Modern Technologies and Gamification in Historical Education

Background

In the last decade, the transformation of national economies has been aimed at digitalization of all spheres of the socio-economic life of society. The widespread introduction of digital technologies has posed new challenges to the education system (Biryukov et al., 2021). Technological advances and their rapid development have created exciting new ways to engage students in learning and meet the growing educational needs (Kalogiannakis et al., 2021).

The dominance of digital technologies is a feature of the 21st century society, whose in-demand qualities include flexibility, creativity and the ability to continuously develop. In this context, a 21st century university is forced to focus on creating a learning environment in which any scenario of learning interactions can be simulated with the help of active learning strategies that promote quality technical learning and contribute to the development of the skills required in the real workplace. Active learning encourages student autonomy and participation in the learning process, fosters their creativity while helping to develop skills that increasingly shape their further employability, such as: teamwork skills, the ability to listen to others, the ability to self-study, the ability to put knowledge into practice, analytical skills and the ability to synthesize information (Murillo-Zamorano et al., 2021).

Currently, the sphere of education is being transformed. There are two active methodologies that project well in the education sphere; these are gamification and blended learning (Parra-González et al., 2021). Gamification in education is indeed inevitable, especially with the advent of millennials who are heavily influenced by digital technologies and prefer learning in a fun, interactive, and engaging environment. Play-based learning through interactive online games is an up-to-date, relevant and effective means of transferring knowledge and skills needed to sustain people’s lifestyle, which is greatly affected by the use of information and communication technologies. Play-based learning can make learning easier, more fun, and more effective while being focused on the student. This is in line with 21st century learning principles that emphasize student-centered learning and encourage engaging educational content. Interactive online games not only contribute to the quality of teaching but also increase digital literacy among the younger generation, which meets the requirements of the fourth industrial revolution (Yunus & Hua, 2021). Gamification in education is the use of game design elements in educational contexts. Landers' theory of gamified learning provides a framework that can be used to describe scenarios in which gamification, also known as gamified learning, is used to support learning (Landers, 2014). Gamification differs from play-based learning and serious games as it uses some elements of the game without transforming the learning process into a full-fledged game (Rivera & Garden, 2021). Gamification is a learning method that uses game elements to encourage students to participate directly in games and learning at the same time in order to gain an interesting and effective learning experience (Krisbiantoro, 2021). Gamification is a broad concept including game design, mechanics, and dynamics. Along with this, it can be defined as a combination of the interaction and the cycle of the development of professional competencies through participation in educational games (Duggal et al., 2021). Gamification is a multifaceted disciplinary tool with different fields, theories, methodologies, and reasons for implementation. In different disciplines, empirical research has pioneered the search for ways to use gamification in related contexts (Shuash et al., 2020). The symbiosis between games and learning is confirmed by the progressive development of best practices for course gamification and game design. Gamification can be effectively combined with traditional learning methods such as online lectures to increase student engagement and deliver learning materials that are usually taught through face-to-face learning. Therefore, gamification can be seen as an option to expand traditional learning (Nieto-Escamez & Roldán-Tapia, 2021).

Present research shows that the use of gamification has a positive effect on the motivational aspects of learning (Recabarren et al., 2021). In addition, gamification in education is associated with a number of benefits and is widely used in many universities. In recent years, academic research has shown that gamification has a positive effect on learning activities increasing learning efficiency and student engagement (Pakinee & Puritat, 2021). Gamification technologies with their key advantage – the ability to engage and motivate – are gaining popularity in the education system and used at different levels of education, as well as in the process of studying various subjects; there are also specialized models, frameworks and tools being developed (Swacha, 2021). Play-based learning provides students with motivating content to actively manage their studies. This promotes meaningful learning that is memorable and inspiring, and produces excellent educational outcomes. The use of this type of methodology promotes the development of creative thinking, encourages interaction between students, facilitates cooperation and more active participation of students in the learning process (Parra-González et al., 2021). The use of education gamification tools creates an environment that connects learners with online learning content, as well as provides an innovative learning methodology based on feedback. Online gamified learning content provides learners with a new learning experience through game mechanics and rules (Park & Kim, 2021a). Game mechanics reveals and enhances affordances, immersion, and social behavior of students; it improves cognitive and emotional abilities, provokes the desire to challenge, enhances social interaction and the projection of psychological states and qualities, as well as positively affects student’s personal qualities (Park & Kim, 2021b).

