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Reflection:

Gamification is an amazing tool if used correctly in a classroom; it can motivate, engage and keep students on target with learning and retaining information. Learning about Bartle’s character theory helped me understand the four types of players, i.e. killers, achievers, explorers and socializers. This is beneficial when categorizing the direction of game creation. Using a combination of character types also allows for a more broad approach to engaging players. One thing to keep in mind is that playing games can be both fun and educational at the same time. Improving a student’s performance is key to success.

Using gamification for students is a fun way to enhance the knowledge, skills and abilities through a less stressful environment. Students want to achieve more when they are playing for intrinsic or extrinsic motivations. Some students look towards the accomplishments and goals by receiving awards, badges and having their names on leaderboards. This will also promote active participation, social skills, and a sense of achievement while learning.

Armed with the strategies of how students learn and how students retain information better, enhancing a students experience using gamification is a step in the right direction for student engagement. Creating an experience that is memorable and pleasing is time well spent. The end result should show improvement on student progress.

1) Based on what you have learned this month from the reading assignments and projects, explain which should come first—designing the game for the learning or designing the learning for the game. Refer to at least one direct quote from this month’s reading assignments and cite your source(s).

Designing the game for the learning is forefront in the instructional design. First know and understand your audience and find out what the goal objectives are. A very thorough understanding of the content is essential to the creation of the game. The content and learning objectives should drive the direction of the game and then the game should be created with that intention. Forcing content into a game shell might not have the desired effects of engaging the audience if the main objective is not forefront. “We begin by addressing the theory and models that drove the design of the game, then describe how those theories and models led to specific game architectural elements.” (Dempsey and Reiser, 2012, pp. 324).

Gathering all of the information, instructor lesson plans, speaking with subject matter experts, good research and thoroughly understanding the subject is the first part of assessing the direction before taking action.  Knowing and understanding what the final goal entails, leads to a more efficient game design for better student engagement.

2) Referring to pages 321–322 in your book, Trends and Issues in Instructional Design and Technology, by Reiser and Dempsey, explain, in your own words, the difference between “playing a game” and “being at play.”

“Making play an objective of an educational game requires a paradigm shift for most designers – one that is very learner-centered and constructivist in nature. To understand this paradigm, you need to understand the difference between merely playing a game and being at play”. (Dempsey and Reiser, 2012, pp. 322).  Essentially, if a student is only “playing a game,” they are merely going through the steps of the game and finishing the game without entering a state of mind where they have been motivated by the engagement or by the end result of winning the game.  

When a student is “at play,” they are intrinsically or extrinsically motivated by wanting to win the game or absorbed by the game play and enjoy the thrill of the play. For students to be engaged and retain the information at the same time, they must enjoy the game, have fun and end up with retaining their learning objectives. For this to happen while they are having fun with the game, they must enter a state of “being at play.”

3) According to Trends and Issues in Instructional Design and Technology (page 322), a well-designed game supports learning. Explain how the games you designed in this month’s course meet those criteria.

This month I created games with the basic Marine Corps student in mind learning common skills concepts. Looking at the games and assessment that I created, the main goal was always to have fun while learning and retaining core knowledge skills that every Marine must learn.

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