The Gamified Course
A great way to create sustained engagement throughout a unit or semester is to turn the entire course into a game. In the gamified course, a student's success in the coursework influences their success in the game. On this page, you'll find a few pre-built games ready for your use, as well as some instructions and guiding principles for designing your own game.
Ready-to-Play Games
Create Your Own Games
In a gamified course, you create a game that is played over one unit, several weeks, or even an entire semester. The game is designed so that a student's work in the course influences the game. For example, imagine a simple race game in which players must make it to the finish line to win. Every class in which a student arrives on time, you move their piece one step forward.
That's a very basic example to show how games can be used to incentivize action in the classroom. A good game will be a little more complex, allowing players the chance to make in-game decisions that really matter. Our race game could go one step further if, instead of following a straight path, students had to navigate a maze to reach the finish line. Now, they have a decision to make with every step they take. To make the decisions even more exciting, you might add some perilous short cuts to the maze. Players can take a shorter path, but it has some sort of obstacle that they can't bypass unless they roll a 5 or 6 on a die. That, in a nutshell, is the gamified course. Explore the next tab to see how you can get started. |
If you haven't already, explore some of the ready-to-play games linked above. They will give you an idea of what a game looks like when designed for a course. As you check them out, take note of the fact that with a few slight modifications, they could be played completely free of a course, just like you'd play Monopoly or UNO.
The next step is to decide what sort of game you want to create. If you're new to game design, then keep it simple at first. Think of some of the classic board games you played as a child--notice how simple the basic rules are. Take Sorry for example. At it's core, Sorry is just a race around a square with a few added layers of complexity:
Here are some ideas of different types of games that you might want to create:
Draft the rules to your game, keeping them as simple and straightforward as possible. If you can fit everything you need onto one page, such as in Race to Space, all the better. While designing the rules, you can also start sketching out your board or other visual display needed for the game.
The next step is to decide what sort of game you want to create. If you're new to game design, then keep it simple at first. Think of some of the classic board games you played as a child--notice how simple the basic rules are. Take Sorry for example. At it's core, Sorry is just a race around a square with a few added layers of complexity:
- You have to pick which piece to move.
- If you land on an opponent, you send them back to start.
Here are some ideas of different types of games that you might want to create:
- Resource Management. Players have several different resources (such as lumber, gold, and food). They must make decisions to use and gather their resources effectively. Zombie Survival, linked above, is an example of a resource management game. Classic examples include Monopoly and Settlers of Catan.
- Race to the Finish Line.The most classic sort of game, in which players must move from start to finish in order to win. Think games like Chutes & Ladders, Candy Land, and Trouble. The game detailed above, Race to Space, also falls into this category.
- Strategic Combat. Games like Risk, Stratego, and Chess fall into this category. Players have control over forces that are used to eliminate the opponents forces. Generally, a player wins by eliminating all enemies or capturing a specific objective.
Draft the rules to your game, keeping them as simple and straightforward as possible. If you can fit everything you need onto one page, such as in Race to Space, all the better. While designing the rules, you can also start sketching out your board or other visual display needed for the game.
In this sense, "board" is a relative term. Really, what you need is some means to display the game to your students. In Race to Space this is a game board created using a table in Google Docs. In Zombie Survival, it's a simple score sheet created using Google Sheets.
Creating your board in Google Drive is handy because it allows you to easy share it with students via a link or even by embedding it into your learning management system. However, if you're not tech savvy or just don't feel like learning a new piece of technology, feel free to go low-tech with your board. Instead of an electronic scoreboard spreadsheet, you could just use a small portable white board. Or, for a traditional game board, you could buy some poster board, grab your Crayola markers, and release your inner ten-year-old.
However you choose to track the progress in your game, make sure it's something that you're comfortable with and that you can easily display to students. If they can't see the results of the game, it won't do much to motivate them.
Creating your board in Google Drive is handy because it allows you to easy share it with students via a link or even by embedding it into your learning management system. However, if you're not tech savvy or just don't feel like learning a new piece of technology, feel free to go low-tech with your board. Instead of an electronic scoreboard spreadsheet, you could just use a small portable white board. Or, for a traditional game board, you could buy some poster board, grab your Crayola markers, and release your inner ten-year-old.
However you choose to track the progress in your game, make sure it's something that you're comfortable with and that you can easily display to students. If they can't see the results of the game, it won't do much to motivate them.
The whole point of gamifying your course is to boost student engagement and motivate students. So once you have your game drafted, start thinking about how you can bridge the logical gap between course and game. To do this, think of the sorts of student behaviors you want to encourage, and then think of ways that these behaviors can be rewarded in the game. Here are a few examples to get your creative juices flowing:
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What NOT to do
Notice that in all of the examples above, the course influences the game, rather than the other way around.
You don't want to make the players' actions in a game influence their success in the course, because it leads to unjust grades and sour moods. Avoid the temptation to award the winners of a game extra credit, a free late submission pass, or similar course-related rewards. The fun of playing a game should be reward enough.
If you really want to give the winners something, you can always print out certificates for the winners or record their names in a leader board for all future classes to see.
You don't want to make the players' actions in a game influence their success in the course, because it leads to unjust grades and sour moods. Avoid the temptation to award the winners of a game extra credit, a free late submission pass, or similar course-related rewards. The fun of playing a game should be reward enough.
If you really want to give the winners something, you can always print out certificates for the winners or record their names in a leader board for all future classes to see.
If it's your first time ever running a course as a game, take a deep breath and relax. The point is to have fun, and even if you aren't a master game designer, your students will appreciate that you aren't just teaching another boring class--that you are at least trying to make things fun.
Expect problems. No game is perfect in its first rendition. Tell your students that they are the beta testers. Ask for their feedback, and use it to make the game better the next time. If you notice 8 weeks into the semester that things aren't quite working, then declare a winner, adjust the rules, and start a fresh game.
Most importantly, have fun. If you aren't having fun with the game, your students won't either. Let the game ease the tension in what might otherwise be a high stakes course. A relaxed learner is a better learner, so spend five minutes a week killing zombies, racing spaceships, or whatever else it takes to calm your students' nerves.
Expect problems. No game is perfect in its first rendition. Tell your students that they are the beta testers. Ask for their feedback, and use it to make the game better the next time. If you notice 8 weeks into the semester that things aren't quite working, then declare a winner, adjust the rules, and start a fresh game.
Most importantly, have fun. If you aren't having fun with the game, your students won't either. Let the game ease the tension in what might otherwise be a high stakes course. A relaxed learner is a better learner, so spend five minutes a week killing zombies, racing spaceships, or whatever else it takes to calm your students' nerves.