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GAME OVER�why your attempts to gamify your course don’t work�(and how to fix it)�

by Jeremy Winn

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About Me

Educator, Game Designer &�Educational Game Designer

eLearning Coordinator

Grays Harbor College

Computer Science Teacher

Fusion Academy & Speer Academy

Educational Game Designer

Dr. Panda Town Mall, Kaleido!, et al.

Game Design Teacher

Chicago Quest

Commercial Game Designer

Impolite Finger Fight, Starific!, AtmosPug, et al.

Ludologist

Since 2005

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About Today’s Presentation

Modified from a 2-hour workshop—we’ll be going fast!

Confused? Good!

Send me questions at jeremy.winn@ghc.edu

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You will be able to:

Create your own gamified challenge (assessment!)

What’s the objective?

What would be a fun/interesting thing for your students to do? What will have meaning for them?

Define winning. What does winning this assessment look like?
How can you adjust the difficulty of the challenge?
How will you provide autonomy and choice in your assessment?
How will students receive feedback on their progress?
How will students be rewarded for success?

Jot down your ideas as we explore these principles.

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What is gamification?

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What is gamification?

“The process of adding games or gamelike elements to something (such as a task) so as to encourage participation” (Merriam-Webster)

Gamification does not necessarily mean “fun”!

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What is gamification?

“Design is the process by which a designer creates a context to be encountered by a participant, from which meaning emerges.”

(Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman)

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What types of motivation we might try to design to produce engagement?�

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The Four Forces of Multidimensional Motivation

Everyone is motivated all the time.

Extrinsic�Motivation

Prizes, grades, getting to the next level.�It’s not about the journey, but the destination.

“I want that.”

Could be anything you enjoy for its own sake!�Running, fishing, shooting things, reading or listening to stories, conversation.

“I enjoy this.”

Failure, punishment, loss, embarrassment. Amotivation lights the fire beneath you.

“Keep that away from me.”

No strong feelings either way. Meh. This is the true lack of motivation.

“I don’t care.”

Intrinsic�Motivation

Amotivation

Apathy

Four fundamental motivational forces. Everyone is motivated all the time. Sometimes we talk about motivation as if it’s a thing you have or don’t have, but in reality it is something we all have all the time. Generally we have an array of options available to us and we evaluate each of those options given all of these four domains.

Adult learners generally are already highly motivated; gamification is less valuable sometimes. They are already intrinsically and extrinsically motivated – they are paying for it.

Amotivation? I’m going to ask you a question at the end, and you’ll be embarrassed/won’t get a badge if you’re wrong.

Maybe some of you have an extrinsic motivation for being here – you’re getting some kind of incentive for it. Others are here out of intrinsic motivation – you simply want to be here. And the vast majority of folks rank high on the Apathy domain so they’re not here at all.

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Traitor!

Why the negativity about gamification?

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Why the negativity?

It doesn’t work! (poor ROI)

Results have been very mixed, generally poor ROI compared to other interventions
“as much as 80% of gamification projects are likely to fail” – (Gartner, 2012)
In higher ed: adult learners generally are already highly motivated;
Not generally equitable interventions
Saturation is the enemy of novelty—the more we do it, the less it works

So why does this guy who is seemingly so invested in gamification so negative about it? Well, I’m a critic. My love for designing experiences for both learning and recreation leaves me with really high standards and really strong opinions. So, yes, I want to be hard on gamification when it’s done poorly because I don’t want people’s negative perceptions of gamification to proliferate, just as if say, you were into horror movies, you probably wouldn’t want people to think that Twilight was a good representation of a vampire movie.

