Game on!

Game on!                                    CANCELLED
Pedagogical gamification and internal data analytics in the classroom.

Instructors:

Ahmed Yousof        Pennsylvania State University, Erie Campus

Nahla Abusamra        Indiana University of Pennsylvania

Description:

Gamification is increasingly popular in higher education.

Turning the classroom into a gaming environment is derived from Huizinga’s concept of the “Magic circle” in which the normal rules and reality of the world are replaced by the artificial reality of the game environment. The purpose of this workshop is to train the participants on designing a pedagogical digital game that help with motivating students in the class and at the same time offers the instructor enough data through which he/she can monitor the students’ progress. In this interactive workshop, the following questions will be addressed: What is gamification? How can the instructor design and create a digital gaming system for pedagogical and analytical purposes? Using Unreal Engine 4 and visual coding system (Blueprints), the participants will design and develop a 3D digital game that will turn the syllabus (i.e. learning objectives) into missions that form a game world. We will discuss tools that you can use to introduce gaming elements to motivate and engage students. The benefit of applying gamification to the classroom interaction is to ensure the sustainability of active engagement and motivation during the class time period. Some of the gaming elements that can be used in class are (but are not limited to): competitive rules, intrinsic and extrinsic compensation system, meaningful feedback, interactivity, and system of uncertainty.

By the end of this session attendees will be able to:

• identify the theoretical underpinnings of producing a 3D educational game
• produce a digital/virtual gaming environment where learning objectives in the syllabus will function as game milestones and mechanics
• recognize the strengths and weaknesses of classroom gamification and therefore tailor the gamified content to fit in with their subject matter.
• link the produced game into data analytics tools to help with performance analysis.

Interested?