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"...not to make learners become gamers but to transform gamers into active learners."
What's up?
Notes from The Teacher, 13 July 2020
"Oh nice... we are playing games in class the entire school year."
Sorry to disappoint you but it isn't like that. Gamification of your learning is different from game-based learning. When game-based learning uses game apps like Microsoft Minecraft and others, gamification on the other hand selects only game elements and bring those into the classroom.
Gamification is the process where game elements are used in a non-game context to influence motivation, students' engagement and awareness of your own progress in learning a.k.a. self-assessing your level of understanding at any time within the term. Those elements that, as I observed in all games at this time, keep players stay in game and spend extra time mastering skills for the purpose of successfully completing a certain task are normally taking the form of in-game leaderboard, skins, avatars, titles and others which are collectively known as player's achievements.
In our school/educational systems, ranking in class, tokens like certificates, medals and trophies at stake in all inter-school and inter-house competitions you participated in, best in subjects awards, PIAGETian of the Year award, and the likes are some of those that obviously similar as the game elements previously mentioned. Gamification, therefore, has been in our system for so long; it is just that we were not aware of it.
With these said, I am officially gamifying our Physics class in a way that missions, quests, and tasks will be rewarded with badges to decorate your given avatars and to determine whose names are to be placed in the leaderboard. The badges can only be earned after satisfying a certain requirement and completing a task that are either measuring your Physics learning based on Cambridge International syllabuses AO1, AO2, and AO3 or evaluating subject related skills including how we utilize apps in Distance Leaning and your project i.e. website drafted as venue to communicate and showcase your work.
Who are going for the quests/missions?
Short answer: The amazing Physics students @ Singapore Piaget Academy]
Preparing for the upcoming Cambridge International AS/A Level examinations, these 8 students from Year 11 will uncover deeper content of Physics concepts introduced in Ordinary Level.
Eleven students from Year 10 who will continue their journey of the world of Physics in this final year prior to Cambridge International O Level examinations in Year 2021.
The youngest among the Physics enthusiasts in Singapore Piaget Academy, Year 9, who have just started exploring theories and concepts about motion, forces and energy.
How can my avatar help me in my studies?
Short answer: It can serve as a real-time pictorial progress report for students and parents.
I created avatars and randomly placed in a sub-page with your names. Those were created in Character Creator [click here] and that if you wish to create your own customized character icon, do that in same website and send it to me via email.
Each student's avatar page can be found under the page named AVATAR [see upper portion of this homepage] and has the following information:
A chosen quotation about learning, studying and/or Physics which could drive you do study harder in Physics class.
Red stat bars showing your current Power, Energy and Speed.
Power will show your mastery level of Physics concepts. The bar value is based on the successfully earned badge from tests/quests related to AO1, AO2 and AO3. Needless to say, this bar tells how much knowledgable you are on the content of the syllabuses, i.e. O Level or AS/A Level.
Energy will show your participation in projects and other task related to behaviors that could influence learning. Badges in the future will be created to measure your P.I.A.G.E.T. values. In addition to that, test/quest to explore apps or properly use online Physics tools are also assigned badges in which plus points are added to the energy bar.
Speed [or health in games] will show your compliance to instructions via Distance Learning. A hundred speed is given to each of you and that every time you submit work late, points will be deducted from it.
With all these information available in the avatar page, you can assess yourself on both your strengths and weaknesses. And that as a mature learner, you should act in accordance to what the bar shows and request for assistance if you feel needed.
The bottom portion of the avatar page is also decorated with the badges you earned. The badge you have should suggest your strength in the subject. Those you haven't are either your weaknesses that need to be reinforced or a consequence of negative behavior or bad study habits that may be related to the SPEED bar I mentioned.
How is LEADERBOARD by BADGE different from CLASS RANK?
Class Rank is based on the average grades of students at the end of a term, sorted from the highest to the lowest. Best in Physics [or any other subjects] works almost the same as in the Class Rank, where the highest is declared as recipient of the certificate. This averages consider both the skills/knowledge students have mastered as well as those they haven't, making some be placed at the lower portion of the list.
The Leaderboard in this Gamified Physics, on the other hand, is based on the number of badges earned by the students at a given time. The badges represents students' mastery of the Physics concepts and other skills and familiarity with apps/tools necessary to learn some Physics concepts. Furthermore, the students, unlike in class rank / best in subject, can still return to the quest whenever they are ready after evaluating themselves and spent extra time preparing and reviewing concepts related to the badge for their next attempt to earn it, a chance that isn't available in the case of ranking processes.
Each badge targets a collection of AOs in Cambridge that whoever earned it is seen to have mastered the concepts needed for the external examination. The badges, therefore, in relation to the leaderboard provide information to students on what they have learned well [earned badges] and what they need to study more [failed to earn]. Moreover, because they will be given a chance to re-take the quest, students should still focus on completed chapter, contrary to observed scenario where students tend to leave the concept behind even they haven't understood it fully when the class already moved to another chapter.
Grading System used for Progress Report/Best in Physics
Badges used for Leaderboard
Now, as for the grades received by students, scores on their first attempts are the ones recorded under Performance Task and/or Written Work components of the Ongoing Assessment [40%] score. Their next attempts are solely for either earning the badge or not. Earning the badge means they were able to correct their mistakes before and should show that they already have the knowledge required by Cambridge or tools.
In summary, badges should serve as checklist of Physics concepts [and skills in using Distance Learning tools/simulations]. If a student received a badge, he/she is likely ready to answer questions related to the AOs targeted by the badge. If a student failed to get a badge, he/she has to review those concepts again and re-evaluate herself/himself as to whether he/she already has it by attempting to earn the badge again. The badge is a real-time progress report for students and parents alike. Class Rank is on comparing all students based on their scores/averages while badge/leaderboard is serving as a checklist for students of what they have learned so far and what concepts they need to give time for re-reading, reviewing and/or require assistance from The Teacher.
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