At the stage of the current development of social interactions, gamification has become one of the favorite persuasion technologies aimed at promoting positive changes in user behavior through the inclusion of game elements in a non-game context. Gamification is primarily used to increase the motivation, engagement and productivity of the participants in gamified experiences; it is often used in combination with other technologies such as social media, virtual and augmented reality, and mobile applications (Trinidad et al., 2021). Learning based on game and active learning concepts creates the need for the formation of certain learning goals that contribute to personal awareness of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation for the effective completion of learning activities (Kalogiannakis et al., 2021).

The introduction of gamified approaches to educational practices can raise learning to a qualitatively new level, increase student engagement and the effectiveness of educational interventions, which is especially valuable in the study of historical disciplines. In many European countries, history study programs are increasingly focused on the cultivation and development of historical thinking, historical consciousness and understanding of historical culture (Chapman & Haydn, 2020). At the modern stages of the society development, there is a growing understanding that students should be positioned as developers of their own interpretations and knowledge in an active learning environment, which leads to the formation of a constructivist worldview. Effective history teaching involves the interaction of three factors: disciplinary reasoning (deep understanding of the subject, its foundations, and goals), pedagogical reasoning (purposeful and reflective mental and physical planning, learning goals, tasks, and solutions), and teaching activities (implementation of teaching activities and practical guidance) (Boadu et al., 2020).

With the proliferation of new devices, media, web technologies and cloud computing, not only the traditional humanities have undergone a digitalization revolution, but digital experiences have come to play a central role in our daily lives (Tso, 2019). The rapid pace of innovation in educational technology has had a significant impact on traditional and established teaching and learning practices (Pargman & Jahnke, 2021). These days, technology offers teachers numerous opportunities to engage students and deliver them an innovative approach to learning subjects. Traditional history teaching is now enriched with a number of historical films, photographs and interviews with contemporary witnesses. New media enrich learning practices with interactivity, open communication and quick feedback. Typical characteristics of new media are virtuality, globality, internationality, diversification, mobility and collaboration. Thanks to the capabilities of modern computers, tablets and smartphones, educational materials can be viewed and learners can directly participate in interesting historical experiments with the help of augmented and virtual reality technologies, as well as appropriate equipment (Kysela & Štorková, 2015). The widespread introduction of digital solutions in educational activities requires history teachers to be more creative and innovative in the implementation of their educational activities, forces them to leave their comfort zones in teaching the discipline while applying innovative teaching methods and media to create an effective and pleasant learning atmosphere (Shavab, 2018). Therefore, to improve their pedagogy, teachers should expand their knowledge and skills in information and communication technology, which can help increase student motivation and interest in learning history (Ali et al., 2017).

The study of history in the 21st century is a form of the process of studying historical subjects that includes five types of skills, namely: communication, collaboration, creativity, critical thinking and information literacy (Dahalan & Ahmad, 2018). The digital game-based learning model (video, video games, and computer games) facilitates the study of history based on a fun experience as opposed to memorizing and repeating historical facts (Sebbowa & Ng’ambi, 2020). Nevertheless, before teaching history in a playful online mode, teachers must develop a separate teaching philosophy for online courses. There is no doubt that traditional and online learning overlap to a large extent, but many new online instructors make the mistake of trying to simply duplicate their face-to-face classes online rather than create an entirely new online learning environment. An important component of the philosophy of online learning is the teacher’s willingness to introduce additional institutional novelty into the educational strategy (Brooks, 2015). Mind maps are a visual display of information in the form of a tree diagram. These mind maps help to structure the learning material and memorize it faster.

