Student's love of play has made Gamification an incredibly powerful learning tool when used correctly. By effectively turning course content into a game, instructors can create engaging and safe learning environments where students are motivated, think critically and are willing to take chances without focusing purely on grades.
The Academy has long struggled with moving students beyond the first four stages (knowledge, comprehension, application and analysis) of Bloom’s Taxonomy and towards the final two stages of synthesis and evaluation. The result has produced classes of graduates who are inexperienced, uncomfortable with decision making and not prepared to think critically within the workplace. The growth of online education has exacerbated this problem as academia pushes towards a more efficient way of matriculating students through academic programs. In efforts to improve students’ engagement, satisfaction and performance in the classroom, many faculty have begun to employ emerging teaching designs such as the flipped or blended classroom. The use of such emergent models are more effective when combined with Gamification.
Play is such a valuable learning tool that it is no wonder Gamification is such a hot topic. Students’ love of play has made Gamification an incredibly powerful learning tool when used correctly. By effectively transforming course content using gamification principles, instructors can create a safe learning environment where students are engaged and motivated to learn, and where they think critically, perform better academically, and achieve greater satisfaction. But how can you effectively apply gameplay concepts to your course content, or actually turn your content into a game that motivates, challenges and engages your students? This originated the challenge: How do we create courses that facilitate student engagement and promote self-initiated learning through the use objectives, achievements, point systems and rewards? In other words, how can we most easily “gamify” education? The answer comes in the form of a Moodle plugin, created at North Carolina State University that expands upon Moodle’s existing functionality and enables the elements of games to be more easily integrated into course design. By developing a solution within the Moodle Learning Management System (LMS) and subsequently releasing it free of charge (rather than requiring an outside tool or solution) to all Moodle users, regardless of University or academic affiliation, the Gamification plugin is extremely scalable and can be used in a multitude of creative ways. Users can gamify an entire course, or just certain aspects of a course.
Using a gamified presentation, we will discuss gamification concepts and identify ways these can be used to transform course content into engaging materials that motivate students and facilitate learning. We will also discuss the development of the Gamification plugin for Moodle created at North Carolina State University and demonstrate how the plugin was applied to a variety of academic courses, including one where the course was entirely gamified. We will also share strategies for using some of the out-of-the-box features found in almost any LMS to gamify a course even if you don’t have a specialized plugin. Participants will have an opportunity to apply gamification concepts in a project Moodle course.
- What types of collaboration or interactivity will occur during the workshop?
The design for this workshop combines lecture and participant activity. Participants will learn about gamification and the Moodle Gamification Plugin developed at North Carolina State University and discuss resources that exist in their current situations that may be used to harness the beneficial concepts of gamification. During this time, participants will participate in a gamified presentation that will allow them to learn and experience many of the features that gamification can provide. At the conclusion of the presentation portion, students will have the opportunity to apply many of the concepts discussed during the presentation, ask questions of presenters and work with other participants as work to gamify activities within a project Moodle space. Throughout the workshop, instructors and participants will engage in small group discussions, Think-Pair Share, participant recall, completion of challenges and hands-on exploration.
2. What will participants take home as a tangible deliverable or takeaway?
In this workshop, we will demonstrate how the effective use of gamification in online and blended teaching can provide instructors with unique opportunities to create classroom environments that allow students to reach the higher levels of synthesis and evaluation within Bloom’s Taxonomy as well as measurable increased engagement, satisfaction and performance. This workshop will demonstrate to participants how they can: 1. Gamify their courses, 2. Apply game elements in course design, 3. Identify existing resources and learn how to leverage game mechanics to engage, motivate and challenge students to think critically. Proposed participant learning outcomes are below:
Learning Outcomes:
On completion of this workshop, participants will be able to:
- Describe the elements of games and how these are applied in gamification.
- Explain how gamification is useful in the teaching, learning and the development of critical thinking skills.
- Describe/Apply the existing features of a Learning Management System (LMS) to gamify a course related to critical thinking.
3. How will they be able to apply the effective practices shared in the workshop at their
home institution?
Participants of the workshop will learn about the challenge that led to the creation of the Gamification Moodle Plugin at North Carolina State University, its’ development, implementation and scalability to a variety of disciplines and academic programs. However, the most important benefit is the realization and discussion of how they can identify resources, plan and develop course materials and implement their own gamified content within their own disciplines utilizing existing campus resources. It is expected that workshop participants will take back to their respective institutions an understanding of what gamification is and is not, creative ideas for how gamification can enhance the courses/work that they are already doing, and a palpable excitement around the benefits of engaging students through a gamified platform.
4. Who do you envision as the primary audience types who would get the most out of this session and why?
This workshop is designed to benefit all attendees at the Online Learning Consortium. While many of the applications speak directly to the roles of designers, instructional support, faculty and technologists, it is also appropriate for administrators and design thinkers. The use of gamification to encourage student engagement, improve satisfaction and performance, and to facilitate safe risk-taking within educational settings is of interest to a wide cross section of those involved in the educational process. The concept of gamification can be used lightly in just one section of delivered content or heavily immersed throughout all content within a course or curriculum. Early feedback and data from the implementation of gamified courses at NC State has been extremely positive and the use of gamification continues to grow across a variety of programs and disciplinary areas.