Gamification 8: A gamified course about «digital competences».

Dear one’s, here I present you my design of a gamified course. I hope that it will give you and idea about Gamification, but there is much more to work in it and perhaps it is a little long to read, but if you are really interesting on Gamefication, I am sure you will read it all. I expect your comment as well.

Julia Echeverría.

 

DESIGNING A GAMIFIED PROJECT: “DIGITAL COMPETENCES FOR TEACHER”.

SUMMARY AND GAME THINKING.

“Teaching as a Design Science presents the case for the next generation of

scholarly research and implementation of technology in education. It brings

together the rigor of existing research with the promise of teacher-led collabo-

ration for the sharing of good practice with technology. If the ideas of Web 2.0

and user-generated content have the potential to transform teaching

practice—we can call this Teaching 2.0”

—James Dalziel, Macquarie University and Inventor of LAMS

A video about intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.

I may say that through my experience as a teacher in various subjects related to the enterprise, management and the network, I dare say that the vast majority of teachers have been left out of what I might call “the developing and implementing methodologies of teaching / learning” . This should , as you said Diana Laurillard , in his book » Teaching as a Design Science» The schools methodologies are decided by upper stament, which they say the that learning must be adapt to new technologies , but the reality tells us that this is not happens . Therefore, we find some teachers , almost, without appropriate teaching digital skills, and without those skills, them will never be able to design new models.
That is why I thought of designing this course , in order to provide teachers with a competence which can function in the world of Web 2.0 and 2.0 teaching , whether in the classroom through the B -Learning or through E -Learning mode.
This course is not intended to provide recipes , much less learning patterns , the goal purpose is that teachers are aware of the existing tools and be able to design their patterns themselves , depending on the needs they have at all times.

WHY GAMIFICATION.

So, to include technology to teaching, I will propose this course by using, the mechanics of video games ( gamification ) to design it, in order to engage and motivate students to a permanent and lasting online learning , through the research, curiosity and the tools learning to come, only then the studen/teachers, will be able to design or choose those skills I mentioned above .

To design an E-learning course about “digital competences”. I am going to use 2 game thinking. As a designer, my goal is that the player achieve the skills of learning “digital competences” through happiness and motivation. So this project is a seriour game because it has and educational purpose.

1. Serious game thinking because I will alternate reality with games. That means that my design will develop real case with a bit of fiction. so I will need to develop a tool or find it on the Web 2.0 (open source).

   I will use some fiction to evaluate the student/player learning and their achievement of competence trough the course.

2. Gamification, because this course will have goals, rules and immediate feed back.

TIPE OF PLAYER, ANALYZE THE CORE TARGET.

Nowadays, it is really necessary for a teacher and for every one that have to work in a modern company or in any other place were it’s needed to have some digital competences.

• So the people that will take this course, may be come from a school, or a company business, or a government organization. It’s possible that some of them won’t be pleased to take this course because they are afraid to fail or just think that they don’t need it: this kind of student can become a Disruptor.

• Others one can loves it and this can be the socializer.

• Some others was asking for it with a free spirit.

• Other , perhaps, seen the need, have search and find the course that they are going to take that mean that this can be an achiever.

• And finally we will also have the philanthropists but the main thinking is that every student, lets say player, “need to learn this competences”. So, the student goal, will be to learn, use and practice with what they will be learning.

HOW IS GOING TO WORK ALL OF THIS PURPOSE.

Previous knowledge
As I write before, the goal is to create a course on digital skills facing any worker who needs it. In this case they will be teacher.

Before starting the course itself, I need to be aware of two very important key elements, to this purpose I will design a questionnaire to define clearly those key.

• What kind of student they would be, I mean a classification of them in term of motivation for taking this course.

• What technology skills each possesses .

  With the design questionnaire, I can define motivation and be able to tailoy the course to the expectation of each student, thorough this knowledge I will be able to anticipate future problems and who of them have the capacity to take this course without any problems, ando who require a previous introduction before beginning to teach the unit it’s selve. To those who need to acquire basic knowledge, it will be neccesary to design an introdutory course in order to acquire the basic skills to start the course with all the student in the same level.

