© K.Becker
SoTL 2013
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
© K.Becker
SoTL 2013
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 Iterations
7. The Current Experiment
8. Jumping the Gun - Early Conclusions
9. Resources
Outline
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Katrin
Becker,
PhD
Who Am I?
3
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SoTL 2013
What am I Playing?
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SoTL 2013
The use of game elements
in non-game contexts.
What is Gamification?
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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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SoTL 2013
Game Elements?
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System Elements
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(Serious)
Games Gamification
(Serious)
Toys
Playful
Design
System Elements
Playing
Gaming
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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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
assignments
grades
passing course
game objectives
game rules
quests
XP
winning the game
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=
=
=
=
=
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What IS New?
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Chris Haskell, The Game-Based Curriculum: Directing Learning with Quests, Badges, Achievements, & Truly Personalized Learning, EdWeb Webinar, May 2013
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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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SoTL 2013
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
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Welcome to COMP 1103….
…..you all have ZERO
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The 1st 2 Iterations
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Background:
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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SoTL 2013
Gamified Course, V2 50% Gamified:
25% Lesson Design
25% High Concept
Game Design
50% The DGBL Game
Total XP possible:
1000
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SoTL 2013
Gamified Course, V2 50% Gamified:
25% Lesson Design
25% High Concept Game
Design
50% The DGBL Game
Total XP possible: 1000
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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
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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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The Big Challenges
Instructor:
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
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COMP 1103: Introduction to Computers
non-majors; 1st year course
required for some programs
science option
broad 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)
The Current Experiment
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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
The Current Experiment
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Step 1:
Design
Meaningful
Evidence of
Competence
The Current
Experiment
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SoTL 2013
Step 1:
Design
Meaningful
Evidence of
Competence
The Current Experiment
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SoTL 2013
Step 1:
Design
Meaningful
Evidence of
Competence
The Current Experiment
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SoTL 2013
Step 2:
Map
Scores XP
Grades Levels
The Current Experiment
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GRADE & 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
The Current Experiment
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Step 5:
Set up
Scoring
Mechanism
Set up
"Gradebook"
The Current Experiment
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Jumping the Gun - Early Conclusions Traditional 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
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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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SoTL 2013
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. (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.
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
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