A growing number of educational organizations of different levels use distance learning technologies and electronic educational resources in their daily activities. There is a tendency towards new distance learning technologies that allow knowledge to be transmitted to remote regions, and expand resources offered by educational organizations. Testing systems are becoming “smarter” and ready to adapt to students while determining their level of knowledge with greater accuracy. The development of the Internet allows learners to access the best educational practices and courses while search technologies enable them to find almost any publicly available information.

Modern communication technologies and multimedia means can significantly improve the quality of educational processes and regulate feedback from students. E-learning tools have certain goals: to develop the organizational skills of the teacher in order to reduce the load of routine testing, allow them to use their free time to organize student-centered courses, and improve the quality of teaching materials.

Therefore, the purpose of the study is to consider the prospect possibilities of gamification in historical education and its influence on the development of key professional competencies of workers necessary in current condition of humanitarian sphere development.

To achieve the goal, the following tasks have been set:

To substantiate the prospects of gamification of learning through the example of history education; - to study modern trends in history education; - to develop a pedagogical model of gamified history study; - to implement the model into a 3-month online learning course “Technology for constructing historical interpretations” and to test it as part of an educational experiment involving 40 students of the Рeoples’ Friendship University of Russia and Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University; - to study the opinion of students regarding the impact of gamified learning on the quality of learning experience in the context of four indicators: skills, learning progress, engagement, motivation and satisfaction with learning; - to describe a model of the evolutionary vertical and horizontal personality development.

Experimental research forms an understanding of the prospects of introducing modern educational methods and digital tools into learning practices, which can be interesting for practicing teachers who are in search of optimal educational approaches to improving the quality and effectiveness of studying historical disciplines.

Methods and Materials

Research design

To implement the objectives of the study, an educational experiment among students of the Рeoples’ Friendship University of Russia and Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University (Table 1).

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Table 1.

Participants in the educational experiment.

Number of Students	Educational Program	University
5	World history and mass communications	Рeoples’ Friendship University of Russia
7	History and dialogue of cultures
8	Cultural heritage: Research and management
7	Social work	Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University
5	Intelligent systems in the humanitarian environment
8	Sociology
Total: 40

Students were given an opportunity to take an additional e-learning course in a game format, test the possibilities of digital technologies in educational practices and assess the prospects for introducing gamified learning in history education.

The course moderators proposed a model of gamified history study (Figure 1); a 3-month online educational course “Technology for constructing historical interpretations” was developed on the conceptual basis of the model.OPEN IN VIEWER

Figure 1.

A pedagogical model of gamified history study. *own development.

At the stages of modeling educational content and play-based learning activities, the following technological tools have supported the implementation of gamified learning and were used comprehensively in the learning process:

-. Academy LMS backed with gamification features that make learning more interactive, fun and simplified. The Academy LMS platform provides tools to support online learning, including reporting and assessment. In addition, Academy LMS is known as a social learning platform that provides users with in-game learning opportunities to earn points and exchange badges, as well as to compete with fellow students in the Rewards Center. Students reach various levels, compete and track their progress on the scoreboard (Academy, 2021).

-. The Facebook social network, used to provide students with organizational moderation of educational activities and individual information consulting support at the stages of solving learning tasks, as well as to jointly present the results of creative intellectual activity and conduct thematic discussions.

-. Information social media sources, which were used to study the opinions of expert historians, to search for additional arguments at the stages of constructing historical interpretations, as well as to analyze historical data highlighted in scientific research.

