The Gamification of Learning

What on earth is "gamification?"  It has been bandied around all over the internet in forums to do with education, training and corporate culture.  I am going to tackle this topic here and provide an overview.  Then at a later date I will create a page with more detailed discussion on the topic - feel free to add any suggested sources to the comments area.

How many adults said to you when you were a child being coerced into doing something you don't want to do (ie eat up your  mashed potato or tidy your room!) - "lets make it a game?"  This is a very common ploy that humans use to avoid boredom or even depression.  If we make the leap to an education or training situation, the bulk of adults are undertaking education and training because they need to in order to better their situation, usually economically.  And it is also common practice to liven up the learning process with a few fun activities and games.  Gamification is really this, but it has gone one step further by taking elements of the science of the online gaming industry and applying it in education and training settings.

Here is a joke example that digital technology expert has created that turns life itself into a video game:





This is a depiction of a totally immersive game you might get in a virtual environment such as Second Life. It is not always possible to provide such an immersive experience in education and training but elements of gaming have been found to be good teaching practice.

 Applying gaming principles to learning

Using the principles employed in gaming educators and trainers have tapped into the secrets of
gaming design that keep people engaged even when they are not winning.Chris Riedel, in The Journal  cites Katie Salen from the Institute of Play, setting out 6 guiding principles of gameplay that can be applied to any learning environment:

1. Everyone can participate. Games, said Salen, create opportunities for collaboration and community, where everyone has the chance to participate and contribute to the outcome.
2. Challenge is constant. Games provide a context where participants are continually challenged and confronted with increasingly difficult problems as they progress.
3. Feedback is immediate and ongoing. Whether they are progressing through a level or stuck on a specific problem, games provide a continuous feedback loop that lets players know where they stand.
4. Learning happens by doing. According to Salen, we are more likely to learn by actually completing a task than simply reading about a concept or theory.
5. There are many opportunities to fail up. As players progress through a game, said Salen, there are many situations where they fail at a task multiple times in order to gain enough knowledge and skill to actually succeed. "Failure does not need to be a negative thing," she insisted. As educators, we should be asking ourselves, "How do we create opportunities in our curriculum for students to fail up?"
6. Solving problems builds expertise. Similar to failing up, the more problems students solve, said Salen, the more expertise they gain and, in turn, are able to share with their peers.

She says the goal is to make learning "Irresistible" and provides a link to a website called Playforce ,
an online community where teachers and parents share educational aspects of gaming.  Other resources for gaming in education mentioned are GameKit and SimCityedu.

Here is a great slide show on some of the things gaming can contribute to education and training:

10 Things We Know About Video Games for Learning from Karl Kapp

A great blog on learning games and gamification is one by Yu-Kai Chou.  He talks about multi-sensory learning, and how multiple intelligences are exercised in learning games.  His Gamification Framework, Octalysis is made up of 8 "arms" or elements that can be used to engage people, as in the diagram below which is from the above blog entry:

 

 

 The Quest to Slay the Dragon

One of the biggest lessons educators can take from "gamification" is the principle of "failing up" as opposed to just failing or failing down.  In our education system, too often a fail or a not-yet-competent spells the end of learning and also  often the end of obtaining qualifications and a job.  At the very least, it represents a huge and negative sruggle on the part of a learner to get through a course of training or study. However within a computer game, you never really fail in that way.  Everything you do is a quest, and along the way you are collecting trophies, reaching levels, and even if you are stuck at one level for quite a while, you never really feel as though you are failing.  It is more seen as a question of practicing until you achieve mastery.  Gamification of education involves tapping into this culture of mastery.  Rewards built in along the way in a quest for knowledge and skills, and there is no feeling of failing, only "failing up" by obtaining sufficient practice to go to the next level.

Badging for small achievements in education and training is now being tried by some practitioners.  It is possible to create certified badges of achievement of small steps along the way in a learning program, that can be added to the learner's resume or portfolio and used to promote their achievments for employment or promotion.  Credly is a website to which you can subcribe, where it is possible to create and issue badges.  It is also available as an iPhone app which can be used to both create and issue badges.

