Uses of Gamification

This week I have been focusing on the Uses of Gamification module for our course. While I have spent most of the past week researching specifically on this topic, it is really one that I have been learning about ever since I began learning about gamification. The most interesting thing to me is to see how it is being used and learning what worked, and what didn't. Learning about other people's experiences helps me to get ideas about how I might be able to use gamification in my classroom. Because of this, I have had a struggle this week with what to include and how to approach the topic. I have been going back through all of my previous research and doing new research as well. My development process has been iterative. I started with an outline of what I would like to include, then I fleshed out that outline with a little bit of content, then I went back through my sources and got online to try to figure out the specific details that I wanted. Two or three hours later I went back to my outline, filled in some gaps and moved to the next topic. After going through this process a couple of times, I finally felt like I had enough content to start putting it into Canvas, but then I was struggling with organization. There is so much information and it is hard to know what someone might find useful. Even as I have been entering it into Canvas I have thought of additional information that I wanted to include, and I am sure that will continue. Also as I researched this topic, I found information that would be useful in other areas. I added a great video to the Game Elements module. I have also gotten some good ideas for my Gamification Design Framework and Tools Module.

I am following Molly's organization method of making each section of the module an assignment, with the student required to make a short text submission after each. There is an introduction section, then 3 additional sections: Gamification in Business, Gamification in Education, and Gamification for Behavior Change. In each section I will describe how it is used, then give the students plenty of examples with the hopes of giving them ideas of how they might be able to use gamification in their situation. Here is a sneak peek at one of the videos that I am using for the Gamification in Education section: Classroom Game Design TED talk by Paul Anderson

I have really just started entering the content into Canvas, and am actually going to keep this blog short so that I can get back to it. Now that I have started I don't want to lose momentum

What's Next

Once the first pass of the Uses module is complete, I plan to begin working on the Design module. I already have some good ideas for that, but plan to do a lot more research this weekend. My hope is that that module will be constructed by this time next week. It is fun to see this coming together. I am learning so much in the process of creating this course. Hopefully I will have a chance to use it in the future.