Doing this I can separate the really beginners from the other that have the skill enoght to take the course with out any inconvenient.

THE COURSE EXAMPLE OF ITEMS.

This is just an example of items I can use, but all will depend on the client needs.

Introductory skills to use Moodle enviromental, how to search on the Web 2.0,
1-Introduction to Web 2.0 , differences and developments with Web 1.0
2 – What are social networks and virtual communities and which are their tools .
3 – Creating a social network, a virtual community. twitter , facebook , blog .
4 – What is » the cloud» and what it does.
5 – Analysis the tools available in the «cloud » .
6. Teaching Tools , E -learning, B -learning,
7 – Virtual free platforms and free sites to create courses .
8- Creating cloud content , tools to create collaborative documents.
9 – Creating a web .
10 – Final Draft , for teachers, the creation of an E-learning or B-learning course using all the tools learned.

THE KEY ACTIONS.

I am going to use in order to encourage the student/players to go on with the course with motivation and to engage them.

• Introduction to the basic tools to develop the same skill to follow the course with out problems to the student that need it. Doing this way I pretend to motivate and engage them.

• Show the way we will generally work from the firs class, and going on remembering it chapter after chapter. Be clear to the goal and work they have to performance.

• I want to avoid the student/player, to get bore of the course by introducing fun. and

• To begin with the course it self, it is necessary to think in giving the students/players an E-learning experience in order to motivate them to be engaged in the process of learning this course about “digital competence”.

• Then it is necessary to guide them through the learning with immediate feed back to reinforce their comprehension.

• By using some serious game thinking, we will have to provide an E-learning experience by using for example, a design quiz questionnaire, where, for every right answer the student will have some kind of reward.

• The course will provide the player real experience, realistic practice and authentic tools and context.

• Try to be as flexible as possible with the players needs, so in this case, the best will be the personal experience with the teacher/tutor.

• The use of facebook as a community to them to share knowledge as well to interacting.

MOTIVATIONS.

It will be an extrinsic and intrinsic motivation at most of the game/course, the player will deal with logic, calculation, ownership, they need to achieve goal to go on playing/learning, using creativity.

EPIC THEME.

Fotografía de: avrotor.blogspot.com

Narrative that will give the player the context, I mean, lets them know what kind of game they are playing and how they will solve their goal step by step, chapter after chapter. In this way I pretend to engage the player from the very beginning creating a meaningful story to give the player something in term to interacting with the learning and the other players.

• Development and accomplishment: feeling an improving, leveling up and achieving mastery. Tracking their progress, searching to develop higher goals only by themselves and in a collaborative way.

• Epic Meaning and calling,

1. the player have to feel that they are unique and destined to do something really special, that they are chosen to take the special action I will design for them, for step nº 1 and 2, perhaps give them a goal that seems very difficult and lets them to achieve it easily.

2. In the next step I will introduce the other players so they will have the chance to have social influence and interaction. The tool will be Facebook. With this actions all the player will have the opportunity to show their skills and opinions, even the Disruptor by now will be engage to the play/course.

3. By using this epic theme I can begin to work on design the narrative and the goal to achieve chapter after chapter.

4. The most important is that players cannot go further in the play with out creating assignments and being evaluate by their peer, but they can show their assignments or achieve, to the other player and be proud of it.

5. The final goal is that they have to manage the skill I propose at the beginning.

KEY DESIGN FACTORS.

There are 3 main design factor, describing diferent experience to player and that will describe better the way to reach their goals.

1. Collaborative vs Competitive: this course/game, will begin being a “solo” game, then collaborative, in order that at the beginning the player will need to collaborate with each other to achieve almost all the course/game. One they have achieve the step nº 9, in the moment they will have to create a Web page, they will be working alone but in competition with the other student/player as well in the step/chapter 10.

2. Solo vs social: this play/course, will take a bit of social experience, because to achieve some of the step, they will have to work with other as a team again other team, (the other half of their classmate or player. And a bit of solo player as I said before.

