In today’s distraction-heavy world, staying focused and organised is a constant challenge for students. However, making planning activities more game-like and fun can increase participation, engagement and success.
We explore how gamifying student planners can liven up organisation tasks for students.
What Is Gamification?
Gamification involves taking aspects of game playing and using them in non-game situations to influence behaviour. These aspects include scoring points, competing with others, achieving levels and receiving badges or rewards.
How Does Gamification Help with Student Organisation?
In an age where engagement is key to learning, gamification in education has emerged as a powerful tool. Schools have begun using gamification to make essential but often unexciting tasks, like recording homework in a student planner, more motivational and enjoyable.
Implementing a gamified approach not only makes typically mundane planning activities more enjoyable, but it also drives enhanced skill development in areas like:
- Organisation and time management: Gamification motivates students to regularly access planners to schedule assignments, track homework and plan projects. Using planners consistently builds vital planning and organisation skills, including how to use their time wisely.
- Personal responsibility: Completing tasks and quests to unlock rewards, levels and leaderboard placement teaches students to take ownership of their work.
While gamified planners keep students invested in building organisational habits, the ultimate goal is developing underlying skill sets that transfer to future success in their education, careers and life.
Incorporating Gamification with Student Planners
Student planners already serve as useful organisation tools that allow students to record homework, track assignments, and manage their time effectively. However, their value can be taken to the next level by integrating gamification elements that incentivise continuous and careful use.
Consider these ideas for gamifying your student planner:
Quests and Side Quests
Treat projects or long-term assignments like epic quests and break them into smaller side quests. Laying out project milestones in their student planner as side quests makes the task less intimidating.
Challenge students to check off side quests, like completing research or drafting an outline, to make progress towards the main quest.
Progress Bars
Add progress bars that fill as students complete tasks in their planners. Visually displaying their progress and tapping into our innate satisfaction at checking things off motivates them to stay on track. Progress bars also help students gauge if they’re moving at the right pace.
Points and Rewards
Students can be awarded points for each task they complete, with bonus points for finishing tasks ahead of schedule. For example, students can earn points for reaching certain savings goals using a student budget planner. These points translate into rewards, such as extra free time or a homework pass.
Level Up Assignments
Students can ‘level up’ by consistently meeting their planning goals. For instance, completing all assignments on time for a week could be one level, while maintaining this streak for a month could be the next. This creates a journey of progressing from simple to more complex tasks.
Make Planning Fun with Penstripe’s Gamified Student Planners
With a little creativity, the possibilities for gamifying planning are endless. At Penstripe, we understand the value of driving student engagement through innovation. That’s why we offer modern planner designs that can be fully customised to your school’s unique needs.
Our student planners are not just about tracking academic tasks; they also promote vital planning and organisation skills like time management, organisation and self-discipline.
To learn more about creating a gamified student planner with Penstripe, contact us today, send an email to info@penstripe.co.uk, or give us a call at 0113 231 0995.
