From the Edification of Video Games to the Gamification of Instruction

by drkenny

This module is found in EME 6465 – Interactive Learning Environments. We thought is might be of interest to others.

Educational games is a topic we cover in several different courses. This is because using games in a classroom setting is one of the more publicized (and controversial) technologies introduced into the classroom in recent years.
Some of you may not have already taken EDF 6284 – Instructional Design. It is in this course where we delve into video game design in a little more detail as it relates to designing instruction. In this course we look at games with regards to interactive design and what we refer to ‘gamification’ of instruction.In order to ‘level the playing field’ (sorry for the pun), we present a review/synopsis of that course here. By clicking the far right tab (Review: Educational Value of Video games) we present the gist of the module from EDF 6284.

If you feel you need a review, go ahead and click that tab first. SOME of the premises of our discussions on ‘gamification’ are based on your general understanding of the design of video games and reason why perhaps they have been less successfully adopted by teachers. One thing we find is that it is not game design that has failed educators.. it appears that it is a lack of instructional design that has not been embraced game designers. To make matters worse, many game designers and proponents are rather smug about it … to the point that they feel they know more about teaching and learning than do their educator counterparts. While this may or not be true, game designers have figured out motivation and engagement through narrative fantasy and player interaction (i.e., game play techniques). Nevertheless I challenge you to find a variety of standalone video games that actually teach academic content. Thus, the controversy…

To repeat, video games do offer plenty of opportunities for educators to integrate terrific motivational, gameplay, and interactive techniques into their classrooms. Thus the ‘teachable moment’ presented this module.

Read on… let the games begin!!! (Sorry, could not help myself lol)
 

 

Gameplay Mechanics in InstructionKey TakawaysReview: Adding Educational Value to Video Games

What is Gamification*?

Proponents of game design are fully aware (sometimes in a fanatical way) about the ways in which games promote learning (if not content… at least gameplay mechanics).
That is why you do not see too many manuals out on how to play specific games. By their nature, those nicely designed create learning situations where player/learners are naturally motivated to learn. That’s just it!!! If only we could all innately ‘know’ how to create learning situations where all our students are happy to engage. It is all about the interface and interaction… So, if it is true that good game design automatically implies good learning, then it follows that we should be able to extract valuable information on learning/interaction design to be useful for our classrooms… thus, the concept of GAMIFICATION.

The concept of gamification is found in its obvious root: –a game.
Salen and Zimmerman define a game as:

“a system in which players engage in an artificial conflict (i.e. challenge), defined by rules, that results in a quantifiable outcome.”

If you read the articles above you should see the common themes that relate to the teaching and motivation masters (rules (events) and challenge (the ‘C’ in the ARCS Motivation Model).

Koster, in his seminal work The Theory of Fun also adds the words ‘interactivity’ and ‘feedback’, which lead to an emotional reaction (a la Brenda Laurel’s ideas on suspending one’s disbelief), and a conceptualization of an abstract version of a larger system (i.e., Computers as Theatre).

Most people believe that the definition of a game rests on the concept of ‘fun’. But we should now begin to realize that it is much larger than that.

Let’s see if Wikipedia can be of any help to us (note the underlined words and their relationship to the concept of ‘interactivity’ we are building here):

Gamification is the use of game design techniques, game thinking and game mechanics to enhance non-game contexts. Typically gamification applies to non-game applications and processes, in order to encourage people to adopt them, or to influence how they are used. Gamification works by making technology more engaging, by encouraging users to engage in desired behaviors, by showing a path to mastery and autonomy, by helping to solve problems and not being a distraction, and by taking advantage of humans’ psychological predisposition to engage in gaming

Accordingly, Kapp* arrives at his definition (click on the spoiler to read a definition for each term):

Gamification is using game-based

mechanics,
The mechanics of playing a game include levels, earning badges, point systems, scores, and time constraints
aesthetics,
User interface and the look and feel of the experience
and
game thinking
thinking about everyday experiences and converting them into an activity that has the elements of competition, cooperation, exploration, and storytelling.
to engage people,
motivate action,
A process that energizes and gives direction or meaning to behavior.
promote learning, and
solve problems.
The cooperative nature of games can focus on more than one person to solve a problem… the competitive nature encourages many to do their best to accomplish a goal.

What Gamification is not

While games and gamification share many of the following concepts, gamification is NOT any one of these alone taken singularly:

  • Badges, Points or Rewards – These are important but one of the lesser useful elements of games. Gamification focuses more on engagement, storytelling, visualization of characters, and problem-solving.
  • Trivialization of Learning – If they indeed are designed to properly teach academic content (see the RETAIN Model in the Review section) then they certainly do not cheapen the experience or dilute it. Fun does not mean trivial or not important or authentic.
  • New – Games (especially war games ) have been around since the 7th century.
  • Perfect for every situation – this goes without saying?
  • Easy to create – ditto?
  • Easily understandable and universally adopted by teachers – Ditto again, if you have read the above articles about making games educational. (Again, the review module delves deeper into this).