-. Augmented and virtual reality technologies that were used at the stages of developing educational content covering current events in the history of the Russian Federation (from 1991 to the present). In addition, AR/VR mobile apps were used as a gamified learning tool and a motivational pedagogical asset. Due to the fact that educational practices involving the use of augmented and virtual reality technologies provide the student with the opportunity to make learning progress at their own pace and explore the elements that interest them most (Challenor & Ma, 2019), the moderators developed a mobile AR application using the Vuforia AR content creation program (Vuforia, 2021). Augmented reality tools made it possible to qualitatively structure the educational material, highlight the main points and fill lectures with additional information in text, audio and video formats. In addition, when studying historical events related to politics, economics, and socio-cultural life, the students were given access to virtual 3-D tours (museums, cultural and business centers, etc.), which enriched their immersive learning experience.

The learning course consisted of 15 thematic lecture units, each of which included three tasks. Before completing each task, the students were introduced to the rules and student subgroups were formed. Conceptually, the learning tasks were aimed at forming students' understanding of cause-and-effect relationships in a historical retrospective for the further construction of complex historical interpretations of specific historical events. When completing practical assignments, the study group was divided into three subgroups by the functions of educational research activities: “causes”, “preconditions”, and “consequences”. Each student had an opportunity to demonstrate their research abilities in group interaction, provide personal interpretations, take part in thematic discussions and form their own interpretation of a historical event. Game tasks were completed on the Academy LMS platform.

The opinion of students regarding the impact of gamified learning on the quality of learning experience in the context of four indicators, namely skills, learning progress, engagement, motivation and satisfaction with learning, was considered (Figure 2).OPEN IN VIEWER

Figure 2.

Indicators for assessing the prospects of the gamified approach to the study of history. *own development.

At the end of the learning course, the moderators interviewed the students participating in the educational experiment in order to determine their personal opinion about the prospects of gamified education in the context of history education. To assess the promising possibilities of the influence of gamified learning on the development of key professional competencies, students were asked five questions:

1. What extent does gamified learning influence the development of key human skills in the 21st century?

2. What extent does gamified learning influence the development of key skills in professional socio-historical thinking?

3. What extent does gamified learning methodology capable of influencing influence the quality of learning progress?

4. What extent does gamified learning methodology capable of influencing learning engagement and motivation?

5. What extent does the gamified learning methodology influence learning satisfaction?

Results and Discussion

97% of students participating in the educational experiment unanimously confirmed that the formation of the skills of professional socio-historical thinking is necessary for every person on the path of the evolutionary development of personality. The educational experience of chronological reasoning, research, analysis, interpretation and synthesis, argumentation, problem-solving, the development of complex value judgments, the formation of the understanding of cause-and-effect relationships positively affected critical thinking skills. And the use of gamified approaches had a significant impact on the effectiveness of educational practices through the involvement of learners in group work that allowed each course participant to take an active learning position, demonstrate their intellectual and creative abilities, as well as to confirm the professional level of information, digital and media literacy.

Through a survey conducted on the Academy LMS platform, the students assessed the prospects of the gamified learning impact on the development of key competencies that humanitarian workers are expected to have today (Table 2)

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Table 2.

The assessment of the effects of gamified learning on the development of key competencies that humanitarian workers are expected to have today.

Survey questions	The degree of influence (% of respondents)
	No effect	Minor effect, %	Significant effect, %
1. In your opinion, to what extent does gamified learning affect the development of key 21st-century human skills?
21st-century human skills
Critical thinking		7.5	92.5
Social intelligence		5	95
Creativity		2.5	97.5
Information literacy		25	75
Digital literacy		30	70
Media literacy		15	85
Emotional literacy		10	90
Cross-culturalism		17.5	82.5
Ability to study/ability to self-study		22.5	77.5
2. In your opinion, to what extent does gamified learning affect the development of key professional socio-historical thinking skills?
Chronological reasoning		62.5	37.5
Historical research		55	45
Historical analysis		22.5	77.5
Interpretation and synthesis		25	75
Argumentation		27.5	72.5
Problem solving		10	90
Complexity of value judgments		15	85
Understanding of cause-and-effect relationships		7.5	92.5
3. In your opinion, to what extent does the gamified learning methodology influence the quality learning progress?		17.5	82.5
4. In your opinion, to what extent does the gamified learning methodology influence learning engagement and motivation?		2.5	97.5
5. In your opinion, to what extent does the gamified learning methodology influence learning satisfaction?		5	95

