Current Trends in Education-Gamification

     I teach what is classified as an elective.  Which typically means that students "elect" or choose to be in the class.  At least that is what you would think, right?  Well, maybe not.  I happen to be in a small school that has limited elective choices.  Mix that with having limited number of faculty and limited scheduling opportunities, I often have students placed in my class that did not choose to be there.  I also have students who sign up for my courses that can't get in.  But that's an argument for another time!  The simple fact is that not all students want to be there.  Being an elective I don't have the luxury of telling them they can't graduate if they don't pass my class.  So, I am often stuck with students who don't care and will put little effort into making the best of what they consider a bad situation.  My dilemma is how to engage all students, the ones who want to be there and the ones who couldn't care less.  I think the answer may be gamification.  Presenting my curriculum in such a way that if feels like a game to the student while they are actually learning something.

   Frank Smith shared an infographic in his 2015 article "10 Online Learning Trends to Watch in 2015" that stated "80% of learners say they would be more productive if their university/institution or work was more game-like." 

   Engagement and interest into the method of teaching information plays a large role into the success of teaching the actual content.  It's not just about the content.  It's not just about the mode of instruction.  It must be a mixture of both.  Just games will keep students entertained but are they learning from it?  There must be rigorous content integrated into the game. The following aspects need to be considered when using games as instructional strategy:

Critical Thinking.  Games need to have an aspect of critical thinking and problem solving by using inquiry and discovery in the pursuit.

Motivation.  Games themselves are fun and therefore motivating.  They also can provide a desire to move on from one level to another which gives students feelings of success as they navigate through the game. 

Student Engagement.  Students enjoy playing games.  Just the fact that it's more fun than traditional instructional methods will help keep the student engaged on many levels.

Contextual Relevance.  Gaming in nothing new to our students.  The fact they are familiar to the format makes the student more comfortable in the instructional method.

Self-paced Learning Experience.  Allowing students to work at their own pace can be very beneficial to both students that work quickly and for those who work more slowly. 
(Prayaga and Rasmussen, 2007)

   After reading this I got to thinking about how I could add gamification into my classroom.  I have one particular unit that has some very heavy material.  I believe I wrote of this in a previous blog but at that time had not considered how to do it.  So, with this idea fresh on my mind again, I looked around to see what I could find.  My school district has purchased CANVAS LMS.  I have been interested in trying to integrate the use of CANVAS more into day to day instruction. I started researching to see if there were any gamification applications available to use on CANVAS.  What I found was Badgr.  Badgr is an application that allows badges to be awarded as students complete tasks or levels.  It is fully integrates into CANVAS.  The following video shows how easy it is to use.

Badgr allows customization of badges, allows viewing of leaderboards by students and teachers, students can share badges on social media as they earn them and other great features.  I am excited to get started creating my game for next year’s classes.  Hopefully it will engage all students more!

Badgr Help.  How to Use the Badgr Leaderboard in CANVAS.  Youtube video link:  https://youtu.be/LSp805bND8M

Prayaga, L. & Rasmussen, K. (2007). Serious Gaming: Instructional Strategies for Career and Technical Education, Proceedings of EdMedia: World Conference on Educational Media and Technology 2007 (pp. 2992-3003).  Retrieved from http://aumnicat.aum.edu:2619/p/25800

Smith, D.F. (2015).  10 Online Learning Trends to Watch in 2015.  EdTech.  Retrieved from http://www.edtechmagazine.com/k12/article/2014/12/10-online-learning-trends-watch-2015-infographic