Using Gamification to Motivate Students with Dyslexia

The concept of gamification is receiving increasing attention, particularly for its potential to motivate students. However, to date the majority of studies in the context of education have predominantly focused on University students. This paper explores how gamification could potentially benefit a specific student population, children with dyslexia who are transitioning from primary to secondary school. Two teachers from specialist dyslexia teaching centres used classDojo, a gamification platform, during their teaching sessions for one term. We detail how the teachers appropriated the platform in different ways and how the students discussed classDojo in terms of motivation. These findings have subsequently informed a set of provisional implications for gamification distilling opportunities for future pedagogical uses, gamification design for special education and methodological approaches to how gamification is studied

Open educational resources for all? Comparing user motivations and characteristics across The Open University’s iTunes U channel and OpenLearn platform.

With the rise in access to mobile multimedia devices, educational institutions have exploited the iTunes U platform as an additional channel to provide free educational resources with the aim of profile-raising and breaking down barriers to education. For those prepared to invest in content preparation, it is possible to produce interactive, portable material that can be made available globally. Commentators have questioned both the financial implications for platform-specific content production, and the availability of devices for learners to access it (Osborne, 2012). The Open University (OU) makes its free educational resources available on iTunes U and via its web-based open educational resources (OER) platform, OpenLearn. The OU’s OER on iTunes U reached the 60 million download mark in 2013; its OpenLearn platform boasts 27 million unique visitors since 2006. This paper reports the results of a large-scale study of users of the OU’s iTunes U channel and OpenLearn platform. A survey of several thousand users revealed key differences in demographics between those accessing OER via the web and via iTunes U. In addition, the data allowed comparison between three groups: formal learners, informal learners and educators. The study raises questions about whether university-provided OER meet the needs of users and makes recommendations for how content can be modified to suit their needs. As the publishing of OER becomes core to business, we reflect on reasons why understanding users’ motivations and demographics is vital, allowing for needs-led resource provision and content that is adapted to best achieve learner satisfaction, and to deliver institutions’ social mission

Developing sustainable business models for institutions’ provision of open educational resources: Learning from OpenLearn users’ motivations and experiences

Universities across the globe have, for some time, been exploring the possibilities for achieving public benefit and generating business and visibility through releasing and sharing open educational resources (OER). Many have written about the need to develop sustainable and profitable business models around the production and release of OER. Downes (2006), for example, has questioned the financial sustainability of OER production at scale. Many of the proposed business models focus on OER’s value in generating revenue and detractors of OER have questioned whether they are in competition with formal education. This paper reports on a study intended to broaden the conversation about OER business models to consider the motivations and experiences of OER users as the basis for making a better informed decision about whether OER and formal learning are competitive or complementary with each other. The study focused on OpenLearn - the Open University’s (OU) web-based platform for OER, which hosts hundreds of online courses and videos and is accessed by over 3,000,000 users a year. A large scale survey and follow-up interviews with OpenLearn users worldwide revealed that university provided OER can offer learners a bridge to formal education, allowing them to try out a subject before registering on a formal course and to build confidence in their abilities as learners. In addition, it was found that using OER during formal paid-for study can improve learners’ performance and self-reliance, leading to increased retention and satisfaction with the learning experience

Trendswatch 2013: Back to the Future

TrendsWatch 2013 highlights six trends that CFM's staff and advisors believe are highly significant to museums and their communities, based on our scanning and analysis over the past year. For each trend, we provide a brief summary, list examples of how the trend is playing out in the world, comment on the trend's significance to society and to museums specifically, and suggest ways that museums might respond. We also provide links to additional readings. TrendsWatch provides valuable background and context for your museum's planning and implementation

Personal Learning Environments for Inquiry-Based Learning

Personal Learning Environments have recently emerged as a novel approach to learning, putting learners in the spotlight and providing them with the tools for building their own learning environments according to their specific learning needs and aspirations. This approach enables learners to take complete control over their learning, thus becoming self-regulated and independent. This paper introduces a new European initiative for supporting and enhancing inquiry-based learning through Personal Learning Environments consisting of personal and social inquiry tools. This approach aims at supporting students in developing their self-regulated learning skills by conducting their scientific inquiries in collaboration with their peers

Gamification of e-Learning: an investigation into the influence of gamification on student motivation.

