UNIC Workshop: How to implement gamification and educational games in courses?

1. Understanding the importance and principles of incorporating gamification and educational games into teaching as a way of increasing learning effectiveness and maintaining Students' interest.

2. Familiarisation with inspiring examples of gamification concepts and educational games that can be adapted to every course at the higher education level.

3. Familiarisation with digital solutions facilitating the design of gamification and educational games.

4. Acquisition of skills in designing teaching materials useful in gamification and educational games.

5. Acquiring the ability to design a series of classes in a gamification form.

6. Acquiring the ability to design substantive educational games in a physical and virtual environment.

• Academic teachers from universities affiliated with UNIC

• Doctoral students from universities affiliated with UNIC

• Other persons conducting classes at universities affiliated with UNIC

 

A course for persons who already use activating methods and forms of ongoing verification of learning outcomes, but are looking to diversify them.

1. The importance of enjoyment in effective learning. Elements of educational games that support engagement and memorisation (emotions, imagination, motivation, time, mild competition, movement).

2. Short or long games? Differences between gamification and educational games for individual classes.

3. Gamification design – assumptions, rewards, stages and goals, plot building and role assignment, tasks and challenges, game rules. Examples of gamification implemented at universities.

4. Story-driven quest – how to build a long-term narrative with game and interaction elements.

5. Educational games in the classroom – escape rooms, story dice, Lego-type blocks, bingo, board games, crosswords.

6. Educational games on platforms: Genially, Miro.

7. Games modelled on TV game shows: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, Family Feud.

8. Hybrid team projects with game elements – how to combine online and offline activities into a single narrative.

9. How to implement gamification and educational games using memes, GIFs and humour during online courses?

10. Gamification and educational games – areas of risk and Academic Teachers' dilemmas.

KNOWLEDGE - Participant of the workshop:

1. Understands the principles of implementation of gamification and educational games in teaching.
2. Knows the types of educational games in real and virtual environments that can be adapted to the specific nature of their own classes.
3. Knows IT tools useful in the process of designing gamification for teaching purposes. 

SKILLS - Participant of the workshop:

1. Can plan the implementation of gamification and educational games adapted to their own classes, properly formulate their objectives and select methods and tools for their achievement.
2. Can prepare teaching materials for offline educational games.
3. Can design a short educational game and create a gamification environment using online platforms.

SOCIAL COMPETENCES - Participant in the workshop:

1. Is ready to reorganise their teaching activities in order to increase Students' activation and maintain Students' engagement throughout the entire series of classes.
2. Is ready to improve their digital and traditional teaching materials.
3. Is ready to continuously develop the didactic methods and solutions that are used.

The workshops are conducted via MS Teams (invitations will be sent in September 2025 to the email addresses provided during registration for the training as a collective invitation to the training cycle) – please join the meeting from the email addresses to which you received the invitations (via the link in the email or Outlook calendar). In addition, a week before each session of the cycle, a reminder about the upcoming meeting will be sent to the participants' email addresses.

The workshops consist of a series of 10 meetings, each lasting 120 minutes (according to the schedule provided) – all meetings form a coherent whole.

As part of their independent work (planned for 5 hours, i.e. a total of 300 minutes), participants will familiarise themselves with the resources and prepare a concept for gamification and an educational game. It is necessary to familiarise oneself with the materials before the workshops – the workshops are purely practical in nature and do not repeat the content of the previously provided resources.

 

Planned didactic methods: discussion, brainstorming, demonstration and active imitation and inspiration, teamwork and individual work, evaluation of materials (expert tables), case study (analysis of sources of success and failure), portfolio method, simulation game, other activating methods.

 

Training resources to be reviewed before and after the workshops, as well as resources from the workshops, will be posted on this website in the ‘Training materials’ section and will be password protected (the password will be sent to Participants by email on the day the invitation to the workshop is sent). Additionally, all resources will be sent to the email addresses provided in the application.

Dates:

• 7 October 2025 (Tuesday) from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. (120 minutes) CET UTC1+
• 21 October 2025 (Tuesday) from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. (120 minutes) CET UTC1+
• 4 November 2025 (Tuesday) from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. (120 minutes) CET UTC1+
• 18 November 2025 (Tuesday) from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. (120 minutes) CET UTC1+
• 9 December 2025 (Tuesday) from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. (120 minutes) CET UTC1+
• 16 December 2025 (Tuesday) from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. (120 minutes) CET UTC1+
• 13 January 2026 (Tuesday) from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. (120 minutes) CET UTC1+
• 20 January 2026 (Tuesday) from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. (120 minutes) CET UTC1+
• 3 February 2026 (Tuesday) from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. (120 minutes) CET UTC1+
• 17 February 2026 (Tuesday) from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. (120 minutes) CET UTC1+

 

Registration

Registration takes place via the Registration Form.

Registration is a single process – it applies to the entire workshop (10 meetings).

 

If you have any questions, please contact the facilitators: mgr Magdalena Boroń ( magdalena.boron@uni.lodz.pl ) or dr Kamila Pytka ( kamila.pytka@uni.lodz.pl ).

In order to obtain a certificate of completion of the training, the following must be prepared and sent by email ( kamila.pytka@uni.lodz.pl and magdalena.boron@uni.lodz.pl ) until 6 March 2026:

• your own concept for a gamification system that can be implemented, including rewards for Students, stages of the game, plot and specific roles for Teachers and Students, 2 sample ready-made tasks and game rules,
• your own concept for the implementation of one substantive educational game (physical or digital) – including a description of the game, 2 sample tasks for Students and the organisation of the game (time, rules, specification of group or individual work, etc.)

 

The submitted concepts will be evaluated in terms of substantive correctness, creativity and completeness of description.

In addition, in order to receive a certificate, it is necessary to actively participate in workshops and team and individual work during meetings and to attend at least 7 out of 10 meetings.

• Workshop nr 1 - 7.10.2025
• Workshop nr 2 - 21.10.2025