Gamified Pedagogy in A Maya Class

1. IMPLEMENTING
GAMIFIED PEDAGOGY IN
MAYA 3D COURSES
Sandrine Han
Independent Researcher

2. INTRODUCTION
In a student-centred educational
environment, educators are
responsible for understanding
what motivates students and for
enabling students to learn from
their interests and experiences.
Gamified pedagogy requires the
use of a spiral curriculum; clear
short- and long-term goals;
rewarding students when they
achieve each level; forming a
learning community with a
showcase for student work; and
providing a safety net for students
to explore and practice.
With a gamified pedagogy,
students may become self-
motivated learners who are
interested in learning more from
the course content and from each
other.

3. LITERATUR
E REVIEW:
GAMIFICATI
ON
Csikszentmihalyi’s flow theory in games
1. a challenge that requires skill to achieve as well
as an attainable goal and known rules
2. complete absorption in the activity
3. clear goals
4. immediate feedback
5. concentration on the task at hand
6. a sense of control and a lack of worry about
losing control
7. loss of self-consciousness
8. transformation of time (Whitton, 2011, pp. 598-
599)
Learning engagement factors in gamification include
‘challenge, control, immersion, interest, and
purpose’ (p. 605).

4. LITERATUR
E REVIEW:
GAMIFIED
PEDAGOGY
Harden and Stamper (1999) list features of the
spiral curriculum: ‘1. Topics are revisited, 2.
There are increasing levels of difficulty, 3. New
learning is related to previous learning, and 4.
The competence of students increases’ (p. 141).
Experiences (Calvillo-Gámez, Cairns, & Cox,
2010) and reinforcement (Desurvire & Wiberg,
2010) are crucial in a spiral curriculum.
According to Han (2015), gamified pedagogy in
art education includes seven elements: (1) the
teacher should use a spiral curriculum; (2) the
teacher and students should set clear short-term
and long-term goals; (3) the students should
have the chance to resubmit their projects; (4)
the students should be able to learn at their own
pace; (5) the teacher should provide a safety net
for students to practice without embarrassment;
(6) the teacher should provide a space for
students to establish a learning community; and
(7) the teacher should provide a showcase for
students to exhibit their own selected works. (p.
265)

5. RESEARCH QUESTION
What are the positives and negatives of using gamified pedagogy in the Introduction to MAYA
curriculum design?
(1) Compared with the previous course design, what are the positives and
negatives of using gamified pedagogy? and
(2) What are the students’ views on the course design?

6. PARTICIPANTS AND
PROCEDURES
The research participants were students who enrolled in
the 3D MAYA course at Shanghai Commercial School as
well as the instructors who taught these courses based
on the gamified pedagogical course design. The
students were all adults, and all participants used
pseudonyms.

7. CURRICULU
M DESIGN
Curriculum
•The curriculum design is styled after project-based curriculum (Simonton,
Layne, & Irwin, 2021) and adds spiral curriculum (Harden & Stamper, 1999) to
achieve the gamified pedagogy (Han, 2015)
Pedagogy
•Based on the gamified pedagogy, some important features should be
observed by the instructors, as previously mentioned: (a) freedom of creation,
which we discuss in this section as well as (b) showcases of students’ work
and (c) the importance of group work; (d) unconventional assessments are
discussed in the following section.
Assessment
•Similar to playing a game, students gain points instead of earning marks.
The point of assessment in this course is not to evaluate student work, but to
assist student learning, which is determined not by exams but by check-ins
after each class.
Data Generation
•This study used the mixed methods of the concurrent triangulation strategy,
employing three methods to ‘confirm, cross validate, and corroborate
findings’ (Creswell, 2003, p. 217).

8. FINDINGS
Freedom of Creation
Importance of
Showcasing Student
Work
Group Work
Assessments by
Unconventional Means

9. FINDINGS:
FREEDOM
OF
CREATION
As Parker states “freedom and democracy by
upholding the meaningfulness and importance
of art in the classroom” (p. 23).
“because students can make what they want
and have freedom of creation, they are willing
to spend time after class to complete the
assignment.”
“the instructor didn’t ask us to follow step-by-
step instructions; instead, we can use our own
imagination to make the things.”

10. FINDINGS:
IMPORTANC
E OF
SHOWCASI
NG
STUDENT
WORK
As Kolbeinsson, Palmquist, Lindblom, and
Jiménez Sánchez (2021), a showcase is
considered to be a reward.
The instructors mentioned that they had
employed student-centred education prior
to implementing gamified pedagogy;
however, they focused on students’
deficiencies and attempted to overcome
these issues. Conversely, instructors who
use gamified pedagogy allow students to
determine what they desire to create, and
they encourage students to improve their
efforts. This fundamental difference
changed how teachers think about
education.

11. FINDINGS:
GROUP
WORK
The knowledge I have learned [was]
strengthened.
we can discuss how to use different
methods to achieve the same result
I learned to respect different ways
of thinking
I can complete the task that I
cannot do ... by myself.

12. FINDINGS: ASSESSMENTS BY
UNCONVENTIONAL MEANS
Students’ learning autonomy significantly increased
because of the assessments
One instructor stated that 70% of the students
spent time outside of class to complete the
assignments.

13. ISSUES
RAISED BY
THE
INSTRUCTO
RS
because students were accustomed to
following step-by-step instructions
and now were provided freedom, they
were lost at the beginning of the
course and did not know what to do.
More time is required to teach the
course.

14. CONCLUSI
ON
The design of gamified pedagogical
curriculum include four features: (a) freedom
of creation, (b) showcase of student work, (c)
importance of group work, and (d)
assessment by unconventional means.

15. THINK ABOUT
ASSESSMENT AS GAME
POINTS
When competed each
task, students earned
some points!
Adding on points,
instead of minus
points!
Extra points!

16. THANK YOU!
QUESTIONS?
COMMENTS?
THOUGHTS?
https://sandrinehan.com/
sandrinehan@sandrinehan.com