Using Gameplay Patterns to Gamify Learning Experiences

Gamification refers to the use of gaming elements to enhance user experience and engagement in non-gaming systems. In this paper we report the design and implementation of two higher education courses in which ludic elements were used to enhance the quality of the learning experience. A game can be regarded as a system of organised gameplay activities, and a course can be regarded as a system of organised learning activities. Leveraging this analogy, analysing games can provide valuable insights to organise learning activities within a learning experience. We examined a sample of successful commercial games to identify patterns of organisation of gameplay activities that could be applied to a course design. Five patterns were identified: quest structure, strategic open-endedness, non-linear progression, orientation, and challenge-based reward. These patterns were then used to define the instructional design of the courses. As a result, courses were organised as systems of quests that could be tackled through different strategies and in a non-linear way. Students received frequent feedback and were rewarded according to the challenges chosen, based on mechanics common in quest-based games. The courses involved two lecturers and 70 students. Learning journals were used throughout the term to collect data regarding student perceptions on the clarity and usefulness of the gamified approach, level of motivation and engagement in the courses, and relevance of the activities proposed. Results show that students felt challenged by the activities proposed and motivated to complete them, despite considering most activities as difficult. Students adopted different cognitive and behavioural strategies to cope with the courses’ demands. They had to define their own team project, defining the objectives, managing their times and coordinating task completion. The regular and frequent provision of feedback was highly appreciated. A sense of mastery was promoted and final achievement was positively impacted by the gamified strategy

Fostering Students’ Creativity through Video Game Development

This study focuses on the impact of video game development as an approach to educate individuals for the demands of creative industries such as video games. Questionnaires were administered to 38 students enrolled in two educational programs which involved developing video games. Findings suggest that developing video games creates an exceptional setting to promote the students’ creativity, due to characteristics of the task and of the work environment generated by this activity

A Model to Identify Affordances for Game-Based Sustainability Learning

Sustainability learning requires the assimilation of domain-specific knowledge and the development of mindsets suitable to engage in complex system dynamics to foster sustainable action. There is a need for bespoke educational models and practical tools to foster sustainability learning. Digital games can answer such need, due to their remarkable potential to wholly engage players in sustainability-related contexts and problems entailing complex dynamics, and the advantages of intrinsically motivating game-based learning processes. However, there is evidence suggesting that such potential might be underexploited. To address this, in this paper we present a model for the identification and analysis of game-based sustainability learning affordances. Our model can be used to support the selection of games for educational purposes, or to facilitate the planning and introduction of game-based sustainability learning affordances when designing new games

Learning and Videogames: an Unexploited Synergy

In a social context marked by the crucial relevance of the development of the individual, it is of primary importance to focus the attention on those social phenomena that can contribute to it and are often underestimated and underexploited in terms of learning processes. Videogaming (i.e., the activity of playing a videogame) is certainly one of such phenomena, and its importance and popularity in our contemporary society is a good reason to analyze its relevance of learning processes. What are videogames? What is their relationship with learning processes? Is the didactic potential of videogames fully exploited? This paper is an effort to answer these questions analyzing how the current approaches to educational game design underexploit the didactic potential of videogames, which naturally engender important learning processes. Additionally, the work proposes an alternative approach that might lead to the creation of products capable of offering a better gaming experience and richer possibilities of development for the player

Fostering student learning using a complexified educational strategy: A Case Study in Higher Education

This paper reports on the design and application of a complexified educational strategy for the administration and delivery of a course in game design at the University of Worcester, UK. We conceived an educational strategy following recommendations provided by Davis and Sumara (2006), aimed at generating conditions key to foster emergence of learning in educational complex-adaptive systems, namely specialisation, trans-level learning and enabling constraints. The strategy was designed through an iterative and adaptive process, informed by evidence and events emerging from the development of the course. The strategy fostered student collaboration, and allowed both students and tutors to deal with complex and unanticipated situations requiring adaptation. Data analysed so far indicates that teamwork was initially challenging for students, but collective learning emerged as the course developed, positively affecting teams’ performance. Students felt highly motivated and enjoyed working on the learning activities. Likewise, their progress and expertise levels were always perceived as high. Students’ academic performance was on average very good

