Overview of a Gamified Course
While game elements can be created for individual lessons or units, the following is an example course which has been gamified in its entirety. The course is part of the Ontario Curriculum: CHW3M World History to the Sixteenth Century. Physical Education and History Teacher Ty Riddick first began thinking about gamifiying his History class when he realized his students were not as eager to participate as those playing games in his gym classes. He wanted to utilize the same elements which motivated students in PE class within hte context of the History course.
The Hook: Create and lead your own dream civilization.
The decisions you make will decide the ultimate fate of your civilization.
At the beginning of the course, Riddick asked students to create their own civilization by claiming an area anywhere in the world as a layer on Google Earth. All of these layers could be viewed individually or all at once.
Riddick then proceeded to teach his entire course completely within the context of the game. Utilizing Google Drive to distribute lesson slides and student activities, students learned about a new civilization each unit. Each student could complete tasks to earn badges for their civilization. For example, students who has strategically chosen a location with natural resources or access to water recieved a badge for their dream civilization. If students were not strategic, they did not recieve a badge.
As the students progressed through the course, they also had the opportunity to earn points for their civilization by completing assignments. Extra credit could also be earned by doing additional tasks or by assisting others which built a collaborative learning environment as alliances formed.
At the end of the course, students played a Risk styled card game to decide the "winning" civilization. If badges had been earned, the civilization was granted those advantages in the game, such as a strong military or economy. The points students had earned over the duration of the course also gave them an advantage in the final game.
Key Elements of Gamification How the Course Utilized Game Elements
Learning is personal; it is not something that can be replicated from one individual to another. As such, constructivist theory posits that knowledge is constructed from a set of personal beliefs and experiences, within the cultural and situational contexts that the learner is situated (Piaget, 1932). Thus, it is imperative that gamification learning environments be based on frameworks that are not only learner-centered, but additionally provide the opportunity to develop the higher order thinking skills that are becoming increasingly important in society: collaboration, problem-solving and communication. In combination with these skills, these environments need to be highly interactive, meaningful and learner-centered in order to provide the greatest appeal (Kirkley & Kirkley, 2005). Continue to Unit 1 to see a breakdown of how the gamified course worked.