Students confirmed that gamified learning significantly affects the development of key skills of a person of the 21st century, such as: critical thinking (92.5% of respondents), social intelligence (95%), creativity (97.5%), information literacy (75%), digital (70%), media (85%) and emotional (90%) literacy, cross-culturalism (82.5%), ability to study/ability to self-study, as well as the development of key professional skills socio-historical thinking, such as: historical analysis (77.5%), argumentation (72.5%), problem solving (90%), complexity of value judgments (85%), understanding of cause-and-effect relationships (92.5%).

In general, 95% of respondents were concluded that gamification in historical education has a positive effect on the evolutionary development of a personality adaptive to the socio-economic conditions of the 21st century.

97.5% of students confirmed that the high level of personal motivation and involvement was achieved due to the effective organization of their learning activities, group changeover at the stages of developing historical interpretations, and gamification, which caused a feeling of excitement and qualitatively influenced the desire to achieve the best educational results. According to the students, the level of learning motivation increased significantly in comparison with the previous educational experience, which made it possible to conclude that gamified learning can keep students' interest in the subject of study, arouse the desire for active learning within the framework of social dialogues and motivate learners to achieve the best educational results.

95% of students confirmed that they were fully satisfied with the learning process, which turned out to be easy, interesting and useful and provided them with an opportunity to demonstrate their best intellectual abilities in an open social dialogue while removing communication barriers and restrictions related to judgments.

The pedagogical model of the gamified study of history, which was tested by the students, has confirmed its effectiveness in the formation of fundamental historical knowledge and the professional level of historical thinking.

The model of the evolutionary vertical and horizontal development of the personality is shown in Figure 3.OPEN IN VIEWER

The gamification of learning provides effective tools to motivate students in the learning process. However, play-based teaching methods are still poorly used in vocational education at universities. There are many reasons for this. In addition to overcoming the strong resistance to the change inherent in the academic system, the complexity of creating a playful scenario and the lack of simple working tools and models for this are the main obstacles to its implementation in educational contexts (Pernelle et al., 2021).

The goal of introducing a gamified structure of higher education is to increase student engagement and expand the diversity of teaching methods. This provides students with the opportunity to develop professional competencies through a variety of activities (challenges, competition, rewards, progress, performance and day-to-day analysis play an important role in achieving significant learning outcomes) (Duggal et al., 2021). Modern research confirms that gamification contributes to the development of skills sought-after in the labor market and is an educational tool that can satisfy the interests of the digital society. There are significant differences between the learning outcomes of a group that attended active learning play-based classes and those who attended a non-play group. These skills include teamwork, the ability to listen to others, the ability to self-study, the ability to put knowledge into practice, analytical skills and the ability to synthesize information (Murillo-Zamorano et al., 2021).

Gamification can support deeper cognitive and affective aspects (Rivera & Garden, 2021) and be of service to students with learning difficulties as during the period of gamification a clear improvement in the emotional perception of educational activities and the elimination of the fear of learning certain subjects can be observed (Guerrero-Puerta & Guerrero, 2021). Fer example, virtual reality provides history teachers with an incredible opportunity to deliver lessons from anywhere and allows students to develop creativity. VR helps students to perceive past events in the way they were experienced by the people at that time; this helps to develop historical empathy due to immersion. The effectiveness of virtual reality almost entirely depends on the pedagogical approach, the educational goals of the teacher and the quality of the software used. To make virtual reality effective, there is a need for specific applications and scenarios (Black, 2017).

