1. Learning with Gamification:
How Game Theory Can Improve Student Learning

2. Why Gamification?
“The default environment of school often results in undesirable outcomes such as disengagement, cheating, learned helplessness, and dropping out”
Joey Lee and Jessica Hammer
Columbia Teachers college

3. As a planet we spend 3 billion hours playing video games Over 5 million people play an average of 45 hours a week of games

4. WHAT IS GAMIFICATION?
Learning…only fun?

5. What is Gamification?
The application of game mechanics and game thinking to the process of learning in order to solve problems and engage users

6. What Gamification Is Not
Adding points or badges to an assignment is not gamification. The application of specific principles is required to create a game environment

7. HOW DOES IT HELP THE STUDENTS
Teaching is all about relating to experiences and tying that to course matter
Gamification directly affects engagement and motivation
Gamification indirectly leads to acquiring more knowledge and skills
Recall increases with gaming
The use of multiple stimuli creates a stronger memory

8. PROGRESSION See success visualized incrementally Levels Points
Ramp up difficulty
Unlock content
Points
Increase the running numerical value of the work

9. INVESTMENT Feel pride in the work Achievements Appointments
Earn recognition for completing work
Appointments
Check in to receive new challenges
Collaboration
Work with others to accomplish goals

10. CASCADING INFORMATION THEORY
Unlock information continuously
Bonuses
Receive unexpected rewards
Countdown
Work on challenges in limited time
Synthesis
Work on challenges that require multiple skills to solve

11. Questions to Ask Before You Begin
What is the main reason for gamifying your assignment/project?
How will it benefit the students?
Will they enjoy the process or will they just enjoy the outcome?

12. STEPS TO GAMIFICATION
Moving from idea to game in six steps

13. WOULD YOU LIKE TO PLAY A GAME?
Plan out what you want your learners to do
What do your want your students to do (X)
When do you want them to do X
How will you get them to do X
Game Theory
Difficult, but not too difficult
Every game is a role playing game
It is up to the player to make that decision
Lusory attitude

14. Huang and Soman define a five part process for applying gamification to the instructional environment. [Huang, Wendy Hsin-Yuan, and Dilip Soman. “Gamification Of Education.” p.5]

15. STEP 1 – PLAYER PROFILE Who are your players?
Will this process be more useful to them than other methods of information presentation?
What do they care about?
Audience analysis is important to the final game, make sure you are developing for your class

16. STEP 2 – GOALS AND OBJECTIVES
The final goal must be compelling in some way
Skill mastery
Achievement
Personal growth
These must tie to the course objective – create parallels
Combine long and short-term goals

17. STEP 3 – SKILLS AND ACTIONS
Preparatory skills
What skills do your students need prior to beginning
Success should be possible, but not necessarily guaranteed
Achieved Skills
What skills (singular and compound) will your students learn in the process
Learning these skills should be assured

18. STEP 4 – CREATING THE GAME WORLD
Competitive vs. Collaborative
Time Pressure
Scarcity
Puzzles
Levels
Currency
Social Pressure Component

19. STEP 5 – DESIRED OUTCOMES
There must be a concrete outcome for the game
This can be achieved or scheduled
Both formative and summative feedback is important
Rewards (tangible and intangible)

20. STEP 6 – TEST AND POLISH What is working? What isn’t?
Does the game achieve the objectives you set?
Does the game keep the students interested?
Student feedback?
Drawing board

21. GAMIFICATION EXAMPLES
All learning is a game!

22. SOLO GAMING Don’t discount the use of solo gaming in coursework
Even if class engagement isn’t present, the student can still be engaged
Find skills and information development games in your discipline
Be careful on hidden costs

23. REWARD FARMING
Learning from students is a critical component to an engaged classroom
Set tasks that repeat or are open-ended for all students to participate
Offer pools of points or extra credit for their finds
Aggregated or individual

24. ROLE PLAYING
Set separate and distinct roles for students during projects, discussions, assignments
Playing a role means thinking from other perspectives
This can also lead to personal reflection activities
Develops teamwork and shared learning

25. NITPICKER’S GAME
Students play a game or are engaged with some other simulation/video
The objective is to find errors in the content/game that is significant and accurate
Create context assignments that build on the found issues

26. TREASURE HUNT Send the students on an exploration of topics or sites
Search for information or clues that you place where the correct string will lead to something more
Learn from the escape room phenomenon
Webquest

27. TIMED PROBLEMS Post questions/problems that have a timed component
Give bonuses of some type to those that complete the problem earliest or before a set time expires
This also gets students used to logging in on a regular basis

28. DEMOCRATIC SOLUTIONS
Use the power of crowdsourcing for solutions to issues/assignments
Your students use the platform to convince others to come to their point of view
There is a winner, but not in points

29. SIMULATIONS Most commonly associated with gamification
Use of simulated environments whether digital or physical
Whole world or situational
Off-the-shelf software can be used for online
Expensive to develop

30. EXISTENTIAL GAMING
Personal growth shouldn’t be ignored when looking at gamification
Games that look inward at traits, ideas, constructs, and personality can be even more powerful than other types of gaming
Look at reactions to game situations for self-reflection

31. SOCIAL MEDIA WORLDS
The use of a private social media group can create a good palate for a game world
Facebook groups
Instructor has total control of the constructed world within the group, but not the organic evolution of the world
Make a simulated world with posts of information and articles

32. WRAPPING UP
WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

33. INEFFECTIVE GAMIFICATION
Leaderboards can be counter productive to gamification
Competition is good, but it needs to be constructive
Important issues and sensitive issues can be tricky to manage
The risks of offending some or all of the students can be high in these situations

34. FIND GAMING RESOURCES www.merlot.org www.oercommons.org
projects/
50-great-sites-for-serious- educational-games/

35. QUESTIONS?