What do you mean "it doesn't work?" Maybe a graphic of something that works, but not as intended... round peg through a square hole, using a toaster as a heater, idk

In educational games, we find that often the game is fun, but the students don’t learn much, or the students learn a lot, but the game isn’t fun. Effective educational games are a challenge – gamification generally swings hard to the side of a game that is educational, but not fun.��So when trying to find effective interventions, we often measure success by a lack of any difference. That means we try something, there's no difference in the result, and we're very excited by that! Yay! That happens when we find a way to get the same result for less cost or effort-- we've found a more efficient way to do something, and that equals success. Where gamification often fails is not in that there is no improvement, but that the improvement yields such a poor ROI that it is a failure compared to other interventions we might have tried. Gamification as it is typically manifested is not easy, it's a very high cost prospect (mostly time), so if we are producing the same results, then that makes it a failure. Now, there's still value in the attempt, in the learning, but what this presentation attempts to do is teach you how to make your efforts effective so that you experience success.

Not all gamification is good or ethical. There are a lot of exploitative practices in gaming, to the extent that some countries have even banned certain common practices. Do you want your class to be engaging like a video game, or like a casino?

Businesses exploit these gambling-like practices for profit and call it gamification

Because games are very diverse and people are drawn to different elements of games, your efforts will only work for some students, often you may spend 20 hours on something that only 20% of your students will benefit from.

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Why the negativity?

Some success, though, across many sectors, including adult education.

E.g., Duolingo, Khan Academy, McDonald’s Monopoly (25 years)

Not all gamification is good or ethical

For every Duolingo there’s a McDonald’s Monopoly

Lack of understanding – classes already are like games

So why does this guy who is seemingly so invested in gamification so negative about it? Well, I’m a critic. My love for designing experiences for both learning and recreation leaves me with really high standards and really strong opinions. So, yes, I want to be hard on gamification when it’s done poorly because I don’t want people’s negative perceptions of gamification to proliferate, just as if say, you were into horror movies, you probably wouldn’t want people to think that Twilight was a good representation of a vampire movie.

What do you mean "it doesn't work?" Maybe a graphic of something that works, but not as intended... round peg through a square hole, using a toaster as a heater, idk

In educational games, we find that often the game is fun, but the students don’t learn much, or the students learn a lot, but the game isn’t fun. Effective educational games are a challenge – gamification generally swings hard to the side of a game that is educational, but not fun.��So when trying to find effective interventions, we often measure success by a lack of any difference. That means we try something, there's no difference in the result, and we're very excited by that! Yay! That happens when we find a way to get the same result for less cost or effort-- we've found a more efficient way to do something, and that equals success. Where gamification often fails is not in that there is no improvement, but that the improvement yields such a poor ROI that it is a failure compared to other interventions we might have tried. Gamification as it is typically manifested is not easy, it's a very high cost prospect (mostly time), so if we are producing the same results, then that makes it a failure. Now, there's still value in the attempt, in the learning, but what this presentation attempts to do is teach you how to make your efforts effective so that you experience success.

Not all gamification is good or ethical. There are a lot of exploitative practices in gaming, to the extent that some countries have even banned certain common practices. Do you want your class to be engaging like a video game, or like a casino?

Businesses exploit these gambling-like practices for profit and call it gamification

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Discussion:�What’s in a game?

What is a game?

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What’s in a game?

A game consists of the following elements:

An objective to achieve.
Obstacles to the objective.

Let’s try one that I created for webinars called Dot Touch.

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Game: �Dot Touch

Demonstration

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We’ll make this better by applying 6 principles

But first…

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Games vs. Courses

Knowing what we know about games, what are the similarities and differences with our courses?

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Games vs. Courses

Both involve:

Designing experiences with a desired outcome for the audience
Designing challenges with attainable solutions
Assisting the audience in finding solutions to challenges

Designing engaging challenges for future winners.

Designing growth.

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Games vs. Courses

Let’s examine some other core similarities between engaging games and engaging courses.

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Games vs. Classes

Objective

Courses and assignments already have objectives.

Objectives in classes?

Courses and assignments are already designed to challenge students.

Challenges in classes?

Courses already offer students feedback on their progress.

Feedback in classes?

Courses already reward success.

Rewards in classes?