Higher education in a complex world: nurturing “chaordic” influencers

We live in a world driven by dynamics that challenge and very often defeat traditional reductionist approaches to ethics and problem solving (Weaver, 1948; Rittel & Webber, 1973). This is a world constantly animated by global changes resulting from the interplay of local events. No matter how apparently small, limited, and insignificant the local events may seem, the effects emerging from their interplay are often massive, and seldom predictable and controllable (McDaniel & Driebe, 2005; Miller & Page, 2007). We live in a world permeated by complexity. This world, our world, is the realm of wicked problems, which cannot be fully described, have no “stopping rule”, no “template solution”, nor definitive description. In fact, wicked problems defy resolution, because of interdependencies, uncertainties, circularities, and conflicting stakeholders, and because they are often symptoms of other problems (Rittel & Webber, 1973). The inability to cope with complexity leads inevitably to succumbing to wicked problems, with tragic consequences for human development. Those consequences include environmental emergencies, geopolitical crises, cultural decline, epidemics, and more. Ebola outbreaks, migration control problems, the rise of Islamic State, global warming, and more. These and other issues are part of the drama of complexity, within which we play as key actors, willing or not. A drama that becomes stark tragedy whenever we fail to timely identify and act upon complex dynamics that may lead to chaotic consequences, and are irreversibly detrimental to the future of our global community. The plot of the drama of complexity is not set. It unfolds based on a dynamic, constantly changing script — but it is one that we can co-author. As actors and co-authors, we can lead the drama to favourable outcomes, influencing complex dynamics to our benefit, as individuals and collectives. This demands the ability to understand and act while “surfing the edge of chaos” (Pascale, 1999); this edge is a dimension in which apparent disorganisation is in fact a manifestation of multiple possibilities to facilitate the emergence of desirable - albeit temporary - order (Beinhocker, 1997). It is here that we have the ability to be “chaordic” influencers. “Chaordic” is a portmanteau word, allying the ideas of chaos and order into one

Gaming and the Scientific Mind: Designing Games to Develop the Scientific Mind

The necessity of fostering learning and the development of the scientific mind calls for the exploitation of all the available means that may contribute to a life-long process of development and renovation of the scientific mentality, in both an individual and collective way, and in a situated manner, transcending formal educational contexts and scientific environments. Amongst such means, digital games deserve a specific attention. In fact, gaming and games (especially digital games) engender a huge potential to allow enhancing learning processes and contributing to the development of the scientific mind. Such potential can be approached and understood from two different perspectives: playing games and making games. From a player's perspective, playing videogames can be conceptualized as a problem-solving activity that requires learning in order to progress and achieve the goals of the game. In fact, players are engaged in activity that resemble scientific processes, since they are required to identify/define problems to be solved, hypothesize and plan solutions, figure out how to use the available resources, and test the hypotheses, carrying out the planned courses of action through game playing activities. From a game designer's perspective, making games can be seen as an activity that requires transdisciplinary team efforts to create, plan, test and discuss ideas in an iterative way, in order to understand the dynamics and elements involved in game playing, and design a system which the player will have to interact with. To exploit this double-faced potential, it is necessary to acquire knowledge regarding the phenomenon of gaming, and how games can enhance learning and contribute to developing scientific thinking

Features of entertainment digital games for learning and developing complex problem-solving skills: A protocol for a systemic review

Entertainment digital games (EDGs) can be used to promote real-world-relevant learning that supports the development of complex problem-solving (CPS) skills. This paper presents a protocol for a systematic review that aims to examine relevant analysis and design frameworks for EDGs. Selected frameworks will be reviewed to identify gameplay features that may affect CPS-relevant psychological processes. Each framework will be subjected to a formal content analysis in which data will be extracted, coded, and analyzed based on the Work System Theory and the Cognitive Work Analysis frameworks. The proposed systematic review will help researchers and practitioners to select the most appropriate methodological frameworks for the analysis and design of EDGs capable of promoting CPS skills through gameplay learning

The central role of learning in videogaming

In the 21st century, being a parent means having to deal with buying, monitoring, and negotiating about video games. A common question parents have is whether children can learn anything positive or of educational value by playing video games? The answer is “Yes!” Children can learn valuable skills by playing video games

When technology cares for people with dementia:A critical review using neuropsychological rehabilitation as a conceptual framework

Clinicians and researchers have become increasingly interested in the potential of technology in assisting persons with dementia (PwD). However, several issues have emerged in relation to how studies have conceptualized who the main technology user is (PwD/carer), how technology is used (as compensatory, environment modification, monitoring or retraining tool), why it is used (i.e., what impairments and/or disabilities are supported) and what variables have been considered as relevant to support engagement with technology. In this review we adopted a Neuropsychological Rehabilitation perspective to analyse 253 studies reporting on technological solutions for PwD. We analysed purposes/uses, supported impairments and disabilities and how engagement was considered. Findings showed that the most frequent purposes of technology use were compensation and monitoring, supporting orientation, sequencing complex actions and memory impairments in a wide range of activities. The few studies that addressed the issue of engagement with technology considered how the ease of use, social appropriateness, level of personalization, dynamic adaptation and carers' mediation allowed technology to adapt to PWD's and carers' preferences and performance. Conceptual and methodological tools emerged as outcomes of the analytical process, representing an important contribution to understanding the role of technologies to increase PwD's wellbeing and orient future research.University of Huddersfield, under grants URF301-01 and URF506-01