Please feel free to comment on any experience you have had in gaming and how you think it might work applied to education and training.

Research on the 321 Tools

The list of useful tools for teaching and learning just goes on and on, and the page I provided a link to in my last post was to a grand total of 321 tools for e-learning.  This can be quite overwhelming to busy lecturers who are just trying to meet the needs of students on a day to day basis as well as satisfying the growing number of audit and admin tasks!

So I thought I'd sift through the 321 in the list and try to make sense of it, and this blog is a summary of anything I thought particularly useful, as well as links to particular websites that have extremely good value tools.

 Infographics

The first section of the list is entitled "Free Tools to Create Infographics For Teachers" - what is an infographic? (I imagine a chorus here).  As far as I can tell an infographic is a digital graphic comprising images and text, that is a shorthand way of putting across a complex set of information or concepts.  Here is an example of an infographic about internet use:

 I have inserted infographics about relevant topics on other pages of this blog if you want to look at other examples (the resolutionis not good for this one as it is actually just a thumbnail rather than the actual infographic).

Infographics can be simple charts, but often they have a great deal more information and include images and some text - they are designed to grab attention and get the person focused on some key information.

In the list of websites provided in the "321 list" for infographic tools, there are some that are mainly chart creators, including diagrams and flow charts as well as others that will do a bit more, similar to the one above.  One that I think is particularly interesting is Chartsbin which enables you to create interactive maps instantly, online, with no installation and no coding requirements.  It works with iPad and iPhone and they are working on an app for other devices.  I have not explored it fully but I am guessing that by "interactive" they mean you can create some kind of point and click activities on maps.

Text to Speech Tools

In the list there are 19 free text to speech tools.  These may be of interest to anyone teaching people with low levels of literacy, or English as a second language, or possibly people with a disability such as sight impairement.  Some of them simply convert text on a screen to speech but others have additional features such as avatars.

Digital Story Telling Tools

Digital story telling is a fun way to get students to demonstrate their skills and understanding, and also a way you can get across information in a more engaging way than a straight lecture or block of text.

There are 21 apps listed for this.  I found MakeBelief Comix the most straight forward and easy for creating simple non-animated cartoons on the web and sharing them via email or social networking.

MapSkip looks intriguing, making "the world a canvas where we can share our stories and photos" - it has a map of the world and I gather you can add your own stuff there to tell a story about where you were born, have lived, have travelled etc.  A great one for the LLN people!

There are many others that look really fun and exciting, all free - so I encourage you to explore them all and decide for yourself which you would like to try.

Podcast tools

Podcasting is broadcasting audio or using audio to transmit content in your e-learning.  There are 15 podcasting tools which enable you to record audio, upload it and share it.

Audacity is the one I use all the time to record and edit sounds.  It is a good cross-platform program that allows you to edit sound then export it as MP3 which is a file that is easily shared.

The others allow you to do this but they also have features such as the ability to upload to a platform for sharing and providing a continuous feed to specified recipients.

Survey, Polls and Quizzes

We have access to quiz and survey creations on our Blackboard LMS.  However if you want to try something different and possibly more engaging, there are 27 options in this list.  Survey Monkey is the most well known and it does have a free version.

PollDaddy is another popular site.  The list includes a number of web-based form-creation sites, including FormsontheFly

Again, it is a matter of exploring and finding the ones that you may like to try - if you see a place for surveys and quizzes in your delivery, this may be of interest to you.

Screen Capturing

Have you ever wished there was an easy way you could just photograph or video your computer screen when you are trying to help a student located away from campus?  This list has 17 free screen capture tools that will do just that.  I often use CamStudio which isn't listed here, but it seems to download and run fine on my work PC.  It will capture either a still photo of your screen, or a video clip of your screen and if you have a headset with a mic, it will capture your voice.  So you could create mini lessons on how to use certain applications on your desktop, and upload these to Blackboard or share in some other way.

I haven't looked at those on this list, but there is sure to be something amongst them that will work for you.  I did find that ScreenR, which is very popular,  would not run on my work computer due to firewall and security issues. 

