Gamified
(C) You may not use any information found on this page without my consent. This framework is experimental and currently under "beta"-testing.
Kindly send your questions and appreciated suggestions to alext [at] cs [.] upt [.] ro
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Gamified is a platform meant to reinvent the wheel in terms of how education is being brought to students. Is is an educational framework that makes use of gamification in order to motivate participation during classes.
First of all, what is gamification ?
Gamification involves applying game design thinking to non-game applications to make them more fun and engaging. Gamification has been called one of the most important trends in technology by several industry experts. Gamification can potentially be applied to any industry and almost anything to create fun and engaging experiences, converting users into players.
The science and motivation behind Gamified
This new science also relies on the psychological studies of motivation, namely, it carefully maneuvers inside the motivational spectrum, between the extrinsic and intrinsic motivation of the players involved. Intrinsic motivation occurs when we are driven by our own interest and enjoyment in the task at hand, without any incentive or even a specific reason. It makes sense to us and that is enough: it is important that we do it, we like it, we enjoy it, we don't care why or how we do it, we just live to do it. Yet very few activities are in this ideal spectrum. On the other side lies amotivation, which means a complete disagreement with a given task - we will simply not do it. In between there is a wide spectrum called extrinsic motivation. This type of motivation is what drives most of our daily actions. The more "stuff" we do towards the right side of the spectrum, the happier, satisfied, and less stressed we are. Education unfortunately starts for many students on the left side, but in time and with confidence they can be driven towards the intrinsic side of learning until maturity. There is also a relevant proportion of students who start off in the desirable spectrum but end up on the left side due to educational mistakes, lack of interest and enthusiasm from teachers and discouraging grading systems.
This second aspect is what Gamified dares to solve.
Why Gamified ?
Gamified comes as a need from my own experience as a student and now as a teacher, interleaved with my passion for computer games, and carefully guided by the knowledge acquired from a course on Gamification by Prof. Kevin Werbach from the University of Pennsylvania.
If you have ever felt demotivated simply because of the constant and stressful grading policy - week after week - making learning just a side effect of the perpetual effort not to fail or maintain an average grade over the course of a semester, than please read on, as you might be surprised.
We've been programmed to believe that positive feedback is detrimental in achieving a higher level of proficiency, and that negative feedback (like punishment) is the solution. It is a model for many parents, schools, law enforcement; yet, most recent research shows just how wrong we were. This short movie explains the benefits and importance of positive feedback in human motivation.
Why ? Because I believe I can change the world. There's no point in quitting just because it sounds impossible. On one hand I'm a researcher, so I'll do great research for that, and on the other hand I'm an educator, so I'll do my best to promote the values I stand for to my students. It's not the moment when the Young will realize they have to learn, or when they will accept they must learn, that I will cherish, it's the moment when they will not not be able to quench their thirst for knowledge, and so, they will do like I did: teach others.
What is Gamified ?
Rule #1: No. more. grades.
It is a grading framework that replaces classical grading schemes (weekly grades, class tests, project grades ...) with experience (XP) accumulated by all students throughout the course of the educational period (e.g. semester).
Students will acquire XP for all in-class activities they do and level up, similar to role-playing games (RPG). Leveling up occurs whenever certain thresholds of XP have been reached.
There is a maximum level of 50 with leveling-up requirements increasing from level to level.
There is an additional amount of XP that can be accumulated past the maximum level and will count as bonus towards the final course grade.
What is Gamified not ?
It is not an online educational platform.
It is not a framework that substitutes learning with game-based activities.
As opposed to hybrid game-like platforms that employ online lectures and assignments, and also game-like activities that mask the actual theoretical approach, Gamified does not imply any online activity nor does it use games for learning. There are no online achievements to be accomplished or any games to be played. Only the grading (thus the motivational factor) is done in an innovative approach, all the rest remains as it should be: in class, face to face, with pen & paper.
