Gamification as a New Educational Technology in Modern Higher Education

The relevance of the research is due to the need to improve the educational process in higher education. Edu-cational technologies should be aimed at increasing the motivation of students to acquire knowledge. The existing teaching methods are gradually losing their effectiveness due to changes in the moral, economic, and social compo-nents of the modern world. The trend of recent years is digitalization, affecting all spheres of society, so educational technologies must meet changing conditions.The purpose of the research is to identify the positive and negative features of gamification as an educational technique in modern higher education.The objectives of the research: to define the concept of "gamification" and to identify its differences from the concept of "game"; to consider the components of gamification as an educational technique; to identify the motiva-tional role of gaming technologies in the educational process; to consider possible ways to increase students' motiva-tion during educational activities; to analyze the shortcomings of the introduction of gaming technologies in the edu-cational process.Methodology. The methodological basis of the research is the method of dialectical scientific cognition; a sys-tematic approach to the problem under consideration, the historical method, the analytical method, etc. Results. In the course of the research, various approaches to the concept of "gamification" were identified and systematized. The authors identified the positive and negative features of the introduction of gaming technologies into the educational process, and also considered the motivational component of the modern student's education.Conclusion. Gaming technologies are rarely used in education, as many teachers underestimate their poten-tial. In addition, their introduction into the educational process requires the teacher to make efforts, including creative ones. Such technologies make it possible to involve more students in the educational process by increasing interest in something new and different from the classical teaching methods. Of course, the use of gaming technologies in the educational process has a number of disadvantages that can be offset by a successful combination of innovative and classical teaching methods.