Master of Commerce in Information Systems & Technology. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2017.Traditional teacher-centred learning is being confronted by an increasing awareness of the value of student-centred learning. E-learning, despite its limitations, is often presented as a solution to learning challenges prevalent in teacher-centred learning since it affords students greater control of the learning process. Combined with this, academics are increasingly competing for students’ attention and struggle to motivate students. However, students, when confronted with the array of games and social media platforms available, willingly dedicate several hours glued to their screens socialising, engaging and gaming. Such willingness to engage these so-called distractions whilst displaying reluctance to engage their academic work may be attributed to a lack of motivation. This is even more prevalent in the domain of e-learning. Adopting an embedded mixed methods case study design, this study explored the influence of gamification of e-learning on motivation. Herein, expectations and factors influencing experiences of gamification of e-learning were explored. Furthermore, through Self-Determination Theory (SDT) & Intrinsic Motivation Inventory (IMI) as theoretical lenses, this study explored how gamification of e-learning influences motivation. Gamification is conceptualised as an objective-driven user-centred technique which integrates game mechanics, dynamics and game aesthetics into real-world contexts to motivate behaviour. Gartner envisages that by 2020, gamification will be deeply integrated into the prevalent higher education structures. Whilst many applications of gamification aim towards enhancing classroom-based learning, the exploration of gamification of e-learning in higher education, particularly in a developing country, remains an emerging domain of research. This research found that participants experienced gamification and various game elements differently, based on their BrainHex gamer profiles. In terms of SDT, whilst progression through the gamified course was guided and consistent, with all participants progressing as a single group, they experienced a sense of autonomy. Participants also experienced a greater sense of competence and relatedness in engaging with the gamified course. In the context of IMI, participants’ experiences suggest that gamification was valuable, increased curiosity and was effective for learning. However, they reported experiencing tension and a high degree of effort required by the gamified course. Students expected transparency in terms of scoring and raised queries where required. They generally preferred visual cues whilst engaging with the gamified course, expected almost real-time feedback in terms of scoring and resolution of queries, but had varying views on which game elements motivated them. Essentially, it was found that gamification positively influenced participants’ motivation. However, it must be noted that whilst gamification motivated students, some experienced demotivation. Contributing factors include not understanding the game from the outset, being demotivated by not earning frequent rewards and losing progress in the game due to external factors

Gamificação aplicada à formação em cibersegurança de profissionais de saúde: uma prova de conceito