Tutorial for playing Gamified
Gamified is not only a software framework, it is a mindset. The tutorial comprises all aspects needed to understand how the framework is applied on a class of students. It defines the specific terms that should be used in class, how the actual scoring is done, what are the professor's and the students' requirements, and how does it all work behind the scenes.
Concepts definition
All students are denoted as heroes. We cannot have world-changers if we do not treat them as such.
A hero can join one or more game worlds. A game world is the actual course a hero is taking. The is a game world for maths, one for databases, one for arts history etc. Every game world applies an independent instance of Gamified on its heroes. A hero will not share any data between game worlds. Not for now, that is.
The professors have to play along, so they will be the game masters.
All heroes gain experience (XP) for in-class activities. No XP is awarded for online activities or any non-educational related activities.
Heroes do not share XP with other heroes, each has its own total accumulated XP.
There is a total of 10000 XP to be earned in any game world.
Every hero has a current level, based on the amount of XP. All begin from level 0 and level up gradually.
There is a maximum level of 50, implying a hero reaches a total of 8000 XP. Level-up requirements increase from level to level, thus it is harder (slower) to advance from level 45 to 46 than from 5 to 6.
There is an additional 2000 XP that can be accumulated past the maximum level, and will grant Paragon levels. These levels (a total of 6) will count as bonuses towards the final course grade. Actual application of the bonuses depends on the game master.
The XP-gaining mechanism is divided into chapters. A chapter is one unit of teaching: typically a week for University seminars or labs, two weeks or more for milestone-projects, or one day for highschools, where there are daily classes of the same game world. Gamified applied on Universities will have a total of 14 chapters (14 weeks per semester), but it can have as many as 5 x 14 chapters for schools where maths is thought on a daily basis for 14 weeks.
Heroes can gain XP by doing the following four accomplishments every chapter:
Attendance - being physically there (also a requirement for all others)
Homework - solving the given homework from one chapter to the next
Activity - being active during class, asking a relevant question, correcting a mistake, willingly participating at the blackboard, spotting hidden mistakes or any other type of active accomplishment
Quiz - participating and solving short (5-15 min) group quizzes given by the game master. There should be a total of 3 or 4 groups sized 3-6 heroes. Exceptions apply.
Each chapterly accomplishment has a base XP that is awarded to heroes. By accomplishing all tasks in all chapters a hero will earn roughly 67% of the total possible XP.
The remaining 33% is earned through achievements. Achievements are meta-accomplishments defined outside the linear game mechanism. Specifically, they represent the accumulation of multiple single accomplishments over the whole chapter period. A simple example of an achievement is having a total of 6 attendances in a game world, or solving 3 homeworks in a row.
Additionally, there will be a number of two laboratory/seminar tests, called campaigns. Even though lab tests may sound old-school, like grading, many students like being challenged from time to time, so each campaign is optional as it only represents a small percentage of the total XP.
Apart from the ad-hoc grouping of heroes during quizzes, heroes will also form guilds. A guild is a semester-long group of 4-6 heroes which brings certain goals and benefits.
Each hero must join a guild and will thus be able to do guild achievements. Unlike individual achievements, these are unlocked only if all guild members individually accomplish given requirements in the same chapter. Note that "same chapter" does not restrain heroes to attend a class at the same time (same time slot) with their guild mates. As long as the achievement is done within the same week, it will count as "in the same chapter".
Every guild will appoint a guild leader and a guild general.
Each guild will participate in the guild wars at the end of the chapters. The wars are fought through the guild's leader and general. Guild wars offer significant XP to all guild members, but attendance is optional.
It is suggested that the guild leader has the best presentation skills as he will have to do a final presentation on behalf of his guild. Grading will be done taking into consideration verbal & non-verbal communication skills, content relevance, motivation and outlining, as well as aesthetic (not personal! but of the content) factors and feedback from other guilds. Can be implemented by game master as he sees fit.