Systemic pedagogical methods improve reflexive skills, which can ultimately lead to an increase in the effectiveness of educational practices and understanding of the subject of study. The virtual environment and simulation provide students with a safe space to make mistakes and hone their skills. Learners feel more comfortable and less pressured when working in virtual environments compared to face-to-face role-playing games (Lanzieri et al., 2021).

Contemporary research is focused on the benefits and weaknesses of gamification in educational contexts. According to researchers, the main advantages include: 1) high-quality assistance to students aimed at enhancing perseverance, intelligence, active social manifestations and the organization of training in order to achieve success; 2) meeting the emotional needs of students and providing them with the opportunities to transform negative emotions into positive and rewarding experiences; 3) ensuring engaging learning that encourages students to complete learning activities, helping students focus more on the understanding of the learning material, and providing opportunities to compete, explore and lead in group learning; 4) increasing the level of students' activity, their direct participation in educational interactions; 5) providing instant feedback and an opportunity to coordinate educational achievements; 6) increasing student interest in digital educational tools, promoting self-study. The weaknesses of gamification are as follows: 1) games become meaningless if the learning goals are poorly described or not achieved; 2) games are predictable and tend to be boring; 3) rewards given to students can be used as extrinsic motivation, but it is much better if students have intrinsic motivation to learn (Krisbiantoro, 2021). The gamification method significantly increases the level of academic involvement, but one of the main problems of gamified learning is the lack of tools and strategies to influence the intrinsic motivation of students in the learning process, which significantly affects their performance (Hassan et al., 2021). Therefore, gamification in education requires high-quality pedagogical support and accompaniment of the learning process.

While the overall positive effects of gamification are widely recognized, in an educational context, researchers have found that each game element has a different effect on student’s personality. For example, there was a study on the relationship between game elements and students’ personal qualities (extraversion, neuroticism, consciousness, compliance, and imagination/openness). The researchers confirmed that gamified e-learning implements a game element consisting of points, levels, progress, tasks, avatars and leaderboards and cannot improve knowledge of each personality type in general, because each game element has both positive and negative effects on each personality type (Pakinee & Puritat, 2021). In addition, it should be noted that different types of social interactions affect student behavior in the context of gamification. The stimulation of social interactions through gamification in the form of a combination of cooperation and competition is the most auspicious in the context of obtaining high-quality behavioral learning outcomes (Sailer & Homner, 2020).

Conclusions

The pedagogical model of the gamified study of history has shown its effectiveness in the formation of key skills that modern humanitarian workers are expected to have today; this was confirmed by the results of its testing by the students of the Рeoples’ Friendship University of Russia and Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University. The technological tools that have supported the implementation of gamified learning, such as the Academy learning management system (LMS), the Facebook social network, information resources of the social media, augmented and virtual reality technologies, also made it possible to create a playful learning environment for social active learning, where each student had an opportunity to demonstrate their research abilities in group interaction, provide personal interpretations, take part in thematic discussions and form their own interpretation of a historical event. The results of the educational experiment confirmed that the creation of a joint creative and extended playful experience leads to the acquisition of practical knowledge and allows learners to develop skills that are highly relevant for professionals of the 21st century.

It was concluded that gamified learning approaches support the development of the professional competencies of the 21st-century person, such as: critical thinking, social intelligence, creativity, information and digital literacy, media literacy, emotional literacy, cross-culturalism, ability to study/to self-study. In the context of history education, gamification allows students to gain practical experience, consolidate and develop the skills of professional socio-historical thinking, namely the skills of chronological reasoning, historical research, analysis, interpretation, synthesis, argumentation, problem-solving, the formation of complex value judgments and understanding of causality in historical retrospective.

The proposed model of the evolutionary vertical and horizontal development of the personality focused on the development of professional skills and professional socio-historical thinking of a 21st-century person made it possible to outline promising vectors of the educational activity in the current social conditions.