Challenge

Feedback

Reward

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So why don’t courses �feel like games?

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There are two main reasons

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Reason #1�The Magic Circle &�Suspension of Disbelief

“Playing a game is the voluntary effort to overcome unnecessary obstacles.” (Bernard Suits)

“To play a game means entering into a magic circle, or perhaps creating one as a game begins.”

Salen, K. & Zimmerman, E., (2003) Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals The MIT Press.

So a game has an objective and a challenge. The last, vital element to a game that we haven’t discussed: volition. If players do not choose to play the game, then it is not a game, but work. Ask any video game tester. Just as if you were forced to watch TV or read a book it won’t necessarily be fun for you. All of game design and education are about designing interaction between the student or player and the designed experience. Students and players are similar in that they submit themselves to your experience with an expectation.

This is commonly referred to as the “magic circle”, a safe space that players enter when playing a game, where the threat of failure is not real, which we unfortunately cannot offer with fidelity.

Gamification creates a magic circle, a safe space for failure in which mistakes are ultimately of no real consequence. This creates a growth mindset context!

The magic circle is a consequence-free zone, a pretend space. Your mom isn't going to come yell at you because you didn't rescue the princess. You aren't going to lose your job because you didn't crush all the candy. So, if you couldn't touch my nose, there was no consequence. But if I ask you to take something like your cellphone, throw it up in the air, spin around and catch it, we're out of the magic circle. There's a real consequence to failure.

So we already have challenges and rewards, but they don't occur within that magic circle. The consequences are real. What can we learn from games that actually works?

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Reason #2 �Using superficial gaming elements instead of core gaming elements (CCB)

Badges, points, leaderboards

Shallow attempts to manipulate extrinsic motivation

Stories

Usually ineffective attempts to create intrinsic motivation
Good storytelling is hard
Even in video games, players often skip the story

Akin to “schoolifying” games by adding backpacks and chalkboards

We have a term for this practice in the educational games industry...

CCB

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�� Chocolate-Covered Broccoli

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Chocolate-covered Broccoli

If an alien imagined how to make broccoli taste better.
Chocolate actually takes a lot of work.
Students want the nutrition of higher education.
Good broccoli uses fat and salt.
What is the fat and salt of game design?

Adding points, badges and leaderboards to school isn’t any more effective as gamification than adding backpacks and hall passes would be at schoolifying games. If you wanted to make a game educational, those are not the elements that are important. And so it is for gamification. Students already have heavy extrinsically motivated pressures in the form of grades, and if they don’t care about those, they probably aren’t going to care a whole lot about your badges either.

Gamification- careful with stories. People often disengage with them even in AAA games.

Even game designers have had problems with adding stories to their games-- a lot of players hate it! They just want to get back to the action-- they don't want to set down the controller and watch a story. In fact, for a time, game designers were trying to get around this problem, and came up with an idea to add "Quicktime Events"-- the idea was that while watching a scene, they would add an interactive piece, like "Press X now!" to make the story more interactive. They were widely panned! Designers are more frequently adding ways to Skip these story events.

So while adding a story might not hurt your content, unless you are a really strong and engaging fiction writer on your own merits, it's probably not going to add a lot either. And, in some cases it can hurt your content. Take a course where stories, such as case studies, are actually important to the course outcomes-- you don't want to train students to gloss over these elements that they will find patronizing.

If there is enough educational merit to the story to stand alone, or if the story effectively ties everything together into a meaningful or engaging context, then it MIGHT work.

Narrative elements that tend to work best will be things that are relatable to real life.

Consider your strengths. Are you a good writer? Have you ever written a story before? If not, then maybe your students are not the ones to test out your burgeoning fantasy on. However, story that is presented in videos can be a great way to introduce story, and establish presence with students.

None of this is to say that you should never do badges or stories or other superficial elements of games, or that they are always a waste of time. But, they are just the decorations on the cake. They are not the cake itself or even the icing.

