Content Modules

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LEVEL 2: Game Elements (4hr)

Earn 50 points to unlock this level. For each task, design a slide in your presentation.

  • List and explain elements or principles of gamification or game mechanics you feel best exemplify gamified learning or have the greatest impact on student learning (10 points/each).

Reference two academic sources for each element you choose.

Examples:

    • Play
    • Storytelling
    • Reinforcement
    • Empowerment
    • Ownership / Agency
    • Collaboration / Social Influence
    • Freedom to Fail
    • Experimentation
    • Unpredictability
    • Self-directed
    • Clear Progression
    • Goal-Oriented
    • Meaning
    • Situated Cognition
    • Immersion
  • Explain the possible impact of games on learning (5 points)
  • Include statistics about gamification for learning or GBL (5 points)
  • Share your personal experience with games (5 points)
  • Reference to an addition academic source beyond the minimum two per element (5 points/each)

Less is more. Write a script in the footnotes of your slides to keep the presentation visually appealing. Use proper citations to reference any sources.

Resources

Read/watch what you need to complete your tasks.

 

LEVEL 3: Classroom Applications (1hr)

Earn 15 points to unlock this level. For each task, design a slide in your presentation.

  • Showcase an example of gamified learning from below (5 points/each)
  • Showcase an example of gamified learning not listed below (10 points/each)

 

The World Peace Game: Game-based Political Simulation in the Classroom

An ingenious creation of Virginia educator John Hunter, the World Peace Game is a rich and elaborate political simulation that invites young students to explore a world not unlike our own, consisting of four or five prominent nations. As each country is directed by student teams, the kids are encouraged to explore the global community and learn the nature of the complex relationships between nations.

 

Dilemma 44  

A place-based approach to learning where students use mobile technologies to experience real life events in the locations where they actually occurred. In the game, students travel back to Kitsilano High School in Vancouver, Canada during the Second World War, where they become a graduating student struggling to decide whether or not to join the Canadian Forces fighting in Europe and Asia. The multi-layered learning object is pedagogically structured as educational game and thought experiment.

 

Exercise Science

Description to come.

 

Hunger Games

Description to come.

 

***need more classroom examples***

 

MISSION: Reimagine a Unit (1hr)

  • Create a brief summary of a unit of study or series of lessons you have taught and the strengths and weaknesses of the project as a whole. Summarize in 1-3 slides.
  • Reimagine the unit using the elements of gamification. Integrate the principles described on your presentation slides. This is only a draft of your idea and can be in form of your choice (bullet points, concept map, etc.).        

Example Themes:

    • Space Futuristic
    • Fantasy
    • Earth Blown Up
    • A Whale of a Tale
    • Steampunk
    • Hacker
    • High Seas Adventure
    • Explorer
    • Moving to Mars
    • Local, Connected Story
    • Super Heroes
    • Pandemic
    • Dystopian
    • Evolving Neanderthals

          

Guiding Questions:   

  • Who are your characters going to be in this world?
  • What characters will come in to help or hinder your students’ progress?
  • What is the main conflict your students are striving to overcome?
  • What are the objectives that your students need to complete?
  • What adventure are they on?

Adapted from Matera, Michael. Explore like a Pirate: Engage, Enrich, and Elevate Your Learners with Gamification and Game-inspired Course Design. Dave Burgess Consulting, Inc. 2015. Print.

LEVEL 4: Tools to Support Gamification (2hr)

Earn 15 points to unlock this level. For each task, design a slide in your presentation.

  • Choose the tool(s) you plan to use to facilitate your unit (5 points)
  • List the elements of an LMS you will use to facilitate learning (5 points)
  • Explain why you have chosen not to use a specific tool (5 points)
  • Provide a screenshot of the set up a premade tool (5 points)
  • Design your own tool (ie. Google spreadsheet with formulas) (5 points)
  • Visualize your classroom setup to facilitate your unit (5 points)

 

Example Tools (will provide descriptions of each)

Less is more. Write a script in the footnotes of your slides to keep the presentation visually appealing. Use proper citations to reference any sources.

