Learner’s engagement is a target that every educator is
trying to meet. The reality of affairs is that it is quite challenging target
and requires a lot of innovation and creativity on the teacher’s part. Majority
of learners are mainly interested in the formal reward of a learning experience
represented with grades and eventually a qualification. However, crafting
learning activities in a way that learners might like would engage them in
authentic educational experience. Raymer (2011), defines engagement as the
product of combining two components, those are: wanting and liking. Tracing
back to the reference that Raymer base his argument on, many interesting
insights were covered by Berridge (n.d.) on applying the wanting and liking
research finding in treating addiction.
It would be quite interesting if
the same research findings apply on education in a reverse manner to make
learners get addicted to learnin! The students already “wants” the grades that
would lead to the desired qualification, so if the educator can provide them
with a learning experience that they like then this would lead to rewarding
perception and engagement as a result.
Raymer proposed many aspects to
enhance learners’ engagement within the context of eLearning gamification:
- Setting Goals and Objectives that are short, medium, and long term
- Provide Frequent Feedback to avoid confusion and make your users feel smart or clever
- Measure Progress to motivate learners
- Reward Effort (not just success)
- Follow a Reward Schedule
- Utilize the power of Peer Motivation
A nice idea to enhance the Digital Narrative assignment can be
utilizing the power of peer motivation as recommended by Raymer. This can
mainly done as part of the peer discussion component that takes place for one
week following the publication of the students digital narratives.
As described in the third component of the shared marking scheme
(Yousuf, 2012), the students are expected to exercise peer-tutoring by
individually view every Digital Narrative and ask at least one question about
it’s content or make a comment. A rating requirement can be added here where
each student is expected also to rate the DN. Moreover, students can rate the
answers provided by the DN authors.
The game concept is very much inspired by Raymer’s
strategies for enhancing engagement. This can be achieved by combining the power of peer motivation to the powers of: measuring
progress and rewarding efforts. The game can start with every student having a
basic “Character” next to his name. with every rating added by a peer, the
“Characters” for all students gets updated and the one that achieved the best
rating stand gets a “Character Upgrade”. Raymer’s presented example of
character upgrade figures can be very effective in the targeted engagement
among our students.
To further enhance the concept and free it a bit from the expected
biases, the students can be requested to only rate the work of peers in other
sections. This will even open another opportunity for cross sections competition.
The reviewed article articulated
very clearly the potential that gamification has for improving students
engagement in the learning process.
References
Berridge,
K. (n.d.) Affective Neuroscience & Psychology of Liking & Wanting.
[online] Available at:
http://www.lsa.umich.edu/psych/research&labs/berridge/research/affectiveneuroscience.html
[Accessed: 5/3/2012].
Raymer,
R. (2011) Gamification: Using Game Mechanics to Enhance eLearning.
[online] Available at: http://elearnmag.acm.org/featured.cfm?aid=2031772
[Accessed: 5/3/2012].
Yousuf,
B. (2012) A Reflection on the Reviewed Literature. baraayousuf, [blog] SUNDAY,
APRIL 22, 2012, Available at: http://baraayousuf.blogspot.com/2012/04/reflection-on-reviewed-literature.html
[Accessed: May 3, 2012].
Hi Baraa,
ReplyDeleteOnce again a thorough and thought-provoking post. I've always thought we could do much better with student engagement if we try to break some of the molds we've forced ourselves into. I watched a great TED talk last week by Salman Khan (of Khan Academy) (http://www.ted.com/talks/salman_khan_let_s_use_video_to_reinvent_education.html) where he briefly mentions how changes in their simple reward system cause changes in learner behaviors.
From my experience as a long-time video game addict, I can say that the designers of video games know a lot about how to keep people on task. Even when past the point of traditional sanity in engagement. I've always wondered why education hasn't really consulted with them.
Cheers,
Dean
I had an objective this year to increase the fun level in my classes and was inspired by a comment once Robert made ... "we may need to take Drama courses" !!! I thought why not look what is offered by specialists in terms of making learning fun ... I noticed that most teachers are trying to make learning activities as learner-centered as possible using various classroom games ... This year I introduced Personality Dimensions to my leadership and Teambuilding students ... it helped a bit with some sections and a lot more with others. I certainly need to investigate more types of activities which are not only workshop oriented, but they have plenty of games as part of the design.
ReplyDeleteI think that if at least apply gamification principles to the learner-centered activity, plenty of engagement can be realized. The least could be jotting the groups scores on the whiteboard for the teams that complete their tasks on time and with the best quality.
Will keep experimenting :)
As so many contemporary gamers, I love the Halo series, Gears of War & Call of Duty, and have played each one of them through more than once – almost always with another [human] co-op. I like the thrill of the hard spots and how it feels when you survive them (something after feeling it is impossible). New levels intrigue me and how they immerse to the virtual world. Trying to "hack the system" is also something that keeps gives me true pleasure: how much a game which seems to give me my own choices is actually just smoke screen. Glitches in the system which I spot or can use against the game; a spontaneous hurrah!
ReplyDeleteI'm just wandering as "Gamification" is somewhat the current buzz word (also in our university): what do we actually mean when we say "we should learn/adapt from games to the teaching process?"
Xin (http://www.jofde.ca/index.php/jde/article/view/755) suggests in her paper "A Critique of the Community of Inquiry Framework" that
"Each message in educational dialogue fulfills a double goal: to communicate a content and to evoke further response. The true pleasure of “playing” at online discussion consists in making moves that keep others playing (Feenberg, 1989, p. 27)."
If one interpretation of game mechanics can be drawn there, what other features possibilities there are and which of them we can say can affect learning in a positive way?
I know that sometimes I want to rush to the next level, just to see what is there - maybe something more interesting than in this level. In Angry Birds levels, there are often more levels with single one golden star than the full three.
Hi Barra, I like the 'we may need to take drama courses' reference. Drama is what we 'do' with young learners with very short attention spans all the time to keep them engaged. The pedagogy employed with very young learners parallels your own approach somewhat. Employing variety in activities, operating both intrinsic and extrinsic (the characters) reward systems, using a 'show and tell' strategy where work is presented and discussed by the group -we also 'prime' children to ask 'who, what, where, why, when' questions which more deeply focuses the presenter and engages the audience. The 'Gamification' arguments postulated are great and we should be actively seeking ways to make learning more fun, give more instant feedback (rewards) but how would it be received by the public or heaven forbid the media if it got out that not only were they playing games at home but also in school- it's that old 'children should not be playing games in school' mindset!!! I think we also need to remember that social gaming has a completely different dynamic - players choose when, where, how long to play and how deeply to be engaged - if we could make all this possible in our contexts - it would certainly make teaching and learning more interesting:)
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