[game_edu] curious

[Steve Rabin]

I think you need to make a distinction between "theming" your class like a game and using "gamification" to motivate students. There is overlap, but I think the brilliance of gamification is to use the tricks learned from games to motivate while staying true to the original framework (like a college class). Theming a class like a game, with power ups, lives, or whatever, seems rather gimmicky and feels to me like it just cheapens the class. However, if you can somehow use the concepts developed in games (or psychology for that matter) without being so silly or overtly patronizing, then I think you might have something powerful.


Here is something that I developed in the last year that I just have to share because it works so amazingly (perhaps more related to psychology than gamification):

96%-98% class attendance guaranteed!
It's the Fibonacci Attendence Policy of Doom (TM).
If a student is absent 1 time, they get a 2% deduction to their final class grade.
If a student is absent a 2nd time, they get an additional 3% deduction (total 5% at this point).
If a student is absent a 3rd time, they get an additional 5% deduction (total 10% at this point).
If a student is absent a 4th time, they get an additional 8% deduction (total 18% at this point).
If a student is absent a 5th time, they get an additional 13% deduction (total 21% at this point).
etc...

I teach the game AI class at DigiPen and it's a 3-hour class once a week for 15 weeks. With this new policy, I get attendence of 48 or 49 students out of 50 enrolled, every class. How do I check attendance? I pass out a sheet of paper at the start of class and at some point during the class I have a class activity that involves putting something on the paper. They put their name at the top and I collect it at the end of class. If I don't have their paper for that class, they get deducted the points.

It seems harsh, but it works like nothing else I've ever tried.
Why does it work? -> LOSS AVERSION + mounting losses

It is very painful to lose points - much more so than gaining points (finding from economics and decision theory: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loss_aversion). And since it stacks and grows, the pain becomes unbearable. Students also realize that they may have to miss a class in the future, so they better save their first (-2%) penalty for when they really need it.

Anyways, if you want full class attendance, then this will work. I've done it for the last 3 semesters and believe it or not, people don't fail the class due to attendance - they make damn sure they go every time... (or they drop the class)

-Steve Rabin



-----Original Message-----
From: game_edu-bounces at igda.org [mailto:game_edu-bounces at igda.org] On Behalf Of Tom Toynton
Sent: Saturday, April 28, 2012 9:39 AM
To: game_edu at igda.org
Subject: Re: [game_edu] curious

I have been refining a positive feedback point system with levels and achievements in my introductory course for the past 2 years, and am working on implementing it into the Capstone experience for the coming year. I have used it at various levels of complexity with some excellent results, but find that excessive game vocabulary creates a large barrier of entry for non-game dev students. This is an issue since my intro course is also taken by other majors for 'arts as catalyst' gen ed requirements. That will change in a couple of years, but for now I have to keep it scaled back to help all students with their understanding of the course structure. (e.g. last fall I renamed all of the resource and discussion areas in Blackboard to things like The Town Crier, The Great Library, The Bard's Tavern, etc, and some non-game students really struggled remembering what was what. It essentially breaks the basic rule of interface design and forces the user to relearn the interface - which can be overwhelming to some of our students. If I keep the names standard to what other courses use, it frees up the students to focus on understanding the point system and other course changes - which is already a big leap for many of them.)

My one major change to what Sheldon is doing is the number of points in the system. Studies in the Psychology of motivation suggest that people place more value on higher numbers. So doing an assignment that is worth 5 points out of a total of 100 is deemed less valuable that doing an assignment that is worth 500 out of a total of 10000 - even though the relative values are exactly the same. And although I don't have any quantitative proof (outside of my fiddling with the numbers over 4 semesters), I believe there are diminishing returns on any number over 1,000. So I now build all of my assignments around a point system that ranges from 250-1000, with some very special assignments/experiences worth as much as 1,500 out of a total of 30,000. But even these numbers aren't final, and I plan on lowering them a bit more for next fall and see how it works out.

One cautionary tale I would like to share about using a points system:
The first semester I tried mimicking standard RPG level progression. So students leveled up quickly in the beginning, and slowed down as they climbed higher in level. That definitely didn't work well, as students thought they were doing really well in the beginning even if they weren't doing all of the assignments, and then got frustrated with their slowed progress towards the end of the class. So I now keep it extremely simple, for them and myself, and make it 1 level per 1,000 experience for every level.


As for teaching gamification, it is a small part of the serious games section of my intro course, and will be covered in more detail in the special topics "Serious Games" course that is running in the fall. But that is it. On the experiential side the most I do is give students the opportunity to suggest changes to the gamification of the intro course during the last week of class for bonus experience.

Outside of my classes, I know of one two-year program that is doing something phenomenal. It is at Camden County CC in New Jersey, and the program is run by Ryan Morrison from Island Officials. The points and leveling up system happens throughout the entire two years in all game courses, and during graduation the students are called up for their diploma not only by their major, but also by their class and level. This should be the first year that students graduate this way, and I am excited to hear how it goes. Getting buy-in by the administration for such a major change is really impressive. I know my college would never go for it. But can you imagine the college dean calling students up... "Kate Smith, Associates in Applied Science, Game Design and Development, and 19th Level Sorceress!" How cool is that?!

Cheers,
Tom

Tom Toynton
  Assistant Professor of 
     Game Development
  Faculty Advisor for 
     Alpha Chi
  Bloomfield College
  467 Franklin Street
  Bloomfield, NJ 07003

--------------------------
-----Original Message-----
--------------------------
Date: Mon, 23 Apr 2012 09:49:16 -0400
From: Susan Gold <goldfile at gmail.com>

Do you know of examples in education using gamification as incentives or grading? Of course I already know of Lee Sheldon's example but am looking for others. Also, has anyone added sections on gamification to their courses? 

Thanks in advance,

Susan

_______________________________________________
game_edu mailing list
game_edu at igda.org
http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_edu