Driving to the Finish Line

This past week I finished up the content for the Gamification  Design Framework module and started doing more research to finish up the Game Elements and Player Types sections. After creating the frameworks section I realized that I really needed to approach game elements from the perspective of motivation, which I only briefly addressed when I first set it up. Almost every article that I read addressing game elements and motivation referred to Daniel Pink's book Drive. After watching his TED talk  I realized that in order to do this topic justice I should probably read the book. Since it is the last week of the semester and I have lots of grading to do I am not going to be able to read the book right now. Based on this I decided to declare myself done for the semester. I plan to finish up grading and set up my summer class this week, take a week or two off then start reading drive and revisiting the sources that I found and see if I can't pull together the Game Elements and Player Types sections. I have some great ideas for what to do with it now, I just need to pull it all together.

Reflection

I have learned so much this semester about gamification and building a course from the ground up. There is still a lot of work to do to get it into shape but we have come a long way. For every article that is referenced in the course there are probably 4 or 5 that I read for background and decided not to include. I have also played games and watched hours of videos. I am very excited to see how this all comes together and I think that when it does it is going to be great.

The Future

Although the semester and practicum are done, the course and the learning are not, so I will continue to work on this until it is complete. I will finish the Game Elements and Player Types modules and finish creating the assignments. Molly and I will need to put our heads together to figure out how to make the course feel like a cohesive unit, but that will have to happen when everything is there. We also want to gamify it, so we will be applying what we have learned. The hope is that the program will have enough students that this can be offered as an elective by Summer 2017, so there is a deadline, but it is a reasonable one.

Moving Forward Slowly

When I wrote the last post, I was counting down what needed to get done to finish out the semester. I created a list of what I was wanting to get done with the goal of checking items off of  the list. The list was as follows:

• Create crossword puzzle for terms
• Build elements list - address extrinsic and intrinsic motivators
• Figure out how to add my experience using game elements in my class to the uses section
• Develop the User Types section
• Finish adding the "looping" assignment to the rest of the sections where it belongs
• Create the assignments for the frameworks/tools section
• Find more examples of uses in elementary school to the Uses section
• Address loyalty cards in the Uses section
• Create the Tools section of the Gamification Design Framework and Tools module

 I wish I could say that I have crossed some of the items off of the list, but that hasn't happened yet. I have been reading, researching and brain storming. I think that the reason that I left many of these things to the end was because I wasn't sure about the best approach for presenting them. Also, it is easy to get caught up and carried away when researching some of the tools that are available. I think that at this point, I am just going to compile what I have for some of these sections, then walk away for a little while. Coming back with a fresh set of eyes will be a good thing. I have been thinking like a teacher as I find and organize the content, and I am quite happy (although a bit overwhelmed) with what I have found. I think that taking a few weeks off, then pretending that I am a student will help me to figure out how to order things, what is missing and what might be too much information. Trying to find a balance between the different uses for gamification and the different interests of the potential student is the goal. If we can pull it off, I think that this will be a great course. I want students of the course to be able to walk away with a lot of good ideas and some potential ways that they can apply what they have learned to what they do.

The End is in Sight

Ok, if I have to be honest, the end isn't actually in sight, but the end of the semester is, and my list of what I hope to get done for my share of the course development is a list that fits on one page. Last week was a productive week and I was able to finish most of the Gamification Design Framework section. Of course, my research on frameworks led me to new information that will need to be added to my elements and and uses section, but I always intended this to be an iterative process.

Meeting with Molly

Molly and I were finally able to meet on Monday and it was a great meeting. As with so many of our meetings, the course evolved yet again. Molly has found so much great information on simulations that the section has become quite large. I am sure that she will run into the same situation for the rest of her "Gaming Towne" module which includes frame games, serious games, class games and virtual worlds before she gets around to introducing gamification. Our original plan (or at least the most recent one) had use introducing content for the first half of the course, then having them do a gamification project for the second half. At the meeting we decided that that probably wasn't the best approach. There is so much great material that we decided that the course would be better if it looked at games and gamification and ended with a case study where the students get to apply what they have learned. By exposing them to so many different options, there is sure to be something that will appeal to everyone.

