracurricular activities. They might also feel stressed out from all the time management and financial challenges they face.

So how can you get them to participate in your school's financial wellness program? Gamification.

Gamification has become an integral part of education in every field. Today, it is used in all kinds of education settings, from classrooms to board rooms, from sports to business.

Turns out a less serious and more playful approach can easily help college students comprehend even the most difficult subjects. And applying gamification to your financial wellness program can bring the same results.

Here are eight reasons why your student financial wellness program should include gamification:

1. Gamification Lessens the Fear of Failure

Failure is an integral part of education. If you don’t learn from it, you’ll never grow. But failure can also be scary – especially for college students. 

A playful approach helps get over the fear of the possibility of failing.

2. It Makes the Learning Process Visible

Traditional types of education focus on passing tests or exams to show how much students know about the subject, but that doesn’t show what progress they've made throughout the semester (or what areas they need to work on).

One of the key elements of gamification is to make the progression visible so students can see how they're doing and how they're progressing toward the end goal.

3. Students Are Already Familiar With the Concept

Most of the kids grew up on video games, so the gamification approach to learning is familiar to them. It's something they can grasp immediately and makes it easier for them to process the information.

As a result, even those who had problems in high school would do much better in college.

4. Gamification Makes Learning More Appealing

Video game lovers spend a lot of time playing games. Applying the same rules for studying can boost motivation in those who typically don't bother to pick up a pen. More students will be interested in learning if education becomes a game.

5. It Can Provide Incentive Through Competition

Competition can motivate students by using leaderboards to highlight users who've completed certain learning activities. A healthy sense of competition can be fostered by using a system in which students only see two students who are directly above them – this way students who aren't performing well will not be discouraged.

Keep Reading: How to Turbo Charge Student Financial Wellness with Gamification

6. Gamification Increases Cognitive Development

Gamification enhances students' general cognitive development, while gaming improves players' in-game cognitive abilities. Video games can also improve spatial awareness, attention allocation, and mental rotation abilities according to a study conducted by Blumberg and Fisch1. The implementation of Gamification in college can have the same effect on students.

7. It Boosts Engagement

It can take a while for college students to realize that the information they are given is useful. Conventional methods of studying are boring and are often ridiculed in fiction and on social media. Making learning fun is what gamification does.

Research suggests that while people are motivated by tangible rewards, what really drives their motivation is a sense of recognition2. Gamification addresses this by actively recognizing the achievements of students while adding an element of fun, to increase participation and engagement rates.

8. It's Easy to Implement

Implementing something new is no longer difficult because you can access almost anything with just a strong wi-fi connection and several clicks. With iGrad's award-winning financial literacy platform, we can provide personalized solutions that will be easily accessible to your students.

 

 

1 - https://srcd.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/WZJZHZKPQVGTBYAPZNHJ?target=10.1002/sop2.3

2 - https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/mind-of-the-manager/201306/new-employee-study-shows-recognition-matters-more-than-money