A Look at Gamification in Investment Education

Gamification is the process of taking elements of gaming and applying them to non-gaming contexts. The general idea is that gamification makes content more motivating and engaging, which should improve educational outcomes. In investment education, gamification has become an increasingly popular trend because it can help break down complex financial topics. 

How Gamification is Being Used in Investment Education

Gamification can be seen in many aspects of investment education. For example, there are a number of incredible option selling trading simulators, which enable learners to explore the risks and rewards of the market in a safe environment. Additionally, gamified apps and platforms like Investopedia Academy, Acorn, and The Stock Market Game are allowing investors to earn badges and points and dominate leaderboards. 

The features found in these gamification examples allow learners to receive immediate feedback, which helps them spot strengths and weaknesses. As well as this, they can facilitate social interaction through shared learning elements like forums and leaderboards. 

The Benefits of Investment Education Gamification

Gamification of investment education content has many benefits. For example, elements of gamification improve engagement because the content is more fun, which can entice learners to study for longer.

Learning outcomes can also be improved through gamification. For example, investment education platforms let learners experience investing via a risk-free simulation. Not only does this highlight the balance between risk and reward, but it also helps budding investors learn how to leave emotions behind. 

Challenges of Investment Education Gamification

Even though there are clear benefits of gamified investment education content, there are also a number of challenges to consider. For example, by oversimplifying complex financial topics, learners may pick up a false representation of how the real investing world works. 

Given the very nature of gaming, there’s a slight risk of gambling and addiction behavior. When platforms become competitive with leaderboards, it can drive users to “win”, which means they’re a lot more active than would be deemed healthy. 

While gamification is a fantastic tool, it must be used in unison with other teaching methods including reading, discussions, and lectures. 

The Future of Gamification in Investment Education

Gamification is still a relatively new phenomenon in investment education, but it has the power to completely overhaul the way new investors learn about different markets and strategies. In the future, we can expect to see gamified education platforms become much more intuitive. For example, artificial intelligence (AI) will make content more personalized, which will only make content more engaging. 

Investment education apps and platforms will also start putting more importance on social learning features, which will allow users to collaborate with other learners to conquer investment challenges. Alongside providing connectivity between peers, social features help to boost engagement and interest in educational courses. 

Gamification is already making educational investment content more engaging. As you can see, there are clear benefits of gamification but there are also challenges to take into account and overcome. Going forward, if educators can successfully reduce the issues outlined above, gamification will only become much stronger and more effective.