3. Types of rewards: it is difficult to decided what types of rewards to use in this case but it is necessary to provide the play with some of them. Thinking that the goal is to achieve digital competences, the reward can be different depending on the step of the game/course they achieve. To be effective using incentive and rewards it will be better to use a mix of reward.

   There are other aspect to consider before giving rewards and it is: when to give it and what, thinking that we do this to motivate and engage people to our game/course with a little bit of fun, we want them to be proud of them selves. To determinate what kind of reward we can offer, is thinking the model from Gabe Zicherman, SAPS. That mean, Status, Access, Power, Stuff.

• For this game I can play with the status and access, in chapter or step 1 and 2.

• From chapter 3 to 8 with access to knowledge and status.

• From chapter 9 and 10 with stuff, when the player will end the game/course, they probably will have a better status having some knowledge and access to a new world of new experience, whish other do not have, because did not play the game/course, and the player/student perhaps, will become part of the stuff in their school in that special matter.

DESIGN FACTORS.

Fotografía de: enews.org

In this step, I will analyze which element of Gamification I will use to design a course as an activity that involves every student/player.

1. There is a final goal to achieve but there are many small goal to achieve chapter by chapter.

2. It will have a set of rules that the student will have to follow, all by themselves, with other student as a team and in competition with other team. This rules create the real activities for this course, the frame or the magic circle of Huizinga.

3. The player, been motivated from the very beginning, will be willing to overcome the obstacles or challenges, because this will be fun to do it.

4. This course will have continuous feedback for each problem they solve or not, not every feedback will be positive, it can be negative feedback too, this will not be discouraging, this is good in competitive task, so the player will want to go on studying in order to win more knowledge for the next task. Point can be a good feedback in this case, and also very important, given them the clues to improve.

   GAMIFICATION MECHANICS

There are 35 best gamification mechanics, but not all fit in every design, it all depend on what are we going to gamified. So for this project I am going to use the follow in certain step of the course.

• TUTORIALS.

  This are one of the most important things in games, learning and gamification. They teach student/player how to play/learn and give them that feeling of tranquility that is required in order to learn how to learn, but they also foster human curiosity because they are kind and tell the story (narrative) of what is next and that’s really fun. They guide the student, make make them feel big and powerful, and we all love that!

  Why? tutorial guides in a perfect way and when the student finish it, they have learn all they need to go to the next chapter/step, gaining stuff and status with out even notice!

  How? Tutorials are required if our gamified system is not that simple or if we feel that our student are not going to understand what we are trying to teach them . They are also great to show people how feedback loops (whether positive or negative) are and form habits that are great to learn in a good way. It is always necessary to try to make it simple and easy to follow. Tutorials are great for, gamification, education, management, business and more..

• TIME EVENTS.

  What? Time events are great for short term engagement, and they increase that powerful feeling that is called loss avoidance, or in other words, the student don’t want to lose something that is valuable for being 10 seconds late, or you just don’t want to miss out that special thing that will end in 5 minutes and 24 seconds. And when they finally do it, it is a fantastic feeling to be the first or to have the best rate.

  Why? because it take the student to the next level. The feeling of tension, while doing the task, is permanent, but it didn’t create anxiety so we can say it was a very close experience to flow and that’s is really good.

  How? Countdowns, time events, and any kind of time limit is great for gamification when it comes to short term engagement. If rewards are worthy and the event is interesting enough, the student get some great engagement levels! It has to be not too long and remember that there should be a challenge involved to make it more fun!

• LEVELS.

  What? Levels are another of the most well-known features of games and learning, and a great source of motivation in many ways, but the main ones are status and power, and they are always fun! Most of the studen/players like progressing, or mastering something or just competing against other student to be the number one. Apart from that, this will be perfect complement for points, skills, item limitations and many other mechanics!

  Why? because levels allow student learn, so is necessary the importance of making levels that matter.

  How? It’s important that levels are shown to give instant feedback, engage players and create those feelings of status and power.

• ACHIEVEMENTS.

