Yeh Ping-cheng: From a Probability Course to a Gamified Education Revolution

30-Second Overview: Yeh Ping-cheng, a professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at National Taiwan University, led students in 2013 to build PaGamO — an online game in which students "defeat monsters and conquer territories" to practice academic knowledge. In 2014, PaGamO stood out from over 1,500 competing proposals from around the world to win the Wharton-QS Reimagine Education Award. His most-quoted line is: "Students don't dislike learning — they dislike boring learning."¹

A Probability Course's Act of Defiance

In 2012, inside a probability lecture at NTU's Department of Electrical Engineering, one thing prompted Yeh Ping-cheng to decide he had to do things differently. He watched academically strong students sitting in the classroom with their eyes drifting toward the window — they could memorize formulas, but had not genuinely understood why they needed to learn them. Rote education had made them very good at "getting answers right," but gradually extinguished their instinct to "want to know."

He decided to start with the Flipped Classroom: students watched videos at home to preview material, and classroom time was reserved for discussion and problem-solving. At the time in Taiwan this was an unconventional approach, but the atmosphere in his class visibly changed. He still wanted more.

PaGamO: Wrapping Textbooks in a Game

In 2013, Yeh led students to build PaGamO (from the Taiwanese "phah-game oh," literally "playing games to learn"). The design logic was direct: students enjoy video games because games offer immediate feedback, competition, and a sense of achievement. So why not move those same mechanics into learning?

In PaGamO, students "conquer" territories on a virtual map by answering questions and compete against each other. Getting an answer right means expanding your territory; getting it wrong means being invaded. The game shell wraps around genuine subject practice. Students — not wanting to lose a battle — go look up formulas on their own.²

In 2014, PaGamO won the top prize at the Wharton-QS Reimagine Education Award, beating out over 1,500 education innovation proposals from around the world. The award drew international attention to Taiwanese educational innovation for the first time.³

The platform later expanded to thousands of schools across Taiwan and entered education markets in Hong Kong, Singapore, and other regions, covering subjects including math, English, and programming.

From Tools to the Battlefield of Ideas

Yeh Ping-cheng has not stopped at the tools level. He has long spoken out in public forums on issues of the university admissions system, competency-based education, and digital learning, and has published multiple books on education, accumulating a large social media following.

His core argument has never changed: Taiwan's education system trains students' capacity to "get answers right" but fails to cultivate the capacity to "ask good questions" and "solve real problems." He argues that in an era when AI is rapidly taking over "memorization and calculation," Taiwan's schools are still examining precisely the abilities most easily replaced. This critique is not an accusation aimed at teachers — it is a challenge directed at the entire system's design.

Further Reading:

• Huang Kuo-chen (黃國珍) — another educational innovator driving reading literacy education in Taiwan
• Lu Kuan-wei (呂冠緯) — founder of Junyi Academy, Taiwan's version of Khan Academy
• Yen Chang-shou (嚴長壽) — social entrepreneur who shifted from tourism to rural education
• Audrey Tang (唐鳳) — the intersection of digital governance and educational innovation

References