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We’ve touched on the similarities between classes and games.

Now let’s explore how to make a game GOOD and what that means for doing gamification WELL. �

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How DO we create a good gamified experience? �

Effective gamification is an extension of effective teaching, not a totally separate set of skills.

Gamification is complex in the way that teaching is complex, but has been summarized by decades of research in motivational psychology.

Let’s see what the research says!

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Five Principles of Gamification, Summarized

Challenge

Feedback

Autonomy

Meaning

Reward

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Self Determination Theory

Deci and Ryan

Allowing the participants choices and freedom in the path to or expression of their objective.

Autonomy

Appropriate challenge that is neither too easy nor too difficult.

Challenge

Creating a meaningful context for participation, whether in a magic circle or the real world, that the player values.

Meaning

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Principle #1- Challenge

The key to engaging learning!

Adjusting for difficulty-- what about for students that find it too easy? Natural consequence of faster completion, extension-- it depends on the type of problem. Sometimes extension isn't appropriate, you reach a point of saturation.

So, challenge your students. When I teach material, I often aim for something that I think might be challenging-- I try not to insult my students' intelligence and as little as possible to spell things out in an obvious way. That requires me to pick out the parts that I think will actually be challenging and dedicate an appropriate amount of time to it. Getting the right balance is challenging!

People often confuse the correlation with the causation in gamification. Yes, if you are having fun while learning, retention and performance will be better. BUT! That does not mean that the FUN part is causing the improved performance! In fact, it is very likely the opposite-- when the challenge and the context are there, fun becomes a byproduct to learning. That byproduct becomes valuable feedback that your instructional approach is "just right" -- the zone of proximal development.

Challenges are scaffolded. You are not thrown into the ring with the final boss until you've been introduced to the skills you need to win.

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Related Theories

Theory of Optimal Arousal (Stress)

Zone of Proximal Development

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Where’s the sweet spot?

Balance is the key
Approachable but challenging… aim for 85!
Scaffold your challenges

“Smooth the curve” to make difficult problems approachable

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Dot Touch v2

Let’s add some challenge to our game.
This time the dot will move.
(This will work best in Full Screen)

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Workshop: Balancing Challenge

What will be the central challenge for your assessment?
How will you be able to adjust the difficulty of that challenge to accommodate student ability?

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Principle #2 - Feedback

Effective feedback becomes essential to competence/growth
Deals directly with the theory of Flow

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

You are in “the zone” when the difficulty is a good match for your skill.
While in “the zone” we are in a balancing act where our continued success requires alert attention to our performance.

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Best Practices for Feedback

Clear, transparent objectives! (TILT!)

Rubrics & Exemplars!

Regular and Substantive Feedback (RSI)

But, you can’t be available for feedback 24/7 so…
Low-stakes self assessments

Adjusting for difficulty-- what about for students that find it too easy? Natural consequence of faster completion, extension-- it depends on the type of problem. Sometimes extension isn't appropriate, you reach a point of saturation.

So, challenge your students. When I teach material, I often aim for something that I think might be challenging-- I try not to insult my students' intelligence and as little as possible to spell things out in an obvious way. That requires me to pick out the parts that I think will actually be challenging and dedicate an appropriate amount of time to it. Getting the right balance is challenging!

People often confuse the correlation with the causation in gamification. Yes, if you are having fun while learning, retention and performance will be better. BUT! That does not mean that the FUN part is causing the improved performance! In fact, it is very likely the opposite-- when the challenge and the context are there, fun becomes a byproduct to learning. That byproduct becomes valuable feedback that your instructional approach is "just right" -- the zone of proximal development.

Challenges are scaffolded. You are not thrown into the ring with the final boss until you've been introduced to the skills you need to win.

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Transparency In Teaching and Learning (TILT)

A perfect example of research-based educational practice that aligns with principles of gamification and equitable teaching.

