What is EGS or Education-Gaming-Social platform?

Play is our brain’s favourite way of learning. Therefore, learning should never be a boring experience, rather it should be fun and immersive!! Keeping this core concept in mind, team Smartkeeda, India’s leading Test Series platform for Banking, Insurance, and other Government Job Exams, pioneered the idea of using Gaming and Social elements on an Education platform and developed India’s first Education-Gaming-Social platform (EGS), “Qudoo”, that borrows certain gaming principles and social elements and applies them to real-life settings to make fun just another word for learning.

As India’s first EGS application, Qudoo has been equipped with exclusive gamification elements like real-time challenges, rewards, leaderboards, earning badges, and social engagement to increase student participation and make learning a thrilling experience.

In this article we’re going to discuss the given below points:

1. The science behind using games in education
2. How playing on Qudoo can help you hit a home run!!
3. Can losing a battle be beneficial too?
4. Why “social” element was added to an Education-Gaming App?
5. Final words

The science behind using games in education

Have you ever met a person who actually wants to fail? NOBODY! Ever wondered why?
It is because the desire to succeed is inherent to human nature. We as human beings possess an inborn tendency to get ourselves noticed and appreciated, and success is what makes us look attractive to others. The entire structure of game-based education is built on this very concept.

As India’s first Education-Gaming Platform, Qudoo strategizes to make learning an immersive and engaging activity and helps you learn in the most stress-free manner. Qudoo allows you to compete with random aspirants on the platform and helps you to grow with each battle. Let us understand the role of gaming elements in the educational field:

• Better academic performance: According to psychology, game-based learning is directly related to improved academic performance. Most experimental research on Game-Based Learning has concluded that the use of digital games as a learning tool leads to a surge in both student interest and academic performance.
• Positive attitude towards learning: Games hold the potential to develop a positive and motivational attitude towards learning. When the competing elements of gaming are blended with the educational elements, it generates experiences that are compelling, thrilling as well as immersive.
• Better understanding: Although game-based education doesn’t curtail the amount of diligence required in a competitive exam,  it helps the student in understanding the concepts in an exhilarating way which in turn boosts his self-confidence and motivation level.
• Increased student participation: With the technology growing by leaps and bounds, gaming elements are now being used as a tool to increase student participation in learning activities.
• Healthy competition: Healthy competition can drive success.Game-based education develops healthy competition among students and motivates them to put in their best efforts. Qudoo allows validating your knowledge by providing a platform where students can compete with random opponents as well as with their friends.

Certain other benefits of technology-enabled game-based learning such as flexibility of timings, cost-effectiveness, and innovativeness help the students excel in competitive examinations in a fun-filled way. Owing to these benefits, India’s first EGS applicationhas been developed to help students kill two birds with one stone.

How playing on Qudoo can help you hit a home run!!

“Nothing is more addictive than victory, the more you win the more you want to win”.

Suppose you randomly spun a wheel on Amazon and won a Smart band as a reward. As a typical person, you’ll most likely be tempted to spin the wheel regularly thereafter!

Similar behaviour is exhibited by our minds while playing quizzes and educational games. Once you win a battle against an opponent and see your rank ascending on the leaderboard, your brain compels you to play more and be on the top. During this mechanism, you forget the amount of effort you’re putting into it whilecompeting and winning the battles.

The positive feeling and the sense of pride you achieve after winning a battle will persuade you to brush up on your skills and make you crave more victories. Perceiving this zeal for victory, India’s first Educational Gaming social platform, Qudoo, has been equipped with the following features to make your learning more interesting:

1. Head-on battles: In between your study sessions, you can validate your knowledge through Qudoo head-on battles. ‘Head-on’ finds and connects you with the nearest available opponent battling with the same weapon (subject) as yours within seconds. You can compete with your friends by throwing challenges as well as with the random users available on the platform.
2. Leaderboard: Qudoo provides you with a platform where you can showcase your skills by competing in any subject you feel comfortable with and raise your position with every successful battle. With the maximum points, you can even top the country leaderboard.
3. Subject-wise rankings: Perceiving yourself to be an English maestro? You can exhibit your talent here. Qudoo facilitates you to flaunt your subject-wise skills by providing an unlimited number of subject-wise battles.
4. City-wise rankings: If you want to battle with the champion of your city, Qudoo maintains a city-wise ranking of the users from each city. You can follow the user through the leaderboard and compete with him/her by sending a challenge then and there.
5. Badges: It’s no rocket science to understand that compliments and praise make people feel good. Qudoo honours your talent and rewards you with badges at certain levels beginning from Neophyte, Smart, Brilliant, Pro, Master, and finally a Legend!!
6. Are you on fire? Do you possess the potential to make winning streaks? Compete and win three continuous battles in any subject on Qudoo and you’ll be on fire until you lose a match. Also, you’ll be rewarded with 2x Qoins for each match you win while you are on fire.

Can losing a battle be beneficial too?

Definitely! It's our natural tendency to avoid things or situations that could end up in failure. This human trait has been used by the developers of Qudoo to make your losses a blessing in disguise. Once you lose a battle against your opponent, you can challenge the opponent to compete with you once again to win that failed mission. This will motivate you to learn from your mistakes, come back stronger and play the next match with utmost caution.

Therefore, competitive educational games are nothing but a win-win situation for a user.

Why “social” element was added to an Education-Gaming App?

“Surround yourself with people who have dreams, desire, and ambition. They’ll help you push for and realize your own”.

Staying connected with people of similar interests inspires you to do better in a certain field and achieve a common objective or goal with more enthusiasm. You’re a product of your environment, therefore, you should surround yourself with the best.

The inspiration of competing against one’s peers can challenge an aspirant to work much harder on his/her tasks than he/she would independently be driven to do so.Understanding the benefits of staying connected with a like-minded community, Qudoo developers conceived the addition of a “Social” element to our Education-gaming platform.This EGS platform provides you with an environment to compete with like-minded aspirants and grow mutually.

• Interact with your competitors: Just after completing a battle, you can follow your opponent instantly through the result window. After receiving a follow back, you guys become “Mates”. Mates can interact with each other directly in the Qudoo inbox.
• Share goals and targets: You can share your goals, targets, strengths, and weaknesses with your mates and know theirs. Mates can help each other by competing with you on different topics and sharing their approaches to a question.
• Develop strategies: Being able to discuss or debate a certain question opens new ways to approach it in a better way. Meeting new people on the platform can help you develop strategies and prepare a better roadmap for your journey to success.
• Mutual development: Staying connected with a social group mutually inspires you to achieve more.Qudoo provides an exclusive platform where you can compete with your friends in real-time. You can send instant challenges to your mates and see quick results. Also, if your mate is not available at that time, you can set a target score and challenge your mate to achieve that target. In this process of achieving targets, you’ll forget that you’re mutually developing while completing a task.
• Reduce anxiety: Being in a social learning group takes the spotlight off the student. Therefore, a student can share his strengths and weaknesses without the fear of being judged and find ways to overcome them.

Remember! “Success is a team sport”. Cutting off all your ties with the social environment can sometimes leave you demotivated and make learning a tedious task to be done. Therefore you should make conscious efforts to stay connected with ambitious people who encourage you to go after your dreams and applaud your victories.

Final words

In this age of cut-throat competition, the theory of “work while you work and play while you play” has lost its charm. Students need to burn the midnight oil to be on a shortlist. To alleviate the amount of anxiety faced by the students during this phase,thepioneering step of Smartkeeda as India’s first Education-Gaming-Social platform (EGS) can prove to be a “game-changer” in the field of gaming-based education.

Thanks & Regards (Team Smartkeeda)