Is gamification a game changer

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Is Gamification A Game Changer ?

Comparing Gamified and n0n-gamified aPProaches

Katrin Becker & Patrick Perri

Fri. 10-11

Early Returns and Initial Findings of Work in

Progress

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2023-04-11 Gamification Game Changer 2

1. What am I playing now?2. What is Gamification?3. An Inadvertent Con?4. Formal Learning is already a Game.5. What IS New?6. The 1st 2 Iterations7. The Current Experiment8. Jumping the Gun - Early Conclusions9. Resources

Outline

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2023-04-11 Gamification Game Changer 32023-04-11

Katrin Becker, PhD

Who Am I?

3

http://www.minkhollow.ca/becker



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What am I Playing?

http://fireproofgames.com/

http://professorlayton.nintendo.com/

http://www.animal-crossing.com/newleaf/

http://limbogame.org/

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The use of game elements in non-game contexts.

What is Gamification?

Deterding, S. (2012). 9.5 Theses on the Power and Efficacy of Gamification. Microsoft Research. [Microsoft Research Video] Retrieved from http://research.microsoft.com/apps/video/dl.aspx?id=174677&l=i on 12 October 2012.

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Game Elements?

System Elements

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(Serious) Games

Gamification

(Serious) Toys

Playful Design

System Elements

Playing

Gaming


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A Con?

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Is Gamification Evil?

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Gamification is Not New - PBL

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What about School?

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Formal Learning is already a game.

course requirements

policies / regulations

assignmentsgrades

passing course

game objectivesgame rulesquestsXPwinning the game

=====

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What IS New?

Chris Haskell, The Game-Based Curriculum: Directing Learning with Quests, Badges, Achievements, & Truly Personalized Learning, EdWeb Webinar, May 2013

http://home.edweb.net/the-game-based-curriculum-directing-learning-with-quests-badges-achievements-truly-personalized-learning/




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1. Must earn 'N' XP.2. Here are 'M' things

totalling >N XP (*important*)

3. Must do at LEAST these: ____4. The rest is up to you.

Flexible Path

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Everything the learner does for points ADDS to the total.

NOTHING the learner does can lower their grade.

What if they blow an assignment quest? How to control submissions?

Accumulative Grades

Welcome to COMP 1103….…..you all have ZERO

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The 1st 2 IterationsBackground: Master's level education course (U of C) Proposed, designed, implemented 2005 Also taught 2006, 2007 All F2F Previous report on original course (BJET)

Traditional design Readings, discussion Project (design a game or lesson that uses a

game) Research paper

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Original DGBL Course

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Gamified Course, V1 20% Gamified:

25% Lesson Design 15% Peer Review of Lesson

Design 25% High Concept Game

Design 15% Peer Review of High

Concept Game Design 20% The DGBL Game

Total possible XP: 470

Class Ave: 231

Range: 134 – 333

% over 100% 32% (7/22, + 3 near 100%)

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25% Lesson Design 25% High Concept Game

Design 50% The DGBL Game

Total XP possible: 1000

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25% Lesson Design 25% High Concept Game Design

50% The DGBL Game

Total XP possible: 1000

Class Ave: 537

Range: 380 - 650

% over 100%: 70% (9/13)

XP Req'd for

Perfect Score:500

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Player Stats

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Keeping Score

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Assessment of Individual Quests

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Assessment of Individual Quests

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Typical Course

Schedule

Course Orientation

Discussion Paper

Introduction to Game Based Learning

The Current State of Games and Gamers

Game Studies Reading Response 1

Games and Pedagogy

What Can Games Do? Reading Response 2

Games are Simulations

Reading Response 3

Examining Games

ID for Games

Making Games Reading Response 4

Assessing Games for Learning

Prototype Lesson Design

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Can’t go completely flexible courses still progress linearly there are practical reasons to try and have all students in more or

less the same place at the same time W.R.T. Topics Could think of the topic outline as the narrative

if it were a story; how would it best be told? Course schedule vs game-based

various topics & quests some are tied to various topics and others are not

Just like in a game P learn new things and skills as time progresses some things have pre-reqs others can be attempted at any time

Game-based course is mapped out like a storyboard or concept map rather than linearly as most typical courses are

My Adaptation

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Designing a Game

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Gamified Course

Concept Map

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Gives up on the lock-step lessons notion Was never a reality anyways

People are at different stages PROBLEM

Cannot go completely over to individualized learning

Simply impractical in many situations

Each node is like a gamescreen or location Relationships (paths) between nodes are

determined by content rather than time There are quests, items, associated with

each node

Game-Based Course Design

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2013IAP DDL AECT

Crystal Award

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The Big ChallengesInstructor: Up-Front Design Ensuring

objectives are addressed.

Competency-Based Assessment*

Scoring Records keeping Marking Load

Learner: Taking Ownership

of Learning Motivation Time Management Strategizing

Taking Ownership of Learning

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The Current Experiment

"Traditional" student experience:

55% first year 25% second year 13% third year 7% fourth

student interest: 55% open studies 15% business 10% science rest is various arts programs

or diplomas

"Gamified" student experience:

55% first year 25% second year 15% third year 5% fourth

student interest: 30% open studies 30% business 20% science rest is various arts programs

or diplomas

COMP 1103: Introduction to Computersnon-majors; 1st year courserequired for some programs

science optionbroad range of backgrounds

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"Traditional" Delivery Lecture from ppts, Ppts released at the beginning of the week, One chapter per week expected reading, Every two week's there is an activity for marks

(Usually in class: quiz, answer a question, group impromptu research or

Consensus writing, OR a blog based on lecture/reading question)

