Gamification as a Growing Trend in Higher Education: Prospects and Problems

Abstract

The article deals with the phenomenon of gamification and the problems of im­plementing game practices in higher education. Based on the information about consumer habits, style features of behavior, etc., gamification becomes a fairly effective IT tool that contributes to achieving the goals of one or another project by way of constructing artificially player motivation, i.e., in fact, programming for a certain behavior pattern. The paper notes that the Western trend of mass in­clusion of games and game technologies in curricula has become a significant reference point for domestic educational policy, and gamification is now dis­cussed as a new, alternative way of organizing learning in educational institu­tions of our country, which allows to significantly influence student behavior and the effectiveness of learning outcomes. Analyzing possible consequences and trying to take into account the explicit and latent risks, the author concludes that the most alarming trend of gamification implementation in the educational process is the creation of unprecedented opportunities for collecting data on student be­havior in the digital educational space. Tracking reactions and psychoemotional state of young people in the course of gamified learning, the use of artificial in­telligence technologies, neural networks, the use of learning action analysis tech­nologies, digital footprint analysis – all these may help to build and improve the behavior management strategy required by customers. Here we see the pro­spects of making a testing range for large-scale work to create additional means of control, standardization and correction with the view to improve the tech­niques of manipulating the consciousness and behavior of the masses of people. In the author’s opinion, the transformation of learning into a computer game will promote not only a significant deformation of the inner meaning of pedagogics, but also the transformation of student youth into an object of various manipu­lations using the high-human methodology, which widely applies the tools of smart technology.