Lessons Learned from Gamifying Classrooms

Lessons Learned from Gamifying Classrooms

with Enrique Cachafeiro

Mechanics Overlaying Traditional

Gamification of a School

The application of gamification on a school wide basis

Virtual Worlds for Gamification

Set Up

Results

For the gamification of the school we emulated the Harry Potter type of House System

Four houses were organized and the entire student body split into them. There was even a sorting ceremony.

Points were awarded to houses for their grades, their extracurriculars such as sports, and for volunteering activities

We also incorporated PBIS where teachers could award points based on behavior.

There were also challenges and competitions between the houses. The houses that wan each month got a special treat.

http://chathamcharterhouses.weebly.com/

Dependent on a lot of support

Administration has to maintain the quality of the treats and rewards to make it worthwhile to compete

As less faculty lends a hand, more and more goes back on you, causing a lot of work.

Use of a pervasive virtual environment for instruction

The student body, in particular at the beginning, loved it

Provided inclusion for kids that normally would be excluded

Support system since the entire house stood to benefit

The students loved the competitions and in raised "hype" around the school

The houses had special ropes they wore at graduation so even if you had no other recognition, you had that

Experiences

Set Up

During my research into immersive, innovative use of technology for instruction, virtual worlds kept coming up

I researched them further, made an avatar, started doing activities in Second Life. I became so convinced of its educational value that I formed a club and taught kids how to build in 3D.

Became convinced of the transformative power of VW for education, above the rest of the technologies

Completed a Certificate in Virtual Worlds from the University of Washington.

Set Up 1

My colleague and I set out to build a virtual world for education using an OpenSim space we rented from Kitely.

We called this world the Insomnium and it had a grand narrative of players saving the world from false information being fed through dreams by an evil god.

I also used it for other teachers.

Arranged to visit the Smithsonian Day of the Dead event in Second Life with a freshman Spanish class.

The Virtual Club made a virtual gallery where we put up scans of prints from the Art 3 class. We had people from all over the world visit and leave comments.

The school invested in some land and we built a virtual school in Second Life

Set Up 1 - FAIL

We wanted to have living space for students where they could put up pictures, call their own.

We wanted four clans to build a support structure so we built clan houses.

After a solid 8 weeks over the summer, the two of us realized that it would take way too much time and more technical expertise than we had to complete such an ambitious project

We scrapped what we had and I went back to the drawing board to use the space in a much simpler fashion

The main part of it was a castle with dozens of doors. These would teleport you to interactive learning experiences.

We built space to lecture in Second Life, for students to collaborate and to build projects in innovative ways.

A colleague and I started making interactive learning modules

Set Up 2

BioTown was built in the OpenSim platform

It splits the Biology objectives into structures. The town itself is the curriculum. A virtual world LMS of sorts.

I would not recommend SL for education.

Very mature material available.

Students caught using inappropriate animations.

Not secure enough for school. It was abandoned as a platform in lieu of OpenSim - more private

Within each building were digital texts, simple interactives and assessments that allowed students to engage with the material.

Find out more here: "https://youtu.be/v5mWvKSghN0"

Results

Putting it together wasn't so bad. The buildings were freely available and the digital content I already had on an LMS was easy to link from within the world.

The kids enjoyed the format and they loved to play with their avatars.

The lack of game mechanics meant there was no drive, so the kids often wandered.

They loved to play with the avatars a bit too much

It's a client based virtual world, so many kids could not get on from home

Interactions were basic

Adaptation to Digital, Blended Synchronous

First attempt at Gamification. Methods were unchanged but a layer of gamification was added.

Present Projects

Gamification Using a Boardgame

A medley of projects in gamification, even outside the classroom

This attempt involved a digital world map, with a narrative and groups as well as an overarching game goal through the semester.

Driftwood Video Game

Out of the Box Gamification

Designed a video game that has the entire Biology curriculum woven into it. Started building it in Unreal, but too big a task. Looking for interested developers. Intention is independent learners with teachers as coaches when they get stuck in the game.

Adapted the Aquos game to a board game. Prepared rules and a prototype. intent is to provide an off the shelf product to teachers that want to gamify their classroom. Working with a Dutch company who might be interested in publishing.

The Future

What is the answer?

Adapting a Narrative to a traditional LMS

Follow Your Own Adventure

Adapting a boardgame to serve as a vehicle for gamification in the classroom

Now designing a "Follow Your Own Adventure" style RPG using Adobe Captivate to teach Biology.

Would have narrative and game components.

Technically more feasible for my skill level, not rely on assistance.

In my opinion, the answer is one that has equity - that is available for most if not all while being immersive, engaging and most of all, fun for the kids. For me, that has the following qualities;

• Virtual World (immersive, experiential learning)
• Gamified (engaging, intrinsic motivation)
• WebVR (no client needed, work on mobile devices)
• MMORPG (has role playing, narrative, other players so social and collaborative)
• Multidisciplinary quests (no industrial age separation of subjects)
• Asynchronous (Progress at your own pace)
• Facilitated by caring teachers (in world or out of world)

Transforming an LMS into a narrative quest

Set Up

Aquos

Set Up

Results

Set Up

Narrative - a world that was flooded because of climate change. Humanity is gone. Students are the new sentient races trying to recolonize using what they know of Biology.

