Examining Game-like Design Elements and Student Engagement in an Online Asychronous Course for Undergraduate University Students

Due to growing number of online university courses (Allen & Seaman, 2016; Picciano, 2015; Wladis, Wladis, & Hachey, 2014), this study examined whether game-like design strategies can be used to increase the quality of an asynchronous online course experience for undergraduate students. Student engagement is related to learning activities such as student-student, student-instructor, and student-course material interaction, as well as positive factors such as satisfaction, accomplishment, and active and collaborative learning (Kuh, Kinzie, Buckley, Bridges, & Hayek, 2006; Shea et al., 2010). While there is a growing body of literature that deals with using game mechanics in instructional design generally, less is known about how game mechanics can increase student engagement in an online, asynchronous, university-level course. The quasi-treatment design of this study allowed for the comparison of student experiences in two versions of the same asynchronous undergraduate course. Data were collected via an online survey of perceived engagement, LMS-supported analytics, and grades. This study shows the current technology use of the students. The majority of students who participated in this study have been using the internet and computers for seven years or more. Based on this study, designers and instructors of online courses may consider using game-like hidden badges as a way to improve engagement in the asynchronous learning environment. Reward schedules, clues, reminders, and profiles could be essential for efficient implementation of game mechanics

Cracking the Code: Synchronizing Policy and Practice for Performance-Based Learning

Proposes a policy framework for integrating performance-based learning into the education system, synchronizing policy and practice, and ensuring collaborative state leadership and flexible federal leadership. Lists state policy issues and exemplars

Gamification as a Service: Conceptualization of a Generic Enterprise Gamification Platform

Gamification is a novel method to improve engagement, motivation, or participation in non-game contexts using game mechanics. To a large extent, gamification is a psychological- and design-oriented discipline, i.e., a lot of effort has to be spent already in the design phase of a gamification project. Subsequently, the design is implemented in information systems such as portals or enterprise resource planning applications. These systems act as mediators to transport a gameful design to its users. However, the efforts for the subsequent development and integration process are often underestimated. In fact, most conceptual gamification designs are never implemented due to the high development costs that arise from building the gamification solution from scratch, imprecise design or technical requirements, and communication conflicts between different stakeholders in the project. This thesis addresses these problems by systematically defining the phases and stakeholders of the overall gamification process. Furthermore, the thesis rigorously defines the conceptual requirements of gamification based on a broad literature review. The identified conceptual requirements are mapped to a domain-specific language, called the Gamification Modeling Language. Moreover, this thesis analyzes 29 existing gamification solutions that aim to decrease the implementation efforts of gamification. However, using the different language elements, it is shown that none of the existing solutions suffices all requirements. Therefore, a generic and reusable platform as runtime environment for gamification is proposed which fulfills all presented functional and non-functional requirements. As another benefit, it is shown how the Gamification Modeling Language can be automatically compiled into code for the gamification runtime environment and, thus, further reduces development efforts. Based on the developed artifacts and five real gamified applications from industry, it is shown that the efforts for the implementation of the gamification can be significantly reduced from several months or weeks to a few days. Since the technology is designed as a reusable service, future projects benefit continuously with regards to time and efforts

