How Can I Gamify Education in Learnline?Games can’t replace good pedagogy, but can be used to enhance the overall learning experience, increase motivation and engagement.

From de Byl, P. and Hooper, J. (2013). Key Attributes of Engagement in a Gamified Learning Environment. 30th Ascilite Conference, Sydney. (PP 221-230)

http://www.ascilite.org/conferences/sydney13/program/papers/de%20Byl.pdf

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1. Rewards/ achievements

Use adaptive release to move a through gamified activity and release rewards/achievements.

Can use assessments, discussion boards, “mark as completed”, wikis and lots of other tools.

Create a content area called Achievements or Rewards or whatever you like. Create your rewards or prizes as individual content items.

Photo: Flickr slgckgc@ http://bit.ly/1cYE9n4

Use creative commons images (don’t forget to attribute any images that are not your own, and include the licence so they can be ‘re-shared’) or use your own drawings, photos or whatever to depict the content. Maybe it is a Caramello koala… and you start with one, and end up with a whole bag, maybe it is letters of the alphabet that, when you have them collected them all, create a secret word that unlocks access to something that your students would value....maybe special exam tips, or a 30 minute question session one-on-one with the lecturer, or the receiving of a certificate you create that they could use in their CV or portfolio….or whatever it is that would motivate and engage your students. As students reach certain levels, maybe they become eligible for a 1 – 2% additional grade or a days’ extension on an assessment item of their choice, just think about what would work best with your students, or give them a choice of rewards.

Photo: Flickr Peter Leth @ http://bit.ly/1FWsAtN

Photo: Flicker Matthew Hurst @ http://bit.ly/1dwpXTd

If you think a visual Leaderboard would motivate your students…..if you have items that are graded, simply download the grade book, copy the grade column/s related to your activities and put them in an Excel Spreadsheet or something similar and ask it to rank from Highest to Lowest, label it ‘Leaderboard’ and then you could post it in your Announcements each week, or at specific times to

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Photo: Flickr Pink Sherbet Photography by D Sharon Pruitt

increase motivation and engagement.

2. Gamify grading

By implementing an “experience points” (XP) system, students’ grades are determined by the

number of points they have accumulated at the end of the course, in other words, by how much

they have accomplished. Students progress towards levels of mastery. Using experience points

allows educators to align levels with skills and highlight the inherent value of education.

Using a point or scoring system to gamify your unit

It would have to be made clear to the students up front about how the unit was going to be ‘assessed’ overall (they need to know the rules). In this particular example, students have to earn or gain a minimum of 500 Experience Points (XP) by completing certain quests – activities/tasks. However, they can choose how they want to earn them. Mini/Boss Challenges are the larger, more highly weighted tasks.

Required XP

TotalXP

500 Mini Quest Mini Quest Mini Quest Mini Quest50 75 100 100

350 Mini Boss Challenge Mini Boss Challenge Mini Boss Challenge Mini Boss Challenge50 75 75 100

200 Mini Quest Mini Quest Mini Quest Mini Quest50 50 75 100

100 Mini Quest Mini Quest Mini Quest Mini Quest50 50 75 100

0 Mini Quest Mini Quest Mini Quest Mini Quest Total XP

Required XP to

progress 50 50 75 100

XP Quest Weighting % Cumulative Quest Weighting %

100XP 10% 10%200XP 10% 20%350XP (Mini Boss Challenge) 20% 40%500XP 10% 50%Boss Challenge 40% 90%501-750XP (Optional) 5% 95%751 - 1000XP (Optional) 5% 100%

This way, you can still get an HD (85% - 100%) even without completing Optional XP.

Note that the way any student gains the 500 XP could be any combination of 50,75 or 100 XP quests, but it will include at least one mini-boss challenge in which a student could be potentially required to attain a certain percentage (see note below…maybe 85%) (after any number of attempts) to gain the XP allocated to that quest/mini-boss challenge.

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So, you all start with a score or XP of 0.

To earn your first 100 XP and get started on your mission you will need complete either 2 x 50 XP quests, or a 50 + 75 XP quest or a 1 x 100 XP quest. All quests that you are then eligible to choose from will be opened for you. You can maximise your XP and ultimately your score and grade by both completing additional quests and/or, completing those for which you earn higher XP (these will be more challenging). Then you can choose any quests in the chain that you have earned sufficient XP to unlock.

The Mini Boss Challenge is a Quiz or Test that will show you how you are progressing with your learning quest. You are able to attempt each of these Mini Boss Challenges more than once. (Note: Potentially you could say that a result of 85% or over for any one of these Mini Boss Challenges will gain the XP allocated to that quest). So, the way the grid is set up, attempting one of these is a ‘compulsory’ mini-challenge.