Social Bookmarking Tools

I will have come clean here and confess I have never really got my head around social book marking.  It is, I think, a way to organise all the resources and links you find valuable on the web, into categories that make it easy to find specified sites, and possible to share with groups of people that you wish to target.  They list 30 on the site, and I  have not tried any of them apart from Diigo,  which I do belong to but so far have not really used its full potential.  And I should, because my bookmarks are extremely disorganised!  Please, please, try some of them and help me use mine to better effect!

Online Bibliography and Citation Tools for Teachers

If you are engaged in university study, or if you require your students to correctly reference their work, these sites may be of interest to you.  There are 14 tools there and they may make it much easier for you to do in-text citations and end-notes, bibliographies and reference lists.

Sticky Notes Tools for Teachers

There are 13 of these apps listed here.  They can be used either for your own organisation, for note writing and reminders, or you can use them to collaborate with others.  You may find a good tool for your students to use to collaborate in projects.  Spaaze is an example of a sticky note page that has great additional features to make it useful for project management and collaboration. 

Google Note Board is a Google Chrome app which is not on this list, but it is one that seems to be really easy to use like a digital pinboard to share ideas and notes with others.

Photo and Image Editing

These tools are getting to be essential in an age when much of our teaching uses technology such as mobile devices or the web.  We are using our cameras and tablets to record using photos and video, and we are creating digital content that includes video and images.  So it is important to know about any apps that will help us do no-fuss editing and file conversion.  There are 30 apps listed here, and they include graphics creation and drawing tools, as well as simple editing tools.

If you look at back at a recent blog here, I had a link to a video created by Guy Truss of SW Institute of Technology, which had him drawing a graphic about e-learning as the focus for conveying concepts. He used his iPad on a stand to record this.  However, the video part of it could also be done using a simple digital drawing tool and screen capture to record. For example, CoSketch is a multi-user online whiteboard designed to give you the ability to quickly visualize and share your ideas as images.

Pixlr is the best web-based app I have seen for editing images.  To re-size, enhance or add effects to images, this is the easiest to use that I  have come across.  However there are many others in the list that do similar things.

GoAnimate is also listed, but it could just as easily have been included in the section on Digital Stories.  It is a great website for creating animated cartoon stories.

Quizzes and Tests

The 17 apps here have a slightly different focus than the list above that was mainly about surveys.  This list has tools to create games and quizzes for engagement and testing - check them out and ssee if any of them work for you.

Web Conferencing Tools

Very soon we will have a choice between Collaborate, GotoMeeting and our College Video Conferencing, as tools for conducting classes over the internet.  However you may like to explore the 15 free tools here for communicating on the web in real time, for future reference or in case you are working from home, or in an environment where you are unable to access our standard tools.

Authoring Tools

There are 15 tools listed here that are free apps for creating interactive learning materials.  Most of them do not require a high level of technical knowledge and are usually drag and drop with ready made templates. However I have tried some, such as EasyGenerator, which looks promising but I am having problems using it due to our Institute's internet security settings and the fact we have a proxy server.  Nevertheless I will try it at home and see how I go!

Royalty Free Creative Commons Music

Listed within the 321 tools are 34 sites that contain music that is free to use - good if you have created a digital story and would like to create atmosphere!

Free Stock Photo Sites

Once again, it is great to have access to galleries of free images for your learning content.  There are 17 useful sites listed here.  The licensing requirements are normally just that you link the image back to the website that owns it.

All Done!

That was a lot to work through so I hope my sifting activity has helped some lecturers and saved you some time.  Please feel free to comment below on anything you try and share your experiences!

Making e-learning a great experience for students as well as a good business model

 A workable E-learning Model?

All the research up to date suggests that e-learning needs to be engaging and have adequate interaction and support built in, for students to successfully complete a full course of study. There is a track record of high drop out rates in many courses and it is usually put down to a lack of these factors. So it is common knowledge that simply throwing course material into a Learning Management System is guaranteed to result in a high student non-completion rate.