Gamification Analytics: Support for Monitoring and Adapting Gamification Designs

Inspired by the engaging effects in video games, gamification aims at motivating people to show desired behaviors in a variety of contexts. During the last years, gamification influenced the design of many software applications in the consumer as well as enterprise domain. In some cases, even whole businesses, such as Foursquare, owe their success to well-designed gamification mechanisms in their product. Gamification also attracted the interest of academics from fields, such as human-computer interaction, marketing, psychology, and software engineering. Scientific contributions comprise psychological theories and models to better understand the mechanisms behind successful gamification, case studies that measure the psychological and behavioral outcomes of gamification, methodologies for gamification projects, and technical concepts for platforms that support implementing gamification in an efficient manner. Given a new project, gamification experts can leverage the existing body of knowledge to reuse previous, or derive new gamification ideas. However, there is no one size fits all approach for creating engaging gamification designs. Gamification success always depends on a wide variety of factors defined by the characteristics of the audience, the gamified application, and the chosen gamification design. In contrast to researchers, gamification experts in the industry rarely have the necessary skills and resources to assess the success of their gamification design systematically. Therefore, it is essential to provide them with suitable support mechanisms, which help to assess and improve gamification designs continuously. Providing suitable and efficient gamification analytics support is the ultimate goal of this thesis. This work presents a study with gamification experts that identifies relevant requirements in the context of gamification analytics. Given the identified requirements and earlier work in the analytics domain, this thesis then derives a set of gamification analytics-related activities and uses them to extend an existing process model for gamification projects. The resulting model can be used by experts to plan and execute their gamification projects with analytics in mind. Next, this work identifies existing tools and assesses them with regards to their applicability in gamification projects. The results can help experts to make objective technology decisions. However, they also show that most tools have significant gaps towards the identified user requirements. Consequently, a technical concept for a suitable realization of gamification analytics is derived. It describes a loosely coupled analytics service that helps gamification experts to seamlessly collect and analyze gamification-related data while minimizing dependencies to IT experts. The concept is evaluated successfully via the implementation of a prototype and application in two real-world gamification projects. The results show that the presented gamification analytics concept is technically feasible, applicable to actual projects, and also valuable for the systematic monitoring of gamification success

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

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

Rethinking gamification

Gamification marks a major change to everyday life. It describes the permeation of economic, political, and social contexts by game-elements such as awards, rule structures, and interfaces that are inspired by video games. Sometimes the term is reduced to the implementation of points, badges, and leaderboards as incentives and motivations to be productive. Sometimes it is envisioned as a universal remedy to deeply transform society toward more humane and playful ends. Despite its use by corporations to manage brand communities and personnel, however, gamification is more than just a marketing buzzword. States are beginning to use it as a new tool for governing populations more effectively. It promises to fix what is wrong with reality by making every single one of us fitter, happier, and healthier. Indeed, it seems like all of society is up for being transformed into one massive game.The contributions in this book offer a candid assessment of the gamification hype. They trace back the historical roots of the phenomenon and explore novel design practices and methods. They critically discuss its social implications and even present artistic tactics for resistance. It is time to rethink gamification

Game Play in Education: An Exploration of the What, How, and Why

This study explored whether teachers utilize games in the classroom, known as gamification and, if so, whether they used games according to game theory that exists in the field of gaming and game design. In higher education and secondary environments, educators report that problems exist as far as student behavior and engagement. Many students do not want to learn. The literature review conducted as part of this study indicated that when teachers gamified their classrooms few empirical investigations were conducted in the K-12 setting; another shortcoming was a lack of a uniform classification system for game elements among the literature, causing confusion in the research as to the approaches applied during each study and how conclusions were reached. The lack of practical application was important in this study because in order for game elements to engage and motivate students to trigger desired behavior, gamification should draw from the motivational qualities of good games as outlined by game designer McGonigal. Therefore, when a teacher opts to use gamification, a standard classification of game elements should be developed as part of educational game theory so that the what, how, and why is evident. In other words, teachers can benefit from this study by gaining an understanding of what constitutes a game element, how each element should be utilized, and for what purpose

Game Design Patterns for Learning

Kelle, S. (2012). Game Design Patterns for Learning. November, 9, 2012, Heerlen, The Netherlands: Open Universiteit in the Netherlands, CELSTEC. Aachen: Shaker Verlag.What do learning games consist of? How to design learning games and what to keep in mind? How to balance educational objectives with good gameplay? What to do if you are a game designer and you want to use e-learning standards for your game? And what to do if you are an instructional designer and you are in desperate need to gamify your content? This publication aims at illuminating these questions, presenting results from a 4 year long PhD project run at CELSTEC, the Center of Learning Sciences and Technologies at the Open University of The Netherlands. Sebastian Kelle is a multidisciplinary researcher, currently building up a new center for higher education didactics at Stuttgart Media University.EU ICOPER Projec