A Newb's Reflection on Gamifying a Blended Grad Course
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The document summarizes a professor's experience gamifying an online graduate course about coding and gaming. Some successes included using the 3D GameLab learning management system, incorporating optional quests, and holding in-person meetings for accountability and clarification. Challenges included not being able to view peers' work, wanting more in-person meetings, and not having enough badges. The professor found that quests supported personalized learning and multiple chances, and that an 80-year-old student modeled gamification best practices and enjoyed the flexibility, tools, and community aspects of the course. Going forward, the professor plans to modify courses to include more badges, quests, sample contracts, and ways to share work, and make a leadership
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A Newb's Reflection on Gamifying a Blended Grad Course
- 1. A Newb's Reflection on Gamifying a Blended Grad Course David Wicks, Seattle Pacific University Presentation - http://bit.ly/QuestBoise2015Wicks Poll Participation - http://pollev.com/davidwicks http://www.questboise.com/
- 2. Overview What should instructors do when students ask about the role of games in online learning? Teach a gamified course? Yeah, right. During this session participants will learn about successes and challenges experienced by a game-based learning newb through the gamification of a blended online course.
- 4. Me
- 7. The Course
- 8. Overview 1. Course design luck-outs and mess-ups. 2. Is it wise to gamify a grad course about coding and gaming? 3. The Power of Quests and Approvals. 4. Why every course should include an 80 year-old student. 5. What’s next
- 9. 1. Course design luck-outs and mess-ups. Luck-outs ● 3D GameLab as LMS ● Optional Quests ● F2F meetings o Accountability o Clarification Mess-ups ● Want to see peers’ work ● More F2F ● Grade Contracts ● Understand repeats ● Not enough badges
- 10. 3D GameLab as LMS
- 11. Optional Quests
- 12. F2F meeting - Accountability/Clarification
- 13. Mess-Ups ● Want to see peers’ work ● More F2F ● Grade Contracts ● Understand repeats ● Not enough badges https://www.flickr.com/photos/striatic/2192192956
- 14. 2. Is it wise to gamify a grad course about coding and gaming? ● May add to confusion of online learning ● Good learner fit? o Signed up for course on how to use IWB ● Student Choice ● Practice what we preach ● Learn by doing ● Students complete more quests than I would have assigned. 8.3 > 5
- 15. 3. The Power of Quests and Approvals. ● Supports personalized learning o Non-linear o Interest driven ● Allows multiple chances #highstakestesting ● Instant feedback o XP o Badges
- 16. 4. Why every course should include an 80 year-old student ● Time and Place Flexibility ● F2F useful for tool demonstrations ● 3D GameLab great for managing quests ● Modeled gamification best practices ● XP should be strong motivator ● Wasn’t in course for grade so didn’t report all completed quests ● Enjoyed readings, coding, community, direct instruction
- 17. Next Steps ● Modify existing course to include o More badges o More quests o Sample contracts o Time and place to share work with peers ● Make final course of Digital Ed Leadership MEd a quest-based course o Competency on ISTE Coaching Standards o Practicum o Emerging tech
- 18. Comments or Questions? David Wicks, Ed.D. Associate Professor, School of Education Chair, Digital Education Leadership MEd Seattle Pacific University dwicks@spu.edu Twitter: @drdavidwicks http://spu.edu/digital-ed http://davidwicks.org
Editor's Notes
- My reflections on teaching my first gamified course.
- I decided to teach a gamified course in an open-to-all graduate course because students in the digital education leadership MEd had questions about the topic. While I felt confident in my answers I decided I wanted personal experience to round out my understanding of best practices of gamification.
- Background information on the learning experience.
- Prof in School of Ed Chair of Digital Ed Leadership program Strong supporter of including synchronous components to online courses
- Seattle Great place to live and work
- Seattle Pacific University Small faith-based, liberal arts university 3500 undergrads, 1000 grads
- Eight students from MAT program, TL program, one non-matriculating student Computer authoring - focus is on the role of coding and gaming in education Students typically take the course because it fits their schedule rather than choosing the topic.
- Poll Question: What is an example of a mistake you made when designing a course?