* Source: Kapp, K.M. (2012). The gamification of learning and instruction: Game-based methods and strategies for training and education. San Francisco: Pfeiffer.

The following presentation is an excerpt from an open source, freely accessible courseware found at the UCIrvine Extension site, is probably one of the best summaries of gamification we could find. It runs about 35 minutes. The module, while free, does have a sort commercial in it for the UCIrvine online courses, but we have kept that part to a minimum and cropped the whole intro at the front…. as you review this material understand that our perspective, remember that our perspective is interactive design.. which is a part of overall instructional design. So, when you look at all of this try to keep the focus on designing interactive environments and what this all means to that process. In EDF 6282 (Instructional Design, we again look at games but from a more holistic vantage point.

Download File

Your takeaways from this lesson should include:

  • the defintion of a game
  • Gamification is the application of game-based mechanics, aesthetics, etc with the idea to motivate and engage to promote learning (motivation is a key principle in interactive design)
  • Gamification is adding fun to the learning experience without trivializing it (affect on interactive interface design?)
  • While these concepts are valuable, not all teachers are ready to automatically adopt games or the concept of gamification.. they must be taught to learn these concepts (how do you design an activity/lesson/interface that encourages engagement?)
  • While all games teach SOMETHING, it may not be what the teacher or instructor intended. Games need to be evaluated and assessed to be sure they match the lesson goals set forth
  • Gamers can learn from educators, and education can be informed by game design... but this symbiosis is not automatic
  • Based on the review of the module on the educational value of video games, you should understand at least why teachers do not tend to adopt games (at least on a standalone basis), and/or what need to be added to games to make them more educational (at least from the perspective of teaching academic CONTENT).

Do Video Games Work?

You may or may not be aware but some people are adamant that video games will revolutionize and reshape the classroom like no previous advancement. But many do not agree. In order to tap into this debate, I offer you links to a few discussions:

Those who differ on this perspective do so mainly because there has been little research done to show that games actually teach something. Here is a blog with opposing points of view:

A review of the literature reveals that very few have figured out what it is about games that work to be sure that all the teaching elements are there. We do have some insight to this, as we have been doing research in the area. In a review that we completed recently, we discovered a few areas that games seem to be lacking. The following are a few articles we published on the subject. One It of them covers many of the things that most folks simply ignore when they consider using games in their classrooms.

In the first article we developed the rationale behind a rubric to review the educational soundness of games.

In the second article we discuss video games from the perspective as to why teachers have sometimes been shown to be reluctant to adopt games in the classroom.

  1. Taking educational games seriously: using the RETAIN model to design endogenous fantasy into standalone educational games(pdf)
  2. Factors Affecting Adoption of Video Games in the Classroom (pdf)

For a more fully developed set of readings, you may wish to review the complete lesson from EDF 6284.



 

 

Do This!

Now that you have had the chance to review the module on making games more educational and this one in which we discuss and demonstrate how to ‘gamify’ learning experiences, we need for you to do two things:

  1. Post on the Discussion Board set up in Angel your views on whether the concept of gamification actually ‘holds water’ so-to-speak in your mind:
    • First, to set the context, explain from which perspective you are making your comments… K12?; business and industry? informal learning? (if the latter one, explain the context)
    • Do you think there is a need to / benefit in chang(ing) the perspective of learning to make classroom/learning experiences more interactive in this way? Why?/Why not?
    • How do you plan on introducing them to your classes (if you are not now teaching, explain this hypothetically)?
    • What is your take on Kapp’s ideas?What about Jimenez? Do you think he was modeling the concepts he was presenting in the way he conducted the session? If so, how? If not, how might he have changed it around a bit?
    •  Make sure you respond to at least six other’s posts, stating if and how you might agree or disagree. 

  2. Secondly, we need for you to actually provide an artifact. Take either this lesson or the Review Lesson from EDF 6284 and describe how you would ‘gamify’ it using Kapp’s and Jimenez’s principles (reward; status; achievement; self-expression; competition; altruism). This does not have to be very elaborate and the size of the post is not as important as how well you describe how you would convert the lessons. You do not have to demonstrate all of them but perhaps a good way to go on this would be to utilize each concept in checklist style and describe whether teach one is appropriate,(or not), then describe the manner in which you would integrate it into the lesson.
    Post your results in the Drop Box set up in Angel. Make sure you post into the text area, as it saves on grading time. You can write it all out in word on your computer then copy/paste it into the text box. Attachments will be dis-enabled in the drop box