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Implementation of Gaming and Simulations in the Learning Environment | Origin: EL115

This is a general discussion forum for the following learning topic:

Gaming and Simulation in Online Learning --> Implementation of Gaming and Simulations in the Learning Environment

Post what you've learned about this topic and how you intend to apply it. Feel free to post questions and comments too.

Before I design a game, I will ask the following questions to make the course more direct for learning:

  • What is your main reason for gamifying your course?
  • What are your goals?
  • What are the main benefits you expect to achieve?

Games are only beneficial if they complete what they set out to do. Games must be well thought out and designed properly in order to keep students engaged. Students become very frustrated when there is no flow.

 

Cooperative learning are learners working together to maximize their own and each other’s learning. It is best if the students are engaged in the game to learn.

 

Generally discussion is without peer pressure and working together 

I learned there are many free resources to create educational games for the classroom including Sploder and Kahoot.

I learned that people need motivation and ability to continue with a game; therefore, a game should be designed to address both in order to optimize what a student learns.

You should put as much effort and scaffolding in to he games you create or select, as you would a traditional classroom lesson or group lesson.

In order for all of the students to learn, the game must be cooperative as well as non-repetitive.  The students must work together and the game should be different every time so the students will not get bored with it.

I learned that games motivate learners based on Flow theory, which concerns managing challenge, control, performance criteria and feedback. There are six elements that can be manipulated to achieve this, includiing world design, system design, content design, game writing, level design, and user interface design. The more immersive a game, the more likely it is to engage learners. There are free and low cost applications available to create games and immersive worlds. Collaborative games must have controls in place to ensure teams members participate equally or according to their roles or skills. 

I've learned the correct questions to pose before designing or allowing my students to participate.

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As I study each section I find myself more curious about popular games such as fortnight and World of Warcraft. Games that also facility team play have also peak my interest. I'd like to investigate the feasibility of using these games for instruction. However, Minecraft education fits the requirements for implementation into a high school classroom.

Reply to Ebony Lovingood's post: I really like the three questions Ebony :) -

A top takeaway from tis section had to do with finding the blance in randomization of content -

too little and the players lose interest and too much and we could lose the student and have no relaible info for discussion 

 

The main takeaways from this module are games can be quality learning tools to enhance the online environment and further develop student engagement with the content, the instructor, and their peers.  The course designer/instructor will need a clear vision of what they hope to accomplish with the game, ensure it supports the learning objectives, there is a firm grading rubric, and the desired outcomes are clearly outlined. I also believe the time commitment and game difficulty level needs to be appropriate for the course.

One of the barriers to incorporating games into the learning environment is the cost of the games. Instructors can overcome that barrier by creating their own games with free game development software.Going to have to look into this!!

I learned about a few options for developing my own games. 

The experience of the learning game is important, it is imoportant to design in a way that learners can acheive a state of flow. Free software exists for game design, as cost can be a barrier. 

In this section, there is one area that I believe that everyone needs to review and know because the three challenges of collaborative gaming are important to know and to highly consider when creating your e Learning Collaborative Game.

 

NOTE: THIS IS A QUOTE FROM OUR LESSON.

Three Challenges of Collaborative Gaming;

  1. "To avoid the game degenerating into one player making the decisions for the team, collaborative games have to provide a sufficient rationale for collaboration. One technique used to avoid this pitfall is to give the players different roles and abilities so that optimal game-play depends on good coordination and decision making on the part of the players. Another technique is to make the problem sufficiently difficult so the players need to work together to solve it.
  2. For a game to be engaging, players need to care about the outcome and that outcome should have a satisfying result. If players do not care about the outcome, then they are not motivated enough to help each other or improve on their performance. If players find the outcome to be unsatisfying (either boring or random), they are unlikely to learn anything, understand the consequences of their actions, or want to play it again. Games require a good narrative and flow to be entertaining to the players.
  3. For a collaborative game to be enjoyable multiple times, the experience needs to be different each time and the presented challenge needs to evolve. People learn skills through practice. To put in more practice time, they need to be able to repeatedly play the game."

I find the notion of creating my own games daunting, at best. However, it's also interesting. I'm reasonably confident I can gather pre-existing resources and adapt them to fit my courses. Especially in a postpandemic world, I expect there to be some great resources available for educators to maintain technology integrations. 

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