With its focus on human motivation, gamification can have a positive impact on our lives, from school to the workplace. Many educators are already using gamification in the classroom to boost student engagement, track progress, and enhance the learning experience. Successful video games are linked by their ability to connect to certain core drives that motivate us in different ways. That’s the finding behind the Octalysis Framework created by Yu-kai Chou.
After more than a decade of research and study, Chou created the framework to analyze and build strategies around the systems that make a game fun. Designed as an octagon shape, Octalysis is broken down into eight main core drives that motivate the players toward particular activities.
Let’s explore these eight core drives and see how you can use these principles to bring gamification in education to your instructional practices.
1. Epic meaning and calling
This drive is seen when people are motivated by the belief that their actions have a higher purpose. It’s a powerful drive to do something that is greater than yourself. This drive is triggered often in games when you, as the player, have to save humanity or the world.
When teachers find a way to tap into this drive by connecting kids to the collective success of the class, it can change the social dynamic in their classroom. One way to do this is to have students help each other or find activities that turn the classroom into a team sport. When kids learn to depend on and help each other, they start demonstrating prosocial behavior.
2. Development and accomplishment
You likely first experienced this drive in kindergarten when you earned gold stars for good behavior. Getting one star might not have turned into a real prize like an extra cookie at lunch, but it probably encouraged you to earn more stars.
This drive makes us want to make progress, develop skills, and overcome obstacles. In games, it motivates players to complete missions, defeat bosses, or conquer challenges, which gives meaning to the points, badges, and leaderboards they earn. Badges, like gold stars, are useful tools, but as we grow, they only have value when uniquely earned as a result of overcoming obstacles.
Since our brains have a natural desire to feel progress and see growth, visual representations of advancement, like a progress bar or leaderboard, are incredibly motivating. If you want to leverage this drive in class, try focusing on how you want students to feel about assignments, challenges, or lesson plans and give them a visual way to see their achievements.
3. Empowerment of creativity and feedback
This drive celebrates autonomy and self-expression by engaging players in a creative process where they have to problem-solve or puzzle-solve in different combinations. Using strategy to advance in a game gives meaning to a player’s choice and allows them to feel in control of the gameplay.
When students feel their voice matters, they want to be included. There are a number of ways to help kids develop their autonomy and self-expression in the classroom. Try brainstorming a solution to a problem, debate a topic being discussed in class, or let students vote on a class decision, like the layout of desks. At the end of a unit, invite students to share their opinions with a survey. Ask them what they enjoyed and what they didn’t.
4. Ownership and possession
People are generally motivated to own something and want to protect it. In the game world, that sense of ownership comes in the form of avatars, virtual goods, and virtual wealth. And the more they have, the more they are motivated to improve on it.
In the classroom, this drive is seen when students are empowered to take control of their education. This can be done by giving students choices over what kinds of assignments they complete, having them contribute test questions, or allowing them to grade themselves.
5. Social influence and relatedness
This drive incorporates the social elements related to activities inspired by what other people do, think, or say. It’s what powers things like mentorship, social responses, companionship, envy, and collaborative play.
It can also be a powerful competition mechanism. When people brag about and tout their achievements in an activity or game, it can inspire others to be more active or to join. Just like the gold stars you earned in kindergarten, in-class rewards can also be a powerful motivator and encourage healthy competition. In middle or high school, creating a competition that turns positive attendance, behavior, and academics into points for real rewards, like a pizza party, naturally appeals to a student’s competitive nature.
The Relatedness aspect of this drive triggers things like attachment to emotional associations and the feeling of nostalgia. It’s why we tend to buy products that remind us of our childhood or hometown.
6. Scarcity and impatience
This drives us to want something simply because we can’t have it or it’s difficult to get. In games, the rarity of an item adds value and drives players to continue playing. Returning to games for a reward also feeds this drive.
When used strategically in the classroom, this drive can generate a sense of excitement, curiosity, and competition. This can be done by giving students a limited amount of time to tackle a challenge, offering a reward to the first few students who complete an assessment, or letting students earn privileges through a reward card.
7. Unpredictability and curiosity
This is the drive you have when you are intrigued and want to find out what happens next. Games are more interesting when a player doesn’t know what will happen or when something doesn’t fit into a pattern you recognize. Sparking student curiosity, interest, or inspiration can energize engagement in the learning process.
8. Loss and avoidance
This is the drive to keep away from something negative. In games, the risk of losing a character’s progress or points keeps players motivated to continue playing. It also prevents them from quitting a game because they don’t want to feel their time and efforts have been wasted.
Interestingly, the aversion toward loss is seen both in students who perform well and those who are striving. Students who focus on performance goals tend to be motivated to do well.
However, for other students, the perceived threat of undesirable outcomes can cause them to avoid tasks, hand in incomplete assignments, or even miss class. Even when they experience success, they may think of it as a fluke. Reframing perceived negative outcomes as an opportunity to learn and grow can help students feel less anxious and show them how to give themselves permission to improve.
This article was adapted from a blog post initially developed by the education technology company Classcraft, which was acquired by HMH in 2023. The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of HMH.
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