EDU 210: Module 12 reflection

2. When I started EDU 210 I was extremely overwhelmed by the
amount of little assignments that we were expected to complete
throughout the course. The reward to skip a discussion question
or replace our lowest module mark was very appealing since I
assumed it would be difficult to keep up with all the work.
However, as time went on I found that my motivation depleted
since it was almost more work to try to get the amount of points
required to receive the rewards.

3. Most of what I learnt about Gamification came from Michael
Wu’s article, he discussed the three factors which are :
“Motivation: the person wants desperately to perform the
behavior (i.e. he is highly motivated)
Ability: the person can easily carry out the behavior (i.e. he
considers the behavior very simple)
Trigger: the person is triggered to do the behavior (i.e. he is
cued, reminded, asked, called to action, etc.)”(Wu, 2011).
These factors helped to break down Gamification and really
made it clear how to make it work in education. Our
professors did a great job of incorporating all three into the
EdTech Odyssey game.

4. One part of Gamification that I like the
most is how simple it is to gain points.
It is very smart to utilize students natural
competitiveness in a gamelike scenario.

5. One of the low points of gamification is the fact
that in order to get the most points students
were expected to do extra things like visit EdTech
Services and attend red chair sessions. I
understand these things are put in place to
benefit us but given everyone’s busy schedule it
can be hard to find time.

6. Students can obtain points from just attending
class which for most university students is
something they planned on doing anyways so
the points are just an added benefit. This is an
example of how easy it is to gain points in the
EdTech Odyssey Game .
I am a fulltime student therefore, I use my spare
time to study and finish assignments. Which
makes it difficult for me to find time to attend
the red chair sessions. I’m sure there are a
number of students in EDU 210 that feel the
same way.

7. Learning about Gamification has impacted my
own teaching. It seems like a great way to
motivated my students and engage them in the
course in another way. Human are naturally
competitive so why not use that to our benefit?
Before my experience with EdTech Odyssey I
had never really considered something like this
in a classroom setting but it has opened my
eyes to the possibilties.

8. Wu, M. (2011, March 1, 2011). Gamification 101: The psychology of
Motivation. Science of Social Blog, [web log] Retrieved from:
http://community.lithium.com/t5/Science-of-Social-
blog/Gamification-101-The-Psychology-of-Motivation/ba-
p/21864.