Mestrado em Gestão e Avaliação de Tecnologias em SaúdeIntrodução: O sector da saúde é fortemente afetado pelo cibercrime, com as principais técnicas de ataque a serem direcionadas para os utilizadores. Por isso, os profissionais de saúde têm um papel fundamental na minimização destes ataques, quando devidamente treinados. As estratégias de formação gamificada em cibersegurança têm resultados bastante positivos ao nível da aquisição e retenção de conhecimento, tendo vantagens ao nível da gestão dos recursos e do tempo. Objetivos: Descrever o estado da arte relacionado com o impacto da cibersegurança no sector da saúde e com a gamificação; identificar os componentes associados ao desenvolvimento de soluções de gamificação; comparar as plataformas de gamificação existentes; definir uma metodologia de gamificação adequada para a formação em cibersegurança de profissionais de saúde e desenvolver uma ferramenta de gamificação para a sensibilização em cibersegurança de profissionais de saúde. Metodologia: Desenvolveu-se uma metodologia de gamificação para a formação em cibersegurança dos profissionais de saúde. Foi igualmente desenvolvido um protótipo da estratégia de formação gamificada, específica para o setor da saúde, onde consta um piloto da aplicação (Health-Cy-Game). Resultados: Desenvolvimento do protótipo da estratégia de formação gamificada – Health-Cy-Game – de acordo com o perfil de conhecimentos estabelecido: conhecimento geral de tecnologia; autenticação e gestão de palavras-passe; técnicas de ciberataques dirigidas ao sector da saúde; gestão da informação; manutenção e atualização de software, e procedimentos e regulamentos em cibersegurança das instituições de saúde. Disposições finais: No setor da saúde, a cibersegurança deverá constituir uma preocupação central dos planos estratégicos de segurança e qualidade dos cuidados. Para atingir este estado de segurança, é preciso munir os utilizadores da tecnologia de conhecimento adequados. “Health-Cy-Game” foi construído tendo em conta o perfil de competências destes profissionais e as especificidades deste sector, de acordo com o Referencial de Competências e Conhecimentos do Centro Nacional de Cibersegurança e as escalas Risky Cybersecurity Behaviours Scale (RsCB) e Security Behaviour Intentions Scale (SeBIS).ABSTRACT - Introduction: The healthcare sector is heavily affected by cybercrime, with the majority of techniques used being addressed to its users. Health professionals have a key role in minimizing these attacks when properly trained. Gamified training strategies in cybersecurity have very positive results in terms of knowledge acquisition and retention, with advantages in terms of resources and time management. Objectives: To describe the state-of-the-art related to the impact of cybersecurity in the health sector and with gamification; identify the components associated with the development of gamification solutions; compare existing gamification platforms; define an appropriate gamification methodology for training health professionals in cybersecurity and develop a gamification tool to raise awareness of cybersecurity among health professionals. Methodology: A gamification methodology was developed for training health professionals in cybersecurity. A prototype of the gamified training strategy, specific for the health sector, was also developed, which contains a pilot application (Health-Cy-Game). Results: Development of the prototype of the gamified training strategy – Health-Cy-Game – according to the knowledge profile established: general knowledge of technology; authentication and password management; cyberattack techniques targeting the health sector; information management; maintenance and updating of software, and procedures and regulations in cybersecurity of health institutions. Final Provisions: In the healthcare sector, cybersecurity must be a central concern of strategic plans addressed to safety and quality of care. To achieve this state of security, it is necessary to provide adequate training to healthcare professionals. “Health-Cy-Game” was built taking into account the skills profile of these professionals and the specificities of this sector, in accordance with Centro Nacional de Cibersegurança’s roadmap “Competências e Conhecimentos”, the Risky Cybersecurity Behaviours Scale (RsCB) and Security Behaviour Intentions Scale (SeBIS).N/

The impact of emotions on student participation in an assessed, online, collaborative activity

There is growing recognition of the importance of emotions in academic online learning contexts. However, there is still little known about the role of emotions in social and collaborative online learning settings, especially the relationship between emotions and student participation. To explore this relationship, this study used a prospective longitudinal research design to follow 46 distance learning students throughout a 3-week assessed, online, collaborative activity. This approach allowed the fluctuating and dynamic aspects of emotions to be explored as well as the relationship between emotions and student participation in the collaborative activity. Self-report data were gathered using a semistructured online diary at five time points throughout the task (once at the start of the collaborative activity, three times during the activity, and the final entry after the activity had finished). Findings revealed that learners generally perceived pleasant emotions (such as relief, satisfaction and enjoyment) to have positive impacts, or no impact, on participation, whereas unpleasant emotions (such as anxiety, frustration, and disappointment) were generally perceived to have negative impacts, or no impact, on participation. Interestingly, however, anxiety, and to a smaller extent frustration, were perceived by a number of students to have positive impacts during the activity. To conclude this paper, implications for educators are highlighted

European Distance and E-Learning Network (EDEN). Conference Proceedings

Erasmus+ Programme of the European UnionThe powerful combination of the information age and the consequent disruption caused by these unstable environments provides the impetus to look afresh and identify new models and approaches for education (e.g. OERs, MOOCs, PLEs, Learning Analytics etc.). For learners this has taken a fantastic leap into aggregating, curating and co-curating and co-producing outside the boundaries of formal learning environments – the networked learner is sharing voluntarily and for free, spontaneously with billions of people.Supported by Erasmus+ Programme of the European Unioninfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio