"Using Gamification Approach in the Classroom to Create Engagement and Active Learning'

A novel learning experience that increases student engagement and motivation could be created in a learning environment that incorporates a gamification approach. Gamification has become the most popular topic of the recent years. Although the concept of game is too old, the concept of gamification is a new concept in the field of education. The primary objective of gamification is to make the learning process more attractive to learners. Consequently, the paper sheds lights on various ways of implementing gamification approach in the classroom. It introduces different educational tools, such as Brainscape, Socrative, Mentimeter, PlayBrighter, kahoot and some more, which can help to improve learning engagement through creating an active learning environment, as well as, it can contribute to the development of the 21st century skills. The paper examines the ways to bring games to our classrooms, in order to activate the skills and promote an interactive learning environment. The aim of the research is to determine the students’ awareness of implementing various educational tools in the classroom; hence, it discusses the students’ perceptions on gamification methods in the learning process.

See full article in IRCEELT Conference proceedings book

Employability skills development: Are Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) responsible?

                                                                     ABSTRACT

Today’s challenging world means that it is no longer sufficient for a new graduate to have knowledge of an academic subject; more and more it is crucial for the 21^st century learners to gain the skills, which could be developed within one situation (in our case in higher education institutions) and then they can transform these necessary skills in another situations, like employment or future life. Charles, Bernie and Maya (2015) indicate that the system of education does not adequately prepare learners to succeed in today’s or tomorrow’s world. One of the reasons is that, the world continues to transform dramatically, while education is not adapting quickly to meet all the demands these transformations are bringing. Hence, nowadays, we are expecting HEIs to include employability skills more fully into the curriculum and provide various teaching and learning opportunities for the learners to acquire the skills. Since employability skills (transferable skills, generic skills, core skills, life skills, the 21^st century skills or key skills, as they are labelled in various ways by different authors) are essential for effective performance not only in the workplace, but also in life, HEIs should promote the development of these general skills that are relevant to a broad range of disciplines. Consequently, this paper sheds light on the perception of educators in European context regarding the role of HEIs in promoting the development of the essential skills, as well as, it describes how this process could be encouraged in HEIs.

Key words:  employability skills, development, higher education institutions, teaching, learning process

See full article in IRCEELT Journal 2018.