Midterm (multiple choice, short answer, long answer)

Final exam 4 assignments

(one a group project)


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"Gamified" Delivery Lecture from ppts, inquiry-driven, quest-driven PPTs released at the beginning of the week or sooner All instructor materials made available to students Read chapters as relevant

plus news items, articles shared on class forum Final exam (Boss Battle, 250 XP) Quests:

1 Epic Quest (200 XP, Guild) 4 Achievement Quests (50 XP, Small Guild or Solo) 13 classes of Mini-Quests (10-25 XP, repeatable, Solo)

Most Quests released on 1st day of class Most Quests have no deadline

guidelines provided for order and schedule of completion 1000 XP = 100% (follows MRU letter grade mapping) Total XP possible = 1450


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Step 1: Design Meaningful Evidence of Competence


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Step 2: Map Scores XPGrades Levels

The Current ExperimentGRADE & GPA Table

(Used to calculate student grades on the Gradebook sheet)

Score Letter Grade GPA XP Level

0 - 19 F 0.00 0 - 199 0

20 - 39 F 0.00 200 - 399 1

40 - 49 F 0.00 400 - 499 2

50 - 54 D 1.00 500 - 549 3

55 - 59 D+ 1.70 550 - 599 4

60 - 62 C- 1.70 600 - 629 5

63 - 66 C 2.00 630 - 669 6

67 - 69 C+ 2.30 670 - 699 7

70 - 72 B- 2.70 700 - 729 8

73 - 76 B 3.00 730 - 769 9

77 - 79 B+ 3.30 770 - 799 10

80 - 84 A- 3.70 800 - 849 11

85 - 94 A 4.00 850 - 949 12

95 - 100 A+ 4.00 950 - 1000 13

101+ A+ 4.00 1001+ 14

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Step 3 & 4: Assign XP

values to Quests

Decide on: options flexibility achievement

path


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Step 5: Set up

Scoring Mechanism

Set up "Gradebook"


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Jumping the Gun - Early ConclusionsTraditional Gamified

Confident of success in spite of average ability (self-assessed)

Comfortable w/ requirements. ~ 25% commented on lack of

deadlines (positive) 1 felt it was easier to understand 1 felt it was too unstructured

All values were lower *except* how well expectations matched requirements (?).

Scale: 1-7

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Support Requires considerable "on-boarding"

Structure Too little structure for some Learners have greater control over their own learning Learners felt ownership of their own learning

Competition Motivating for some Discouraging for others

Assessment Fast grading turn-around essential Tendency to grade quantitatively

Simple grading schemes Practical mechanisms for meaningful feedback

Jumping the Gun - Early Conclusions

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Questions?

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‘Gamification’ - the use of game elements in non-game contexts - has rapidly become one of the current hottest trends. This presentation presents an overview of what gamification is and isn’t, and reports on the author’s experiences using this approach in a graduate level education class as well as the early results of a comparison between gamified and non-gamified sections of a freshman introduction to computers course. In the current course, the non-gamified sections employ a fairly standard structure that includes various assignments spread out throughout the term, various in-class activities, and both a midterm and final exam. The gamified section organizes all student work into various quests worth from 10 to 200 ‘experience points’ (XP), most of which have no set deadlines. While the quests are effectively equivalent in grade weight to the assignments of the more traditional sections, students in the gamified section start off with a score of zero (0) and every quest they submit contributes to their final grade cumulatively. A final score of 1000 is equivalent to 100%, but the total number of possible XP is 1435. All quests were made available to students at the beginning of term; some could be repeated for XP and included a variety of ‘guild’ (group) quests and ‘solo’ quests; and many quests could be repeated to earn additional XP. The presentation will provide some background on gamification, detail the course structure, highlight early successes and failures, and conclude with strategies for incorporating meaningful gamification in other courses.

Abstract of Presentation:

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Becker, K. (2004). Reconciling a Traditional Syllabus with an Inquiry-Based Introductory Course. The Journal of Computing Science in Colleges, 20(2), 28-37.

Becker, K. (2006). How much choice is too much? SIGCSE Bull., 38(4), 78-82. doi: 10.1145/1189136.1189176.

Becker, K. (2007). Digital Game Based Learning, Once Removed: Teaching Teachers BRITISH JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY, SIG-GLUE Special Issue on Game-Based Learning 2007, 38(3), 478-488.

Bogost, I. (2012). Persuasive Games: Exploitationware. Gamasutra. Retrieved from http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/6366/persuasive_games_exploitationware.php

Charles, D., Charles, T., McNeill, M., Bustard, D., & Black, M. (2011). Game-based feedback for educational multi-user virtual environments. British Journal of Educational Technology, 42(4), 638-654. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8535.2010.01068.x.

Deci, E. and Ryan, R. (2004). Handbook of Self-Determination Research. Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press.


Deterding, S., Dixon, D., Khaled, R., & Nacke, L. (2011). From game design elements to gamefulness: defining "gamification". Paper presented at the Proceedings of the 15th International Academic MindTrek Conference: Envisioning Future Media Environments, Tampere, Finland

Kapp, K. M. (2012). The gamification of learning and instruction : game-based methods and strategies for training and education. San Francisco, CA: Pfeiffer.

Nicholson, S. (2012). A User-Centered Theoretical Framework for Meaningful Gamification. Paper presented at the Games + Learning + Society 8.0, Madison, WI. on June 13

Sheldon, L. (2012). The Multiplayer Classroom : Designing Coursework as a Game. Boston, Mass.: Course Technology/Cengage Learning.

Resources

http://research.microsoft.com/apps/video/dl.aspx?id=174677&l=i