 

MISSION: Redesign a Unit (4hr)

  • Create a brief summary of your redesigned unit of study or series of lessons. Connect your new unit plans with the gamification elements you previously outlined in your presentation.
  • Make a Screencast of your presentation using the slides you designed and the script you have written throughout this course. The presentation should not exceed 10 minutes.

Example / explanation of final project screencast.

Graduate Credit Integration Paper

Respond to each of the five questions below if you have opted to earn graduate credit for the course.

The paper should be 750 words or more.

  1. What did you learn vs. what you expected to learn from this course?
  2. What aspects of the course were most helpful and why?
  3. What further knowledge and skills in this general area do you feel you need?
  4. How, when and where will you use what you have learned?
  5. How and with what other school or community members?

Feedback survey

  • How likely are you to recommend this course to a friend or colleague? (scale of 1-10)
  • How likely are you to recommend this instructor to a friend or colleague? (scale of 1-10)
  • Please provide positive feedback regarding this course. (paragraph text)
  • Please provide areas of weakness or growth for this course. (paragraph text)

 

Assessment

LEARNING TASK ASSESSMENT INSTRUCTOR ACTION
Introductions Completion Welcome into the course
Level 1: What is Gamification? Min. 20 points to unlock next level
Level 2: Game Elements Min. 50 points to unlock next level Feedback from instructor
Level 3: Classroom Inspiration Min. 15 points to unlock next level
Mission: Reimagine a Unit Completion Feedback from instructor
Level 4: Gamification Tools Min. 15 points to unlock next level
Complete Your Mission

  • redesigned unit
  • screencast of presentation
Must have accumulated 100 points to continue to the final project Comments from instructor

Share on course gallery
Integration Paper Pass/Fail Evaluation from instructor
Feedback Survey Completion

 

Target Audience

This course has been designed for 21st Century Learning International, an education company based in Southeast Asia that facilitates educational conferences, networking events, research and big data analysis, and technology consultation for primarily international schools. In February 2016, the company launched online asynchronous professional development courses for educators. I was asked to design a course based on the popularity of a conference presentation I led on gamified learning. This course is meant to be a practical introduction to the concepts of gamification for K-12 teachers, postsecondary educators, technology coaches, and those in related fields.  

 

Choice of LMS

The company for which this course has been designed operates using a WordPress site and has chosen to utilize the Sensei Plugin to facilitate all professional development courses. This plugin is a Learning Management System (LMS) that can be used to register users, display content, facilitate communication with the instructor, provide assessment opportunities, evaluate work, connect participants, and communicate with the course instructor. Mandated LMS in higher education are often used to control and regulate teaching (Coates et al, 2005).  As Spiro (2014) claims, “Most LMS are about managing and control and not about learning”. LMS are based on an overly simplistic understanding of the relationship between teachers, knowledge and student learning and the built-in functions may not encourage awareness of or experimentation with sophisticated pedagogical practices. Despite this idea that LMS can be seen as “a capacity to control and regulate teaching” (Coates et al, 2005), this course has been designed in a way that could be facilitated across various platforms or even sans LMS. A Google account would be needed to facilitate learning through a collaborative slideshow presentation and unit redesign document. Unfortunately, I cannot gain access to the Sensei plugin LMS until my course has been accepted by the company.

 

References

Coates, H., James, R., & Baldwin, G. (2005). A critical examination of the effects of Learning Management Systems on university teaching and learning. Tertiary Education and Management, 11,(1), 19-36.

Spiro, K. (2014). 5 elearning trends leading to the end of the Learning Management Systems. (web page)

 

 

See more details here:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1K8nmq3focjaQz-qMdsxA-gqvWLM3s87mqx3JuM0j62g/edit?usp=sharing