‘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.

1. Gamification:
How to Gamify Learning and Instruction
PART 2
Katrin Becker

2. Introductions
1. Who Am I
2. What AM I Playing Now?
Part 1: What's All the Buzz?
1. What is Gamification?
2. An Inadvertent Con?
3. Gamification is NOT New
4. What IS New?
5. Designing Instruction to be Playful
6. Do's & Don'ts
Part 2: Case Study
1. Baby Steps: Gamification on a Small Scale
2. Increasing the Stakes
3. Going All the Way: The Current Experiment
4. Jumping the Gun - Early Conclusions
Part 3: De-Briefing
Further Resources
Overview
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3. Part 2: Case Study
Gamification of Typical Courses
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4. 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
Inception
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5. 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 XP:
• 231
Range:
• 134 – 333
% over 100%
• 32% (7/22, + 3 near 100%)
Baby Steps: Gamification on a Small Scale
Part 2: Case Study
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© 2013 K.Becker

6. 50% Gamified:
• 25% Lesson Design
• 25% High Concept Game Design
• 50% The DGBL Game
Total XP possible:
• 1000
Increasing the Stakes
Part 2: Case Study
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© 2013 K.Becker

7. 50% Gamified:
• 25% Lesson Design
• 25% High Concept Game Design

Class Ave:


• 50% The DGBL Game
Range:

Total XP possible:

• 1000
537
380 - 650
% over 100%:

70% (9/13)
XP Req'd
for
Perfect
Score:
500
Progression of Earned XP on Gamified Portion ONLY
Playing Along
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© 2013 K.Becker

8. COMP 1103: Introduction to Computers
non-majors; 1st year course
required for some programs
science option
broad range of backgrounds
"Traditional"
student experience:
◦
◦
◦
◦
55% first year
25% second year
13% third year
7% fourth
◦
◦
◦
◦
"Gamified"
 student experience:








55% open studies
15% business
10% science
rest is various arts programs
or diplomas
student interest:

55% first year
25% second year
15% third year
5% fourth
30% open studies
30% business
20% science
rest is various arts programs or
diplomas
student interest:
Going All the Way: The Current Experiment
Part 2: Case Study
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© 2013 K.Becker

9. 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
Part 2: Case Study
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ACCP-CAID Gamification Master Class
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© 2013 K.Becker