Thanks your for your attention

Good Luck in Your Own Efforts

Results

Feel free to contact me any time if I can help you in your own quest;

Enrique Cachafeiro

curvediron@gmail.com

https://chathamcharter.instructure.com/courses/91

This method used the Canvas LMS adopted by NC

Any LMS in my experience (MOODLE, Blackboard, OpenClass, Sakai) could work the same

The students are presented with a narrative where they are the protagonists going on an epic quest

Groups of four students.

Syllabus was 38 page booklet that was mostly game instructions.

Results

Interactive Maps, made using Thinglink, guide the student through the material

Characters made in Voki interact with the student as they progress

Achievements set up to earn badges.

• PBIS
• Time Ninja: Not late to class once in a quarter
• Help Me Help You: Tutor someone else for a week
• etc

Students are given a number of guiding questions that are tied into the narrative

Results

Have to click around the resources, found as hyperlinks hidden in the image, to get the information

XP

• Using Lee Sheldon's technique, turned grades into points
• Kids only earned.
• Gained levels with enough XP
• Could do extra work to make up XP if did badly on an assignment

FAIL

Set Up

The game components are important: Students sometimes got bored of the routine

Not as engaging or immersive

Prepping this gamification was much easier (by comparison)

Updating the physical board was not as time consuming

Having the majority of the pieces and cards, etc, already ready was great.

The use of the LMS allowed for the built in analytics, assignment and assessments tools to be seamless with the narrative.

Commons allowed for me to share class with other teachers

It was easy for the kids to navigate and took very little introduction.

The use of a map was intuitive, and gave them a sense of direction and fulfillment at having "traveled"

Used the system over two semesters. I had 1 honor and 2 regular biology class each semester.

Male versus female performance is an issue in science classes at the high school stage so I compared the two groups in my gamified class.

Kids made simple avatars using an online program then printed.

Very analog, using corkboard and wall, cut outs

Could come into class and see their levels and badges

Tracked using StudentID, not names, right on the wall.

Very immersive

Students engaged

Changed behaviors for the better

Adapted Twilight Imperium, a space conquest game, to the classroom.

I did not use the system with one of my regular classes each semester.

Game utilized google spreadsheets that were shared with students.

They put in orders that I processed.

Grades fueled their gold, which allowed for more builds. In game bonuses for behavior. In class rewards achievements.

Physical components lent themselves to busy hands

Had to have strict rules about touching the board

Also had to buy extra pieces to accommodate all the classes

The production of a companion website was great to disseminate information to parents.

The addition of a narrative and complexity increased engagement tremendously

In one case, total 180. Troubled student was sitting in class first.

Then the whole thing FAILED

Adapted the rules by simplifying. Tied average grades of the four member groups into in world income.

PBIS using cards that had in world effects.

https://sites.google.com/a/chathamcharter.org/thegame/home

The data from that year seemed to indicate that the extra layer of game mechanics, explaining, etc, did not have a negative impact.

Huge world map where all classes could see their races.

Was posted on mashupforge.com, a site now gone.

Can wander the map by searching for World of Aquos on Prezi.

http://prezi.com/rr_c4injgegr/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share

Capitals were analog, and they could add structures to their capital for bonuses.

(http://prezi.com/t57fzqx_pz-v/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy)

Had flags and mottos they had come up with for their empires.

Students worked independently

Interactions were 1 on 1

Materials were online

Asynchronous

Used MOODLE to organize digital components of curriculum

Used the physical board and components

Assignments and materials were online, separate and not tied in

Performance seemed improved for both groups but I was not closing the gap.

In the classroom, the males seemed a lot more motivated by XP and badges.

Too intensive on the teacher

Not sustainable

Took over 6 weeks to prepare

Orders were placed using survey tool

Actions happened on the physical board by the teacher

Narrative of events written by teacher

Synchronous, with traditional grades

Biology is an End of Course test course

4 Main Objectives

• Used periodic benchmarks to test for Mastery of objectives
• Each objective was a different color
• Mastery was in a 1 to 4 scale, like EOC back then
• Received a colored index card for each point of Mastery in each objective
• The higher Mastery in each objective, the higher your avatar as the stacks under it would increase.
• Could take benchmarks over and over to improve

Too engaging, sometimes putting content as secondary

No real connection between material and game, just a vehicle

Easier set up

Terrific engagement (if not immersion)

Students would be discussing strategy and alliances at lunch, in other classes

Valedictorian mentioned this specific game as one of her highlights

Technology not there

Google Docs were not updating, orders were missing

Digital map took manual movement of troops and updating

By the end of the first month, was spending >3 hours per day on game components

Had to drop game aspect, use online components to do a non-gamified blended classroom

Overall, highly recommend this method for newer teachers

Conclusion

The impact of the game layer on the classroom was remarkable

• Grades seemed to improve
• I was able to motivate the kids to tutor, be on time, etc
• There were fewer to no classroom management issues
• Survey indicated that most found the experience to be a positive one, and preferred it

Areas to improve

• I was still lecturing and using the textbook. I wanted to use digital tools more
• It took quite a bit of work to cut out badges, keep track of achievements, etc
• The XP system and some of the rewards were resulting in grade inflation
• I was not addressing the gender gap
• Missing a narrative, a context for the material

A little about me

• Lateral entry teacher for 8 years
• Before that, Oncology lab and Environmental Engineering firm
• Five years at Chatham Central, public high school
• Rural
• Small (~460 kids)
• 1:1 (Macbook Pros)
• 3 years at Chatham Charter
• Brand new public charter HS
• 1:1 GAFE, Chromebooks
• ~ 200 kids
• Presently at Duke University
• Education and Training Coordinator