Credit: (2026). Teams competing for prize. Freepik.
Incorporating a competitive element into your gamification efforts can be a fun and effective method for enhancing learners' motivation. However, adding a competitive, yet friendly, aspect to the learning process needs to be intentional and short term. To maintain balance, strive to incorporate games that include both competitive and cooperative aspects. The goal of any educational game should maintain a strong focus on the content.
One example of this type of activity is to divide students into groups, have them complete a problem set, and reward the group that produces the closest correct answer (or the highest number of correct answers). To integrate this into your class, you can use these steps:
- Determine the problems or challenges you want students to solve.
- Divide learners into small groups. Groups should be large enough to accommodate different approaches, but small enough for everyone's voices to be heard (typically 3-5).
- Give learners a deadline.
- Review the answers with the students and award a small prize to the group with the correct (or closest to correct) answer.
Implementing this sort of game in an asynchronous online environment can be slightly different. Small groups may be given a set period (a day or a week) to share work and discuss it in a collaborative space such as a Google doc or a shared Groups space in Canvas.
If a synchronous Zoom meeting can be held for online students, breakout rooms can be used so that small groups can collaborate, followed by a whole-class discussion of results. Shared documents like Google docs can be used in real time by online students who are together in breakout rooms. During whole-class discussion, these documents can be shared, via Zoom screen sharing, with the entire class.
Reflect on this activity and modify as necessary to ensure equity and fairness.