From Dull to Dynamic: Designing Digital Games with Genially

📍Digital Game-Based Learning

Do you find that your students can play digital games all day without a break, but can't study for a while? I guess most of you’ve noticed this phenomenon! This is not surprising as students release more dopamine when they play games, which gives them a sense of achievement and enjoyment. SO, why don't we integrate digital games into language teaching to increase student motivation and engagement? 

To help you design an interactive and appealing digital game, I can’t wait to share with you a useful online platform I came across this week, that is, Genially. 

📍What is Genially?

Screenshot from genially

Well, I would like to describe Genially as an extensive library of various templates, including but not limited to presentation slides, flashcards, educational games, quizzes and videos. Of course, you can also become a creator to enrich the template pool! Since it’s hard to cover all the features of Genially in this post🥲, the following will only focus on the application of Genially in designing digital games. 

If you are interested in discovering more about Genially, please click here.

📍Why Genially? 

Before I tried Genially, I saw its advertisement saying👇

At first, I just thought this slogan was overblown. However, I realized that I was wrong after using it. Genially does have some awesome advantages over other tools:

• Eye-catching: The templates it offers for designing games are excellent in terms of color and animation. In addition, the games are varied and trendy in theme, and can quickly capture the attention of students. 

• Enhanced gameplay experience: Genially offers a range of interactive features, such as hotspots, pop-ups, and animations, which can make the game more engaging for students. Especially when applied to a classroom with an interactive board!

• Efficient and Easy-to-customize: If you use a ready-made template, it allows you to start with the work that is already halfway done. ALL you need to do is Select a preferred template and Click on ‘use this template’ – Replace the original content with what you need. Even if you have little or no design experience, you can still navigate it.

📍How can we use Genially?

Obviously, Genially-supported games can be applied in the classroom to warm up and liven up the atmosphere, or assigned to students as homework to check their understanding. Here, I found a video which introduces 5 ways to gamify class with Genially for you: 

In addition, we can ask our students to design their OWN games 🎉! Last weekend I gave students an assignment to design a game with Genially. Yesterday, they told me that they enjoyed the homework and reinforced their knowledge of the past tense as they designed and played the game. Here are the specific requirements:

1) Expected game time is limited to 5-10 minutes.

2) The purpose of the game is to test the player's understanding of the past tense.

3) After designing the game, share the link to the game with your classmates and ask them to play!

🙋Want to try a game designed by my students? Here is an example.

📍Any limitations?

• Cost: While Genially offers a free plan, some of the more advanced features are only available in the paid plans.

• Potential technical issues: Genially relies heavily on an internet connectivity and may suffer from slow loading time and lagging animations. If you use it in the classroom, have a plan B for unexpected situations.

• Form over content: It is true that dynamic games are better than dull ones. However, as teachers, we should be aware that overly fantastic game design has the potential to divert students' attention from knowledge to games. It is important to BALANCE the fun and educational aspects of the game.

📍Conclusion

In summary, Genially can be a useful tool for designing games or gamifying the class. If you haven't tried it yet, use Genially and let your students learn with pleasure 🥳, not pain 😔!