Context/Purpose (Meaning)

Why are we learning this

Task

What are we doing

Criterion

How do we know we’ve succeeded

Providing transparent criterion allows for students to self-assess and gain immediate, self-guided feedback
Rubrics and Exemplars!

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Dot Touch v3

Let’s improve the flow of feedback in this game.

We’ll put a timer on the game, so you have an idea of how you’re doing, and add scoring. Each time you touch the red dot, type your current score in the chat and press Enter.

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Workshop: Increasing Feedback

How will students be able to receive regular feedback on their progress towards success?

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Principle #3 - Autonomy

A class cannot be gamified for a student who is ONLY participating because of a requirement.
Students cannot enter the magic circle without having made some choice.
You may not be able to give autonomy for the course requirement, but you can create autonomy in the learning and assessment requirements.
Again – good, evidence-based teaching is good gamification

Universal Design for Learning (UDL)
Another equitable solution!
UDL is all about autonomy: “Provide options for”

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Nose Touch v4

Let’s add a bit more autonomy to our game!
Please turn on your camera to participate in this round.

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Workshop: Promoting Autonomy

What choices will students have towards determining their objective, or their method of demonstrating completion of the objective?
Paradox of Choice! More options is not always better.

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Principle #4 - Meaning

Two seemingly opposing approaches to accessing these drives

Create a context and a purpose with high alignment to student goals and values

-or-

Create a context and purpose with opportunities to experiment with interesting decisions with no/minimal real-world consequences

The first plays on our desire to master our chosen strengths
The latter plays on our general curiosity
Both are primary elements of TILTing!

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Alignment to Goals and Values

Capitalize on existing purpose

Focus on things that have real significance to students

Authenticity in assessment!

Progress towards future career goals and personal passions
The value of the student-teacher relationship
Community & belonging

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Magic Circles

Magic circles are subjective
Magic circles will be inherently temporary (don’t try to make your entire class inside a magic circle)
Magic circles are opportunities to escape reality and consequences

The magic circle is subjective. Entering the magic circle requires escaping the mundane. Using a change of atmosphere, music -- escaping the familiar, and allowing the player to explore interactions with the world safely and without serious consequence. This is hard to do in education. It requires letting go of the system of rules which lead to performance which lead to grades. It’s possible to give students these experiences and then use those to inform performance. Music sets a new tone. Visuals and being able to look around/explore. What is outside the student’s expectations? What will fascinate them? Where is the curiosity? Where is the mystery?

Magic circles don’t work with real-world consequences. Attempting to build one is pointless. Students go to college to invest in themselves. The purpose is there. A grade should, in theory, already have significant meaning.

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Creating a Magic Circle

Change atmosphere, music
Low-threat opportunities to interact with the world and test skills without meaningful real-world consequence
Try something new and novel, experimentation
Reduce the threat of failure by giving students multiple opportunities for assessment and feedback

E.g., use quizzes to self-assess for 1 point, allow revisions on large assignments

The magic circle is subjective. Entering the magic circle requires escaping the mundane. Using a change of atmosphere, music -- escaping the familiar, and allowing the player to explore interactions with the world safely and without serious consequence. This is hard to do in education. It requires letting go of the system of rules which lead to performance which lead to grades. It’s possible to give students these experiences and then use those to inform performance. Music sets a new tone. Visuals and being able to look around/explore. What is outside the student’s expectations? What will fascinate them? Where is the curiosity? Where is the mystery?

Magic circles don’t work with real-world consequences. Attempting to build one is pointless. Students go to college to invest in themselves. The purpose is there. A grade should, in theory, already have significant meaning.

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Which approach should I use for my course?

Both!

Align with real goals/values throughout the entire course

Sprinkle magic circles throughout to create a fun class atmosphere and encourage experimentation with ideas and critical thinking

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Nose Touch v5?

Welcome to Extreme Nose Picker!

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Workshop: Finding Meaning

What will successfully completing this objective mean for your students?