So the idea is that they start with an Icebreaker type mini -quest to get them going, and then they can choose from quests of their interest surrounding the topic being taught. The degree of difficulty and/or time requirement should be reflected in the amount of XP earned on completion. Students can choose to do all four quests at any level to both increase their XP and the depth of knowledge about particular aspects of the course. In this way, students pick what quests they want to complete based on their skill, knowledge, interest and time. The Boss Challenge is the final exam or assessment.

Using a combination of good pedagogy, existing Blackboard tools and adaptive release, gamifying your unit is easy, regardless of whether you choose to use a gamified point or scoring system.

Regardless of the scoring system you use, you still might want to create a ‘Leaderboard’.

Using Blackboard Rubrics to support and make grading transparent in a gamified system would be a terrific idea for supporting feedback and learning.

3. Gamify the content – create interesting missions/quests/mysteries

Students are given a sense of agency—in games, they control the choices they make, and the more

agency students have, the better students do.

4. Stir up a little competition

Gamifying activities into a competition can boost energy levels of a class eg, “gamifying” the review

of readings

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Other ideas:

5. Implement a class-wide/groups rewards system

Encourage camaraderie among students by setting up a rewards system where students achieve

something as a team or group. That way, students are working to master the material together

instead of competing, and the highest-achieving students will help those around them.

6. Gamify study to encourage informal learning

Ultimately, educators hope that games translate learning into informal environments. There simply

aren’t enough hours in the day for an educator. Games allow the curiosity—and the learning—to

continue after formal classes. How about a treasure hunt? Quests?

Blackboard Tools for Quests

Depending on your students, quests could utilise the following BlackBoard Tools and have rubrics developed that award marks/grades or Experience Points (XP). For example:

Journal: Student contributions/reflections to a personal diary only seen by lecturerDiscussion Board: Organised collaborative ForumsBlogs: Shared online diaries – could be related to groups within units/courses, or whole student cohortWikis: Collaborative spaces where students can view, contribute and edit – groups or whole cohortTasks: Could be assigned to a group or individualsGroups: Could be used

Types of Quests

These depend on the nature of the course/unit, materials, requirements, level of unit/course and the experience of the lecturer in Blackboard, online facilitation and with technologies.The quests could be made up of things like:

Smaller number of marks/50 XP : Start your journal and write a minimum of X number of words about X Create at least two entries in your journal this week….and additional parameters could be

included to make it more engaging Contribute to a forum on the Discussion board – again, could be more prescriptive about

what you actually want students to do…. Reply to so many other students contributions to a forum (or more than one forum)….etc Contribute to a blog, or your group’s blog – again, could add parameters Contribute to the wiki – again, additional parameters could be added – number, time, about

what, include different media Edit other students’ contribution to the wiki – again, add parameters Create webquests, or get students individually or in groups to create these and get others to

comment on these Complete a specific task, or a specific number of tasks assigned…either to a group or

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individual Quiz, test or survey – either used for marks/XP but not graded, or self-assessed only

Use Mashups and encourage students to as well – You Tube, Flickr, Slide Share, others Use technology/applications where you are confident , or perhaps your students are

confident – give the students choice in the media they use to contribute or be assessed– VoiceThread, Infographics, Voki, FlipBoard, any sort of movie making, screen casting app, Poll Everywhere, Prezi, Padlet, Tricider…list goes on and on…

Post a ‘Muddiest Point’ (what students have least understood this week) quest in the blog or as a forum in the discussion board and get students to respond….( for more points, students could contribute to the ‘answer’)

Use a wiki page to do a ‘Plus/minus/interesting’ - use three columns and get students to write down the respective points about a particular topic or experience – in groups, or as a whole – evaluate a text, issue, debate

Do a ‘Think-pair-share’ – students think individually about their response to a question, then share with another student - maybe from their group and then open their thoughts up to the wider group – justify decisions and then post to the whole cohort – could be done face-to-face or online

Use the tools to do some brainstorming

Medium number of marks/75 XP: Similar to above but increase the number, increase the depth required, ask to include

specific things – like contributing to new knowledge, interesting websites, journal articles, news items, video clips, - students to watch and comment on media, critically reflect on their own thoughts and those of others, web searches and create a FlipBoard, post to a Padlet….or just use the wiki etc etc..

Give additional XP when they choose to use different technologies to showcase and share work, assist others, work well in groups…etc….etc

Highest number of marks/100 XP: Similar to above but increase the number, increase the depth required, increase the

complexity of the task, or the holistic nature of the task.

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Rubric Examples

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