  What? So here they are! Achievements and badges! There’s so much on this topic because they are one of the very basics of gamification, and that’s because they are really effective if done well and complemented with some more mechanics. Achievements are one of the most powerful ways to fulfill not only the status motivator but also acceptance, because many student/players will only accept players in their guilds or parties if they have got a certain achievement or something similar. Besides, by using achievements is so much fun (better with a dose of humor) and it’s another way to the student endless studing because some of them are a challenger even for pro players, and this is why I will use the next last mechanics for this course.

  Why? This is one of the mechanics I will use the most for learning how to implement achievements in a system. Achievement is great because is a balance between boredom and anxiety. Achievement can be use for alone task, but when doing them in groups it can be just epic.

  How? Achievements are a great way of adding status, surprise and excitement to a gamified course. Apart from that, giving rewards make them even better and fun.

  And the last mechanic I am going to use is:

  LIFEJACKET.

• What?Lifejacktes are mechanics that help student in difficult situations or when they are stuck or lost track of their main goals. It’s somehthing that fulfills order and tranquility and let students advance in the learning. Here is when the philanthropy play an important rule.

  Why? Because this allow to other student to help, every one of them will love to teach how to do some task, and it can be a good way to cooperation with out competition.

  How? All the student have to accept that not everyone is going to know what to do when they arrive to certain item of the course, any one can have a problem during the course. The studen have to know that they have help players a bit, in some difficult situations. This make the course much collaborative with interacting.

Technology required: This project, being an E-learning course it will use a Moodle platform, version 2.5, this special platform it has being develop perfectly well to the purpose of this game/course, it has even incorporate badges. In the other hand, every task and goal to achieve will be digital, so the game it self it will be entirely digital. To design it, a little of pen and pencil as well. The social media I will use it is going to be Facebook the most, but when I will know what are the necessity from my student and their level in digital competences and what is the real motivation, I will see which other tools I will need.

bibliography:

Gamification Mechanics: by Andrzej Marczewski  http://marczewski.me.uk/2013/01/14/game-mechanics-in-gamification/

User type: http://marczewski.me.uk/2013/12/09/using-gamification-user-types-real-world/  

Human motivation and much more:  by Victor Manriquez. http://www.epicwinblog.net/2013/04/why-people-play-games-and-human.html

Game mechanics v/s gamification mechanics, by Victor Manriquez http://www.epicwinblog.net/2013/10/can-we-use-game-mechanics-for.html

Game format by Oliver Kiley: http://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/27555/game-format-competitive-cooperative-and-semi-quasi

Client interactions, game disign documente and much more, by Isidro Rodrigo. http://hrgamer.blogspot.com.es/p/sobre-mi.html

It all start with fun and more by Dr, Steven Reiss  http://www.reissprofile.eu/basicdesire

The 42 fundamentealAdapted from the book:Game OnbyJon Radoff http://www.billyinc.com/tumblr/pdf/cheatsheets/43FunQuickSheet.pdf

Ludic Identities and the Magic Circle by Gordon Calleja http://www.academia.edu/2962130/Ludic_Identities_and_the_Magic_Circle#

Intrinsic v/s extrinsic motivation by https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h86g-XgUCA8

Building Pedagogical Patterns for Learning and Technology by Diana Laurillard

El diseño educativo, el tutor y la comunidad en red by Jéronimo Montes Grial Learning.

El reto de la nueva educación a distancia, enseñar a los alumnos a estudiar en red, by Olga Díez Fernández. Grial Learning

La función tutorial desde la antigüedad hasta nuestros días by Antonio Miguel Seoane.

El docente 3.0. by Antonio M. Seoane.

Redes sociales en la educación by Francisco José García Peñalvo. http://antia.fis.usal.es/sharedir/Sonora/dia5/redes_sociales.pdf 

And much more from: Emiliano Labrador.

Dr. Flavio Escribano http://arsgames.net/blog/

Chris Solarsky http://solarskistudio.com/

Cristina Pagés https://www.facebook.com/crispages

Marta García de Polavieja  es.linkedin.com/in/martapolavieja/

All the design course by me: gamefication-e-learning.com

Julia Echeverría Moran

On may 10, 2014