Gamification – iPark

What is Gamification?

Gamification introduces the affordances of games (including computer and table-top games) to the teaching and learning environment, to make the experience more engaging and motivating.

Game techniques can provide a more immersive learning experience, and a form of experiential learning which can be more effective than passive experiences. Gamification can range from scenarios where students collect badges for engaging with the module content, simple card games to introduce a concept, through simulation based games which model elements of a real-world scenario, to complex puzzle based escape room environments. You can gamify a single activity/session or an entire module, or anything in between.

Games can be used to facilitate team work or they can be an individual activity. They can be used in both online and face to face contexts, with or without technology.

Types of gamification

Gamification is often split into two categories: Structural and Context.

Structural gamification

This takes existing content and adds the game structure around it. For example:

Awarding badges for meeting milestones within a module;
Releasing the next piece of content based on completing some task to create a path through the material;
Puzzles and similar activities to review content;
Voting software leaderboards.

Content Gamification

This category builds (or reworks) content to become part of a game from the start. For example:

Simulation games such as stock market trading;
Group activities in face to face classrooms;
Custom educational games;
Card games to set contexts or generate randomised scenarios for discussion.

Benefits of gamification

Motivates and engages students;
Instant feedback keeps students’ attention;
Enhances learning compared with passive learning;
Provide a safe environment to make decisions and learn from mistakes;
Can introduce complex topics in a more easily digestible format;
Can be a prompt for critical reflection.

Limitations of gamification

Not all students welcome this kind of learning activity. Calling it an activity rather than a game can help avoid it appearing frivolous;
Making it accessible without alt text giving away the answers can be a challenge;
Students can get too focused on earning badges rather than the learning;
The activity needs to be pitched at the right level to be challenging without being demotivating;
Activities can be time consuming to develop, and requires plenty of play testing before use.

Gamifying Brightspace

You can add structural gamification to Brightspace using a number of its facilities.

Badges and Awards

Badges can be awarded when a student meets certain criteria. These can motivate students by challenging them to collect all of the badges available. See “Using the Brightspace Awards Tool” section for HowTo guides

Content Release

By using release conditions, you can make the student complete a task before releasing the next piece of content to allow them to continue through the module. See “Release Conditions” section for HowTo guides

Creator+ Practices

Simple questions for students to self-check their understanding. While you can’t currently use practice elements with release conditions or badges, you can use the feedback field to reward correct answers with codes or other items which will be submitted later, perhaps in a quiz. See the Creator+ section

Intelligent Agents

These could be used to send students additional information by email as part of the game on a regular basis, based on their progress. See “Intelligent Agents” section for HowTo guides

Release conditions, badges and intelligent agents can be released using a variety of actions, including:

Visiting or completing on or more pieces of content;
Submitting to an assignment (including text only assignments);
Completing items on a checklist;
Attempting or receiving a specific grade on a quiz;
Completing a survey;
Posting on a discussion topic.