Hello! Generally speaking, these three terms can be put like this:

• Game-based learning (GBL) is an approach to teaching that uses games to deliver educational content and experiences. GBL focuses on learning and examples of it are educational games or commercial games used in classrooms.
• Serious games are designed for a specific purpose other than entertainment, such as education, training, or healthcare. Serious games focus on specific purposes, like professional education, training, or healthcare. Examples include Simulations, training games, and some educational games.
• Gamification is a process of applying game-like elements and principles to non-game contexts. Gamification focuses on engagement as well as motivation. Some examples include point systems, rewards, and leaderboards.

While GBL and Serious games can be confused with each other, gamification is quite a bit different.

A nice explanation was provided in:

And if you want to see some websites:

Dear Jelena Kerac ,

Thank you for your response and the wealth of information you provided. It has been extremely helpful for me to clarify and delve deeper into the distinctions among game-based learning, serious games, and gamification, especially the research by Becker, K. (2021). Once again, thank you.

If you have more practical experiences in teaching that you'd be willing to share with me, please don't hesitate to do so.

Sincerely,

Tzu-Hsiang Peng

Hi, in line with the previous answer, you may also like to read the following paper for clarification:

Krath, J., Schürmann, L., & Von Korflesch, H. F. (2021). Revealing the theoretical basis of gamification: A systematic review and analysis of theory in research on gamification, serious games and game-based learning. Computers in Human Behavior, 125, 106963.

Dear Ayushi Gupta ,

Thank you for your response. I have indeed referred to that paper.

If you have any further practical insights or experiences to share with me, it would be greatly appreciated and beneficial to my work.

Best regards,

Tzu-Hsiang Peng

In addition to Jelena Kerac's useful post, GBL relies often on existing games. Newly designed games for educational (or other) purposes constitute serious games, while gamification adds a gaming layer on existing processes. Another relevant, simpler approach worth exploring is playful design [1]. More details on all concepts are provided in the Gamification in Education journal article [2].

[1] Mystakidis, S. (2021). Combat Tanking in Education - The TANC Model for Playful Distance Learning in Social Virtual Reality. International Journal of Gaming and Computer-Mediated Simulations, 13(4), 1–20. https://doi.org/10.4018/IJGCMS.291539

Article Combat Tanking in Education - The TANC Model for Playful Dis...

[2] Christopoulos, A., & Mystakidis, S. (2023). Gamification in Education. Encyclopedia, 3(4), 1223–1243. https://doi.org/10.3390/encyclopedia3040089

Article Gamification in Education

Dear Dr. Stylianos Mystakidis,

Thank you for providing such insightful and innovative articles, particularly the detailed explanation of gamification in the 3.2 Game Mechanics section of your article on Gamification in Education. I will carefully reference it.

Best regards,

Tzu-Hsiang Peng