Unit 2: What is Gamifying?
Unit Objectives
After completing this unit the participant will able to...
- Explain how gamified experiences pervade reality.
- Identify the differences between: games, gameful design, gamification, and serious games/simulations.
- Seek out, review, and provide examples of games, gameful design, gamification, and serious games/simulations.
Learner Activities
- Watch the 3 TED Talks.
- Read about the difference between gamified designs.
- Read the article about gamified experience definitions.
- Review and utilize the Gamified Experiences Rubric to identify gamified experiences to share on the course wiki space.
- Complete initial discussion board post and reply to at least one classmates.
- Complete your gamertype course responsibilities.
- Write a unit reflection post on your blog.
Introduction
Have you ever participated in membership rewards program? Ever have a coffee card where you tenth one is free? Game-design elements are all around us and have been for decades. What is powerful about these elements is that it is focus motivation toward an intended outcome (using your sky-miles card, shopping at one store over another, getting coffee at the same place everyday). As already suggested, gamified elements are not always utilized for altruistic purposes, there is always another side of the coin. However, what can happen when we focus motivation towards learning? We will be spending time this unit honing our perception skills and identifying elements of game-design that exist in our lives already (effective and ineffective). The more familiar we are with these elements and how they can be utilized for positive effect, the better we can get at including these elements in our own course design. We will begin this unit with an overview for what our gamified world looks like and where it may be going, spend some time looking for specific examples, and then discuss and reflect on how this can influence our own course design.
For a well made look at a potential exciting, and yet darkly disturbing, future fully immersed in gamified experiences check out the following video:
The Gamified World
1. To start, we will watch a series of TED talks:
- Jane McGonigal - Gaming can make a better world
- Jesse Schell - When games invades real life
- Tom Chatfield - 7 ways games reward the brain
2. Read about the differences between gamified designs
3. Read about the the definitions of gamified experiences: Deterding, Sebastian, et al. "From game design elements to gamefulness: defining gamification." Proceedings of the 15th International Academic MindTrek Conference: Envisioning Future Media Environments. ACM, 2011.
4. Every student needs to earn a specific amount of point per unit (6 points). Your gamertype will dictate which responsibilities you will have for each unit to earn your points and concern the discussion board for each unit but also the Gamifying Courses Wiki Page:
Killers Quizzes: Quiz 1, Quiz 2, Quiz 3
Finding Gamified Experiences
1. Read and Review the Game Design Worksheet and complete it to analyze your examples of real-world examples of game design.
2. Add your two examples of game design to the Gamifying Courses Wiki Page.
Discussion and Reflection
1a. Use the following rubric and discuss the following prompt in our Gamify Course Design Group Discussion Area: Reflect on the different game design types. Did any examples surprise you? What activities have you engaged with in the past that you now realize may have gamified elements? What gamified elements are you thinking of adding to your course? What do you think of the five gamified design steps? Are there any that you would add or remove? Why or Why not?
1b. Complete Self Assessment of your discussion board activity using this template and then turn the information into a blog post.
2. Create a blog post for your reflections this week on your personal blog (as shared on the learner profile page).
Extended Resources
Next Steps
Continue on to Unit 3: How Do I Gamify?
Go Back to Unit 1: Why Gamify?
Back to Gamifying Course Design