It is suggested that the guild general has the best knowledge of the topics learned as he will have to participate in an individual knowledge battle on behalf of his guild. Each guild will prepare a set of questions from the course and ask opposing generals. Guilds will not ask their own generals. The contest is based on which generals gives the first correct answer, then a new question is asked and so on. Each general is gradually eliminated until a full ranking is achieved.
At the very end of the chapters all heroes will have a level and some will have paragon levels. The hero level is transformed into a grade (scale 1-10) using using the following rule:
To graduate (game world achievement), a hero must reach level 26 or more.
Grading mechanism and leveling up
All heroes start with no XP and level 0.
The game master will have a special attendance list for Gamified, one in which the scores are written down for every chapter. The only manual input for Gamified is given by the game master, and it resumes to the following:
Attendance - yes or no (0/1)
Homework - yes or no (0/1)
Activity - yes or no (0/1)
Quiz - the rank of the group. Upon quiz completion the groups are ranked and all group members receive the same ranking. (1 to N)
Achievements are categorized in two main classes: cumulative and consecutive.
Cumulative means that a total number of individual accomplishments simply have to be met
Consecutive means that a number of individual accomplishments must be done in consecutive chapters, or else the achievement progress is reset.
There is a base XP amount awarded for each accomplishment plus a specific XP for each achievement in part. The actual values are not given as the work is currently in [confidential mode]. What is important is the relationship between all the types of awarded XP:
XP(attendance) < XP(activity) < XP(homework) < XP(quiz win)
It is thus more important to try and win a quiz with your group, or doing your homework, than being active during class
XP(accomplishments) < XP(achievements)
Individual accomplishments are the building blocks of leveling-up, but pursuing achievements is what brings the highest XP rewards
XP(cumulative) < XP(consecutive)
It is important to maintain your status of achiever as consecutive accomplishments weigh more XP than occasional ones
XP(individual achievements) < XP(guild achievements)
Pursuing achievements together with your guild mates is much more rewarding than just soloing the game
Each set of 5 levels (which correspond to a specific final grade) have a representative title, inspired by medieval RPGs. Similarly, each Paragon level has an awe-inspiring title. The current title is envisioned to be corroborated with the current UI theme, which starts out as a very simplistic black & white table and evolves towards a colorful interactive UI. Currently Gamified is implemented in Google Docs spreadsheets for testing purposes, and the "themes" correspond to the color scheme on which the title is written.
Achievements
The achievements currently implemented in Gamified are given in the next table. The actual XP is not yet public but the rules explained above apply.
Strategies for XP farming
The game is here for you to beat it. Based on the presented facts you can maximize XP gathering using your imagination. Of course the best way to achieve everything is to DO everything, yet, at the end of the semester, two heroes, both with - let's say - 40 accomplishments might be separated by as much as 10 levels based on how they maximized achievement farming (with their guilds of course). Here are two simple examples to show you that your actions matter, and it's best to think everything through.
You want to attend the lab 3 times.
Attending it in chapters: 1, 2, 5 will earn you 3*attendances + 3-attendances achievement
Attending it in chapters: 2, 3, 4 will earn you 3*attendances + 3-attendances achievement + 3-consecutive-attendances achievement
Attending it in chapters: 6, 7, 8 will earn you 3*attendances + 3-attendances achievement + 3-consecutive-attendances achievement + bonus for participating in both halves of the semester
You decide to do all accomplishments in chapter 10, including winning the quiz.
As an individual, you earn 550XP for chapter 10.
If you convince your guild members to also attend chapter 10, and come with their homeworks, and be active, and you win the quiz together with them, you earn a total of 950XP.
Without any additional effort, you manage to almost double the amount of gathered XP just by motivating your guild mates to participate. Of course, they also get the same amount of XP.
Gamification applied
Un român, profesorul anului în Olanda, prin ce metodă inedită și-a cucerit studenții (A Romanian, teacher of the year in the Netherlands, uses this novel approach to win over his students): link
(C) You may not use any information found on this page without my consent.
For any suggestions & questions contact me at alext [at] cs [.] upt [.] ro