How can you transport them into a magic circle that allows them to experiment with interesting decisions with minimal consequence?

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Principle #5 - Rewards

Once you maximize intrinsic motivation, you have created a meaning for a reward.

A good grade is already a reward, but now you can invent new incentives as well.

It doesn’t have to be fancy, but something physical is often better than something digital!

Watch out for Overjustification!

What is the value of the reward? If it’s symbolic, who will see the symbol, and what will it mean to them?

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Overjustification

Overjustification – when the intrinsic motivation to do something becomes overwritten by an extrinsic motivation
This occurs when an extrinsic reward becomes so powerful that it breaks the magic circle.
Most classes are inherently overjustified due to grades!

Overjustification vs. the Tom Sawyer effect (you couldn’t PAY me to let you paint this fence)

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The Office – Yankee Swap!

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“Digital Rewards”

Often abstract and meaningless—only when they can be shared in some meaningful way do they have a real impact, and that depends on a community context.
Use the Canvas checklists. These checks are already badges, as are grades and report cards
Additional rewards can work well for students who aren’t as motivated by grades.
Consider alternatives to badges: badges are a dead end reward. Consider how games allow new equipment, or new quests.

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Rewards + Context

What a badge MEANS is important. Badge = recognition

It means very little coming from a computer.
It might mean something coming from you.

What does an A mean?

It means one thing to a student whose parents rewarded them for a good report card by taking them to an amusement park,
and it means something very different to a student who was bullied for being a nerd.

You cannot separate a grade or a badge from the source of the recognition.

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Version 6 – Extreme Nose Picker Tournament

The winner of this tournament gets a trophy (yes an actual trophy) to put in their office, demonstrating to all their nose-picking domination. It will be a great conversation piece 👃

The top two scorers of this round will move on to the final round and face off!

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Workshop: Selecting Rewards

How will you reward students for meeting course objectives?

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Comparing Nose Touch v1 to Extreme Nose Picker

Many of our course learning activities are still in the early stages of development.

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Gamification, �Without the Fluff

Good game design. Good teaching. Designing engaging challenges for future winners.

If you found this engaging, you probably were intrinsically motivated to learn about game design/gamification, the content wasn’t too difficult nor too easy for you, and you were probably extrinsically motivated by thoughts of what this information would allow you to DO. The lack of autonomy or activities might not have even mattered to you because I changed up the modality of delivery every 15 minutes so that you wouldn’t get too bored with any one. Maybe you got a slight bump from the promise of a badge, maybe not.

This was not an example of a gamified lesson, yet it was not absent of gamification elements. It was a middle of the road gamified lesson at best. But, that’s okay. Seemingly passive media can be engaging, whether it’s a TED Talk or an episode of Game of Thrones. It is a combination of the flow of the presentation and what you take away from the experience that really creates the value and the engagement. If we had more time, here is where I would present you with some scaffolded challenges to apply what you’ve just learned. I would aim for the average person to have about 80-85% success rate. I would then use these new skills as a foundation for the next challenge.

Autonomy – you are here.

Challenge – I do not pander to you, if anything try to make the lesson move briskly

Purpose – this topic has value to you�I didn’t do much of anything but design this presentation for my audience. There weren’t a lot of gimmicks or games.�So when you leave this webinar, I hope you will think to yourself, you know, there wasn’t really anything particularly special about it, but it was actually really good. It challenged me to think about something that I care about in a new way, and I learned something valuable from that.

Maybe a self-assessment at the end

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These approaches work for ALL students.

If you found this engaging, you probably were intrinsically motivated to learn about game design/gamification, the content wasn’t too difficult nor too easy for you, and you were probably extrinsically motivated by thoughts of what this information would allow you to DO. The lack of autonomy or activities might not have even mattered to you because I changed up the modality of delivery every 15 minutes so that you wouldn’t get too bored with any one. Maybe you got a slight bump from the promise of a badge, maybe not.

