Boss Level - Achieve Total Engagement - Gamification Reflection

Photo by Erik Mclean on Unsplash

Due to the ongoing pandemic, remote learning is a hot topic of discussion and is a common practice within Education. But what if I told you that remote learning the way we see it today, has actually been going on for years? This week I had the opportunity to listen to a presentation by two individuals who have been teaching remotely, long before the pandemic. Those individuals are Chris Fredrickson and Shannon Magee, who are both Web-Based Course Consultants for the Province of Manitoba.  

The topics Chris and Shannon covered during their presentation in my Internet for Educators course, included many ways to engage students in a remote setting such as: using an LMS, collaborative tools, portfolios, gamification and personalized learning. I had the opportunity to participate in not one, but two other Personal Development (PD) sessions with Chris and Shannon at the BYTE conference this year. Chris presented in detail the topic of gamification for both the remote and in-person classroom.  This blog post is going to look briefly at what gamification is, steps to take to start to gamify your classroom and my thoughts on gamification. 

What is gamification? 

At first, when I heard the term "gamification," I immediately thought large-scale and video game-related but that was not the case once I actually learned about the term. Chris explained gamification at the very basic level as the use of game elements in a non-game environment. 

Therefore, "gamifiying" your classroom doesn't have to be a huge on-taking. Adding gaming elements can simply mean changing the language in your class to game-based terms such as calling tests, "boss level" or assignments as "challenges." Or it can be giving out badges as an assessment practice. You could have game-based elements in one unit or the whole class if you choose to do so. Below is a really great example of a teacher who added gaming elements into their classroom. 

Ready player? Steps to implement Gamification in your classroom

Chris outlined 5 basic steps: 

1.  Set up the game
• When you are setting up the game, you need to create the story. Think about the things students have to do to achieve their learning outcomes and created a storyline that sets that up. Don't overthink it, Chris gave us an example where it simply was that the students crashed on an island and had to figure out how to get to the mainland. He used a really neat intro video to introduce this scenario to his students. 
• Define the rules of the game. In other words, these would be the criteria in a "traditional" classroom, you give to outline the expectations in an assignment. This step is better received if the students are included in the planning. 
• Set a goal. Tell the student what they are working towards. Just like any game, this game needs a purpose as well.
2. Create quests/challenges
• These are the "assignment/task" piece of the game. These quests could simply still be that paper activity you have done in other years but by changing the mindset of students you gain engagement. Although, I like the idea of creating more engaging challenges. 
3. PBL's 
• PBL stands for points, badges and leaderboards. Points and badges are an opportunity to reward skill acquisition and mastery. A system should be developed to award points that don't directly translate from their assignment marks but could be related to the students' marks. 
• Leaderboards can be created and displayed to allow for some friendly competition. I am not sure yet where I stand on this aspect of gamification as I will be doing more research. But Chris did point outcome important points on Leaderboards:
• Make the students participation optional in the leaderboard
• Use alias names and have the students keep their alias secret
• Here is a downloadable example of a leaderboard you can use in the classroom.
4. Easter Eggs
• Hide things such as spelling mistakes and non-relevant pictures in your lessons/resources for students to find. If a student finds one and points it out, reward points. This can boost whole class engagement and motivation as they will pay attention to the content more closely after. 
• I am a fan of surprises and the concept of easter eggs would absolutely motivate me as a learner. 
5. Respawning
• This concept is most certainly my favourite of gamification. In video games, if your character dies, that isn't the end of the $80 dollar game you just bought. You get more lives which in the classroom translates to more chances. By allowing your students a safe space to fail by offering second, third and many fourth chances, students are building resilience and improving their skills. I defiantly want to implement respawning in my class, although I am not exactly sure how I will do it, it is another topic that I am researching more.

Check out this blog for more ideas to implement gamification in your classroom: Gamification in Education: 4 ways to bring games to your classroom. 

Closing thoughts on gamification 

Initially, the idea of gamification did not grab my attention enough to look into it more. But once I actually understood "gamification," the idea of using it in my classroom became real. Up until a month ago when my partner bought a Nintendo switch, I did not like or see the value in video games. I had always liked board games, so adding those types of elements into my class was an easier vision but now I can visualize adding in other game elements. I now have a better understanding of the appeal and benefits of many video games and games in general. 

I have shared some of my thoughts and concerns throughout this blog post on gamification. There appear to be many benefits (check out this blog for a detailed posting on the benefits of gamification) that outway the potential downsides. I believe that purposeful implementation of gamification can increase student engagement and decrease/eliminate the downsides of gamification. 

I have even seen gamification work in my placement at a very basic level when I didn't even know I was gamifiying my lesson. The level of engagement increase I saw during my placement when I turned our math lesson into a game instead of a worksheet was incredible. Now I can only imagine the level of engagement of my students if I were to implements game elements like the video in this blog post demonstrated. I need to spend more time looking into the topic of gamification but the idea really does appeal to me. 

What are your thoughts on gamification? Post them in the comments below!