- Chose 3D GameLab because it was the only “gaming” LMS I had heard of. It was a good choice. Much better than using a conventional LMS for a gamified course.
- Student choice is important, especially when students choose course because of schedule instead of content. Blog posts seem more authentic when students have a choice of how many to do rather than requiring one a week. Some students focused on coding while other focused on gaming quest. The students even had choice when it came to the textbook. Some chose to read all of them as quests could be repeated.
- Students like the five face-to-face meetings because it helped keep them accountable for the work in the class. The sessions also offered opportunities to get clarification on the quests and help with coding exercises.
- Students only submitted their completed work to me. I didn’t provide a way for them to view one another’s work and give feedback. The course lasted 10 weeks and we had five one-hour face-to-face sessions. Students wanted more sessions. These could have been used for show-and-tell and as hacker sessions. Students contracted for grades based on their total XP and completed quests. There was no maximum XP as some quests could be repeated. This was confusing for them as they are used to grades based on percentage of total points. They suggested providing example contracts in the future. I am not sure how I will proceed with this as I don’t want them to just copy one of the examples. I needed a better understanding of how quests can be repeated in 3D GameLab. The minimum time between repeats was one day. Coding quests I designed could be repeated several times in a day. Students had to wait a day before submitting a repeated quest which was frustrating. I did not plan for enough badges. Students were motivated by badges but by the time I figured this out it was too late to add more.
- Poll Question: What are topics of courses you have gamified or have seen gamified? (-) Some grad students struggle with conventional online learning. Does gamifying the course add to the confusion? (-) Some students sign up for an edtech course to learn how to use classroom technology like an interactive whiteboard. Does gamifying a course motivate or frustrate students that may not buy into the content of the course from the beginning? (+) Students love choice. Gamifying lets student pick quests that are most interesting to them. (+) I encourage my students to experiment and be innovative in their teacher. I should model the same. (+) Students can better understand the principles of gamification when they experience them in their own learning. (+) On average, students completed more quests (8.3) than they would have if I had assigned (5) which quests to complete.
- Poll Question: What do you do to encourage student participation in your courses? The use of quests helped personalize student learning by allowing them to choose which activities to complete and in which order. Students who were interested in one of the books started by reading the book. Others jumped right into the coding activities. When reviewing quests I had the option of clicking on a return button when a student had not mastered the objective of the quest. This gave students multiple opportunities to demonstrate competency rather than a single opportunity which is common in most LMSs I have used. Quests could be set up for autograding which allowed students to receive instant feedback in the form of XP and badges.
- 80 year-old (estimate) student’s reflection on the course. The online format allows flexible study times and less time traveling to and from class. The four classroom sessions were helpful for me and demonstrated applications that were useful and important to see demonstrated. The 3D GameLab was great for managing the quests I chose to do. I was impressed how you gamified the class, modeling suggestions in the texts. There were more than enough options to choose from. The point system should be a strong motivator. I stumbled while using the 3D GameLab, as it took me a bit longer to figure out how to best use it. I did much more on Scratch than I reported, and didn't need the points for a grade so did not report all the projects. My favorite parts of the class were reading both texts, programming again, meeting the students in person and watching you demonstrate tech interactions and seeing results on the big screen. I appreciated being introduced to Scratch. I spent a lot of time examining other Scratch programs, writing new programs and remixing. The Creative Computing Learner Workbook was excellent as a guide, and then -- too late -- I watched the instructional videos on mrteacherkevin.com. They answered questions that I was trying to answer by viewing other Scratch programs. The Learning Objectives of the class were appropriate for me and I believe reached. Years ago I pondered and toyed with computational thinking and games in education. Research in this area has advanced so much. This is exciting to see. Though most of my teaching days are over, I find some of these ideas and skills useful, even for a very old guy. I'm still planning on solving some of the coding problems with the variables in Scratch.
- In addition to modifying the existing course, I want to gamify the last course in the Digital Education Leadership MEd program to provide students an opportunity to demonstrate their competency on the ISTE Coaching Standards, turn their practicum into a quest, and provide opportunities for them to demonstrate proficiencies on various emerging technologies.
- Please contact me if you want to engage further on this topic.