This was not an example of a gamified lesson, yet it was not absent of gamification elements. It was a middle of the road gamified lesson at best. But, that’s okay. Seemingly passive media can be engaging, whether it’s a TED Talk or an episode of Game of Thrones. It is a combination of the flow of the presentation and what you take away from the experience that really creates the value and the engagement. If we had more time, here is where I would present you with some scaffolded challenges to apply what you’ve just learned. I would aim for the average person to have about 80-85% success rate. I would then use these new skills as a foundation for the next challenge.

Autonomy – you are here.

Challenge – I do not pander to you, if anything try to make the lesson move briskly

Purpose – this topic has value to you�I didn’t do much of anything but design this presentation for my audience. There weren’t a lot of gimmicks or games.�So when you leave this webinar, I hope you will think to yourself, you know, there wasn’t really anything particularly special about it, but it was actually really good. It challenged me to think about something that I care about in a new way, and I learned something valuable from that.

Maybe a self-assessment at the end

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REAL Gamification Strategies that WORK

Objectives should be:

Clear, transparent (TILT!) – the student knows how to “win” with rubrics/exemplars
Authentic and aligned with student goals and values.

Assignments should be:

Challenging – aim for 85!
Provide choice/autonomy in topic, representation, expression, engagement (UDL!)
Allow students to demonstrate meaningful learning (Student-centered assessments, e.g., GP/UBD performance tasks worthy of the news/refrigerator)

Feedback should be:

Constant! (RSI)
Safe and Low-threat (low-stakes assessment)

Rewards should be:

Used judiciously ;)

If you found this engaging, you probably were intrinsically motivated to learn about game design/gamification, the content wasn’t too difficult nor too easy for you, and you were probably extrinsically motivated by thoughts of what this information would allow you to DO. The lack of autonomy or activities might not have even mattered to you because I changed up the modality of delivery every 15 minutes so that you wouldn’t get too bored with any one. Maybe you got a slight bump from the promise of a badge, maybe not.

This was not an example of a gamified lesson, yet it was not absent of gamification elements. It was a middle of the road gamified lesson at best. But, that’s okay. Seemingly passive media can be engaging, whether it’s a TED Talk or an episode of Game of Thrones. It is a combination of the flow of the presentation and what you take away from the experience that really creates the value and the engagement. If we had more time, here is where I would present you with some scaffolded challenges to apply what you’ve just learned. I would aim for the average person to have about 80-85% success rate. I would then use these new skills as a foundation for the next challenge.

Autonomy – you are here.

Challenge – I do not pander to you, if anything try to make the lesson move briskly

Purpose – this topic has value to you�I didn’t do much of anything but design this presentation for my audience. There weren’t a lot of gimmicks or games.�So when you leave this webinar, I hope you will think to yourself, you know, there wasn’t really anything particularly special about it, but it was actually really good. It challenged me to think about something that I care about in a new way, and I learned something valuable from that.

Maybe a self-assessment at the end

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We started with a boring objective

But we made it fun by applying the basic principles of gamification!

Aim for 85!

Challenge

What does success MEAN?

Context & Purpose

Get in the flow!

Feedback

A little boost

Rewards

Provide options for…

Autonomy

And good teaching!

Gamification

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Breakout Discussion

Consider your assessment:

What’s the objective? What would be a fun/interesting thing for your students to do? What will have meaning for them?
Define winning. What does winning this assessment look like?
How can you adjust the difficulty of the challenge?
How will you provide autonomy and choice in your assessment?
How will students receive feedback on their progress?
How will students be rewarded for success?

Discuss your notes and ideas with colleagues.

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Sources and Recommended Readings

https://blog.blackboard.com/the-short-and-long-game-theory-for-academic-courses/

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Q&A

Send questions to jeremy.winn@ghc.edu

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CC-BY

Unless otherwise noted, the content in this presentation is licensed CC-BY.

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THANK YOU!

JEREMY WINN

jeremy.winn@ghc.edu