Edudemic is all about finding innovative ways to get through to students. That’s why we’ve talked about game dynamics more than a few times. Inspiring students to learn through the gamification of a large lecture hall has not yet been broached by us Edudemic-ers.
Lucky for us, Liz Gross has an incredible look at the gamification in her newest post “Can Game Dynamics Improve Attendance, Grades, and Engagement In A Large Lecture Course?” Below are some selected excerpts that I thought would be important for the discussion.
How It Works
The Set-Up
Before the semester begins, university students registered for a large-lecture introductory course will be randomly assigned to either a control section or an experimental section. Both the control and experimental sections will be taught by the same instructor and will follow the same schedule in the presentation of course material. Each section will contain at least 200 students for a total of 400 participants.
How Smartphones Are Used
Students in the experimental section will use their Android or iOS devices to engage in academic challenges in order to earn badges. Students will check in to the classroom after indicated class sessions. Once they check in, they will be presented with a challenge that involves answering five questions about that day’s lecture, developed in consultation with the course instructor. Students will receive a point for each question they answer correctly.
The Technology Used
Students in the control section will have the opportunity to answer the same questions as the experimental group; however, these questions will be presented as quizzes using TurningTechnologies ResponseWare. ResponseWare allows students to submit answers by using either their mobile phones or their laptop computers.
Drawing Conclusions
We will evaluate differences in student engagement, attendance, and academic performance between the experimental group and the control group.
Learn More
Be sure to check out Liz Gross’ article (or her research grant proposal) for the full explanation on how game dynamics in a large lecture class would work. There are many more game dynamics links out there too, such as these:
- Khan Academy – Salman Khan – Lets use video to reinvent Education – http://www.ted.com/talks/salman_khan_let_s_use_video_to_reinvent_education.html
- Gamification in Education: What, How, Why Bother? Academic Exchange Quarterly, 15(2). – http://www.gamifyingeducation.org/files/Lee-Hammer-AEQ-2011.pdf
- Forbes – Gamification of Education – http://www.forbes.com/2010/10/28/education-internet-scratch-technology-gamification.html
- O’Reilly Radar – Classic ed-tech games are now joined by the “gamification” movement. – http://radar.oreilly.com/2010/10/gaming-education.html
- The Chronicle – Gamifying Homework – http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/gamifying-homewor/28407
- Guardian – Games in education: It plays to study – http://www.guardian.co.uk/classroom-innovation-bett/computer-games-in-education
- Currents in Electronic Literacy – Special Issue: Gaming Across the Curriculum – http://currents.cwrl.utexas.edu/2010
- Game-like Engagement for Learning [Slides] – http://usablelearning.wordpress.com/2010/05/11/game-like-engagement-for-learning-slides/
- 3 Game Mechanics to include in learning games – http://www.upsidelearning.com/blog/index.php/2010/12/15/3-game-mechanics-to-include-in-learning-games
- Kimon Keramidas, “What Games Have to Teach Us About Teaching and Learning: Game Design as a Model for Course and Curricular Development”, Currents in Electronic Literacy, Spring 2010, http://currents.cwrl.utexas.edu/2010/keramidas_what-games-have-to-teach-us-about-teaching-and-learning
- Game Over: the perils of Gamifying the classroom – http://behaviourguru.blogspot.com/2011/01/game-over-perils-of-gamifying-classroom.html
- CGE Education: Effectively integrating games into the curriculum – http://cgenetwork.com/Online_Game_Education/
- Gamifying Education – http://www.gamifyingeducation.org/
- TeachThought: What Schools Can Learn From Video Games – http://www.teachthought.com/?p=1855