An Interesting Break

After the meeting I took a few days off to work on my portfolio for the OTID program. It was a lot of fun to go back and look at all of the assignments that I have completed for the degree. What was even more interesting was that I had forgotten how many times I explored games and gamification when I had a choice in the earlier courses. I actually found a lot of information that I can use in the course including the fun cartoons included here.

What's Left

As I mentioned earlier, I have compiled a list of what I have left to do to "finish" my practicum work. I plan to do my best to have everything on the list  complete by this time next week (although realistically it will probably be next weekend). Here is the list in no particular order:

• Create crossword puzzle for terms
• Build elements list - address extrinsic and intrinsic motivators
• Figure out how to add my experience using game elements in my class to the uses section
• Develop the User Types section
• Finish adding the "looping" assignment to the rest of the sections where it belongs
• Create the assignments for the frameworks/tools section
• Find more examples of uses in elementary school to the Uses section
• Address loyalty cards in the Uses section
• Create the Tools section of the Gamification Design Framework and Tools module

Ok, now that I have typed it up, it will most likely take me two weeks to get it all done. At that point I will have completed my first pass at the content that I was responsible for. Molly is still working on hers, so there won't be much left to do until all of the content is in there. One thing that I really want to do once I have  put everything in there is walk away from it for a while then come back and try to look at it from the perspective of a student. It is all too fresh right now, so that will be a summer project, as will figuring out how everything will come together. Something to look forward to.

Pulling It All Together

The Uses of Gamification module is "finished." It has come together quite nicely and I think that it is going to be very helpful for those interesting in gamification. I put "finished" in quotes because as I was researching I book marked a lot of pages that have examples of people using gamification. As I put the module together I went back through the pages that I found. I actually had a lot more pages than I realized, so I have been going through them a few at a time trying to decide whether to include them or not. I still have more that I want to go back and look at, so I am doing a little when I can. I stopped the focused effort because I do have plenty of examples, and I wanted to move forward. If I end up not adding any more, it shouldn't be a problem.

Gamification Design Framework and Tools

The gamification design framework and tools module is what I am currently working on. I am in the process of reading (or re-reading) the sources that I have found in my research. I already have quite a few that I know that I want to use. The challenge for this section is that it really is the culmination of everything that they have learned up to this point, but all of the content hasn't been developed yet, so I will include what I can and we can modify as needed. Today was a heavy reading day. Most of my reading has been about gamification design frameworks and approaches to gamification. This was alot of research based and more scholarly looks at the process. Tomorrow I intend to play around with gamification tools. I will be looking at classroom gamification tools, gamified, learning management systems, and tools for businesses to gamify. I will read about and watch videos for tools that cost money and play around with free tools. I am struggling a little with what kind of assignment I will use for this, but I hope that I will figure it out once I start playing. The following video shows a little bit about ClassCraft, which is one off the tools I will be exploring.

Classcraft from Classcraft on Vimeo.
I have already compiled a lot of resources on this topic. I have been adding them as I come across them when researching my other topics. A big part of what I will be doing this weekend is compiling and organizing.

Where Do I Go Next?

When I finish this section I will be done-ish with the parts of the course that I am responsible for. There are a few things that still need to be entered or created, but the main ideas and content is there. My writing style is significantly different from Molly's so I have been focusing my efforts on compiling information and getting a strong sense of what I think that the students should learn.  My modules are more practical, while Molly's are more theoretical. It is really important to me that students have a strong sense of how to gamify something (what they are gamifying will vary depending on their area). Getting from an understanding what gamification is to how to do it is a challenging, and there is a lot of very general, top level information  out there which isn't all that helpful.

I will be meeting with Molly on Monday and we will talk about what is next. We will need to figure out how to make what I have done work with what Molly is creating. From what I can tell, she has a big picture in her mind of what this will look like.  My next step will be trying to figure out what I need to do to align what I have done with what Molly is doing, or what I can do to help her. I know that she has been overwhelmed this semester. We will also need to figure out what finished is going to look like. Lots to think about...