GAMIFICATION AS AN ELEMENT OF ACTIVE LEARNING IN HIGHER EDUCATION

Article is devoted to the problem of usage of game technologies in educational practice. Main objective is to define opportunities and restrictions of usage of game technologies as means of improvement of active learning in higher education. Authors consider main barriers to further implementation of gamification in educational practice (barriers to adoption, barriers to design and development, barriers to sustainability; barriers to innovations). Authors analyzed the potential of game approaches and estimated possible risks of their usage in educational practice. They admit that soft-gamification, context-gamification and sandbox-gamification approaches are the most suitable for usage in active learning. Hard-gamification approach is the most risky and organizationally difficult because it demands additional technical providing. Authors encouraged to use integrated solutions of Evidence-Centered Design (ECD) approach for overcoming barriers by using gamification in education. ECD concept includes three main elements (Content Model, Evidence Model, Task Model). Case study from educational practice is presented. According to their own experience with this approach, authors have come to conclusion, that the combination of ECD elements really provide a framework for: 1) specifying the knowledge and skills to be explored; 2) the tasks that can engage students in regard to that knowledge and skills; 3) useful information (the data and evidence) and ways of its interpretation to make inferences about the students' aptitudes. Authors admit that ECD offer a powerful tool for improving the design and opportunities in learning games.