I have found that one of the most successful models for e-learning is one on one coaching and mentoring using virtual conferencing, combined with self-paced study using materials available within a Learning Management System. The key is the one on one coaching. Without that, even if you have discussion forums set up for peer support, many people fall by the wayside. However this is not a good business model as it is labour intensive and costly. It also seems to encourage students to take extended periods to finish their course.  So what information is around about a model for e-learning that works from a business perspective as well as from a learning perspective?

I have researched this over the past week and have found a couple of useful resources to help us think about models for e-learning.  It is evident that there are no shortcuts.  However, investing a significant amount of work and capital in setting up a good e-learning program should pay off - the initial set up investment will lessen the need for continuous one on one coaching sessions, ensure the students complete learning programs in a reasonable time frame, and free the lecturer up to do  more development of learning materials and courses.

I found a free e-book published in 2009, "Delivering E-Learning," written by a well known e-learning specialist, Kenneth Fee, that is written in plain English and is a comprehensive guide to all things e-learning, including different models.  I have placed this e-book in my Google Drive for your consideration.

Here is a link to an article about the GEAR instructional design model (Gather, Expand, Apply, Receive feedback) which I believe gives us a few ideas about a blended learning model.  This article also has a link to an upcoming course by the E-Learning Guild (an American e-learning association) about "agile instructional design" which I think would be of great value. 

Ultimately, KTI teaching and management staff will need to come up with a solution that meets the learning needs of Kimberley communities while at the same time affording us a business model that works financially for us.  We can use resources like those above to  help us but it will be our unique solution that requires all KTI brains to work together!

Video Streaming

How many of you have grappled with the problem of giving your students or fellow lecturers access to video clips or even full movie-length videos when they are not on campus?  Video files are very large and take ages to load or refuse to load at all if you try to share them via email or even if you put them in a cloud-based storage site such as Drop Box, as they still have to be downloaded to the recipient's desktop.  Streaming of videos makes them run much more smoothly because they are downloaded in small amounts as they play.  But where can we stream videos?  Here are some possibilities I have researched and used:

YouTube

YouTube is the most well known solution for sharing video clips.  Some lecturers may be worried about security of intellectual property and privacy issues - however you can set the privacy of each clip you upload, at the time of upload.  The most practical option is "unlisted" - it won't appear on YouTube or come up in searches, but you can share the link with others, or use the embed code to insert the video into a web page or blog.  If it is listed "private" you will not be able to do this - you don't get an embed code and the link won't work for anyone else.

However YouTube is restricted to uploads of 300 mb at a time, and many clips are bigger than this.

Vimeo

Vimeo is like YouTube without the ads, and it also streams videos at a higher definition which makes for clearer and larger video windows.  The limit however is 500 mb per week.  Once you reach your limit you have to wait until the following week to share more.  Vimeo has the same options for privacy and sharing as YouTube

Brainshark

I discovered Brainshark this week, while searching for a streaming solution for the two hour workshops by Clive Moffat recorded by Access lecturer, David Broun.  I really like Brainshark!  You can upload 500 mb at a time, with no restrictions on how many, using their free On-Demand service in "My Brainshark."  The great thing about Brainshark is they have some great enhancements for teachers and learners.  You can add any attachment such as a Word document that could be an assignment, and it has a facility for creating a quiz at the end of the video, or adding slides of information and images to the video at the end.  So in other words this could be a complete lesson, created using video, slides and documents on Brainshark and available to students via  a link to Brainshark or embedded in Blackboard.

I would encourage all lecturers to try the free "My Brainshark" - if I get enough good feedback I would be advocating that KTI pay a yearly fee to have a portal which would be a platform for all videos and presentation produced within KTI (or legitimately obtained from other sources) - which would make it easy for lecturers to find resources such as videos, powerpoint presentations and even full lessons.

Some great free teaching tools

Browse this long list of web based tools and you are sure to find something you could use, from websites that enable you to create infographics and other types of graphics from data, to tools to create interactive maps, digital story telling programs, cartoon apps and many tools that you could use to create whole digital lessons with.  Here is the link to 321 free tools for teachers