Success Stories in Tertiary Education
An experience report on using gamification in technical higher education.
[PDF] from tudelft.nl Alexandru Iosup & Dick Epema
This paper describes the successful implementation of gamification in two computer science courses at Delft University of Technology in The Netherlands.
The authors provide a detailed explanation of the processes they worked through developing the course. Although the technical aspects are not addressed, there are many useful ideas for educators interested in gamifying their teaching. This includes identifying different "player classes" or player-motivations, understanding why each type is important for gamified course to be successful, and what gamification mechanics can help to engage each type.
Gamification elements used by the authors included:
The extra work load for teaching staff is acknowledged, and the authors provide a breakdown of the time required to create and teach the course, plus other technical hurdles. However, they also found the extra interaction with students rewarding, and one of the authors involved received a Teacher of the Year award voted for by the students.
The strength of this study is that the authors demonstrate how gamification can change student behaviour, which should be the objective of gamification, according to (Huang & Soman, 2013). It is not the learning outcomes that should be gamified, but the behaviours and activities that will develop knowledge and skills. Successes in this course include higher class attendance, better in-class participation, higher percentage of students passing the course first time, and a higher percentage of failing students willing to re-sit exams.
[PDF] from tudelft.nl Alexandru Iosup & Dick Epema
This paper describes the successful implementation of gamification in two computer science courses at Delft University of Technology in The Netherlands.
The authors provide a detailed explanation of the processes they worked through developing the course. Although the technical aspects are not addressed, there are many useful ideas for educators interested in gamifying their teaching. This includes identifying different "player classes" or player-motivations, understanding why each type is important for gamified course to be successful, and what gamification mechanics can help to engage each type.
Gamification elements used by the authors included:
- Scaffolding and Rules, described by the authors as onboarding in the form of a early, low stakes assessment that allowed students to orientate themselves to the course and get an early win to keep them engaged.
- Feedback, in the form of in class quizzes. These gave students immediate results and provided teaching staff with valuable analytics about who needed more assistance or what topics needed further attention.
- Content Unlocking in the form of extra lab activities for the top 20% achievers. These were extremely popular and had close to 100% attendance.
- Multiple pathways that allowed students with different strengths and motivations to choose a completion path best suited to their learning style.
- Other elements such as point systems, leader boards and badges were used, but not described in detail.
The extra work load for teaching staff is acknowledged, and the authors provide a breakdown of the time required to create and teach the course, plus other technical hurdles. However, they also found the extra interaction with students rewarding, and one of the authors involved received a Teacher of the Year award voted for by the students.
The strength of this study is that the authors demonstrate how gamification can change student behaviour, which should be the objective of gamification, according to (Huang & Soman, 2013). It is not the learning outcomes that should be gamified, but the behaviours and activities that will develop knowledge and skills. Successes in this course include higher class attendance, better in-class participation, higher percentage of students passing the course first time, and a higher percentage of failing students willing to re-sit exams.
Gamification for Engagement with JFDI Academy at the National University of Singapore
The 2013 report A Practitioner’s Guide to Gamification of Education includes a case study examining the use of game elements in an undergraduate computer science module at the National University of Singapore (NUS).
Professor Leong developed JFDI Academy, integrating game mechanics into the computer science module CS1101S to promote consistent student behaviour, encourage engagement and identify learning gaps.
The gamification of the subject was in response to several pain points that Professor Ben Leong identified in the subject:
The approach taken by Professor Leong is a good example of the backward design framework developed by Wiggins & McTighe (2005), in which learning outcomes, means of assessment and planned learning experiences are used as the starting point. This is the ideal way to begin planning a gamification project, as it helps keep your focus on the students' needs. While the report acknowledges that the gamification implemented in JFDI Academy was reasonably complex and required significant resources, it demonstrates the benefit to both staff and students when gamification is applied in a thoughtful manner with clear objectives.
We’d love to know whether you think the JFDI academy is a good example of gamification. Is there anything you would change? Let us know in the forums!
The 2013 report A Practitioner’s Guide to Gamification of Education includes a case study examining the use of game elements in an undergraduate computer science module at the National University of Singapore (NUS).
Professor Leong developed JFDI Academy, integrating game mechanics into the computer science module CS1101S to promote consistent student behaviour, encourage engagement and identify learning gaps.
The gamification of the subject was in response to several pain points that Professor Ben Leong identified in the subject:
- Students’ difficulty identifying key concepts
- Last-minute preparation for and submission of assessments
- Optional tasks being ignored
- Lack of immediate feedback to support learning
- Experience points, which help develop specific behaviours through rewarding relevant actions.
- Levels to facilitate skill building and make goals feel more achievable. For more about levels, read Getting Started with Gamification.
- A leaderboard. This motivates students through friendly competition, and facilitates growth.
- A Star Wars-like theme and narrative. This is something many students can relate to, but it also has a fantasy element that builds interest and demonstrates that skills built in one context can be applied in other contexts. Find out more about narrative and fantasy in the Elements of Gamification.
- Assignments reframed as missions. This can be much more interesting and engaging than standard assignments!
- Quests in the form of optional tasks. This helps motivate students to ‘go above and beyond’ in their learning and to experience immediate reward for doing so.
- Auto-graded tasks for immediate feedback. Immediate feedback has been shown to be highly effective in helping students achieve mastery (Stuart, 2004).
- Bite-sized tasks. This helps students get an early sense of achievement and learn to divide their other academic work into achievable smaller tasks.
- The ability to retry questions when incorrect. Gamification can help students build confidence and persistence, because games promote the notion that not only is it okay to fail on early attempts, but it’s actually expected.
The approach taken by Professor Leong is a good example of the backward design framework developed by Wiggins & McTighe (2005), in which learning outcomes, means of assessment and planned learning experiences are used as the starting point. This is the ideal way to begin planning a gamification project, as it helps keep your focus on the students' needs. While the report acknowledges that the gamification implemented in JFDI Academy was reasonably complex and required significant resources, it demonstrates the benefit to both staff and students when gamification is applied in a thoughtful manner with clear objectives.
We’d love to know whether you think the JFDI academy is a good example of gamification. Is there anything you would change? Let us know in the forums!
Details of sources cited can be found on the References page.