Monique Lundstedt Gamification Applied to Education Intro We are all natural game players. Playing games begins when we are babies playing peek-a-boo, and continues throughout our lives. No one remembers the first time they played a game, but the joy of game playing is something that stays with them throughout their entire life. What are games? Johan Huizinga argues that play is older than culture itself and is something that all humans and even animals instinctively know how to do (1938). In this seminal text, Huizinga states play has five characteristics: it is free, both its locality and duration is distinct from ordinary life, it is not real life, it establishes order, and there is no profit to be made from it. He also introduces the concept of the “magic circle” which is the space that is designated for the game during game play. In video games, the magic circle refers to the virtual world that encompasses the physical space in which the game is being played. If those in the same space as the game play are not participating in the game then they would not be included in this magic circle. Building on Huizinga’s work, Roger Caillois expands play into four distict categories: (Alea (chance), Agon (competition), Mimicry (role playing), and Illinx (which translates to "whirlpool") (1961). Growth of games The popularity of games play has only increased since the advent of video games. There are currently an estimated 500 million global gamers that spend at least an hour online every day playing games, and an additional one billion gamers will be added over the next decade (McGonigal, 2010) It is estimated that in countries with a strong gaming culture, by the time today's youth turn 21 they will have spent 10,000 hours gaming online. In the United States children who have perfect attendance will spend 10,080 hours in school from fifth grade until high school. When taking Malcolm Gladwell's 10,000 hour theory of success into consideration, which hypothesizes that success is a result of practicing for approximately 10,000 hours, it appears that once children in the United States turn 21, they will be gaming experts (McGonigal, 2010). If students instead took this time to play an educational game, students could become experts at the skills they acquire in the game and potentially develop new skills. Games in Education Games not only have potential to enrich students on an academic level, but also create engagement, motivation, and emotional development as well. In a study titled “The Future of Education,” 70% of teachers found incorporating games in the classroom increases motivation and engagement. Of these teachers, 60% report that using games helps personalize instruction and 62% say that games in the classroom make it easier for them to reach a wide range of learners (The Future Of Games In Education, n.d). In a middle school in Japan students who played games with characters that showed positive emotions often showed more positive emoitions themselves (The Future Of Games In Education, n.d.). Other studies have shown that even if players were beaten at a game, after playing a game with someone they like them more (McGonigal, 2010). What is gamification and gamified learning? Games can be applied to education through gamification and gamified learning. Much confusion has arisen over the difference between the two. In 2010 the term “Gamification” began to gain popularity, but it was originally coined in 2002 by Nick Peeling (Park, & Bae, 2014). Gamification is “the process of using game thinking and game mechanics ” (Zichermann, 2012) while gamified learning is playing an educational game (Gamification of Education, n.d.). Figure 1 outlines the differences of games vs. gamification. Figure 1 Game Gamification Games have defined rules & objectives May just be a collection of tasks with points or some form of reward There is a possibility of losing Losing may or may not be possible because the point is to motivate people to take some action and do something. Sometimes just playing the game is intrinsically rewarding Being intrinsically rewarding is optional. Games are usually hard and expensive to build Gamification is usually easier and cheaper Content is usually morphed to fit the story and scenes of the game Usually game-like features are added without making too many changes to the content (from Gamification of Education, n.d.) The mechanisms that are implemented in order to “gamify” an activity are called game mechanics (Simões, Redondo, & Vilas, 2012). Figure 2 outlines six common game mechanics and their associated game dynamics. “As game mechanics are the rules and rewards of the game, intended to evoke determined emotions from the players, game dynamics are the desires and motivations leading to those emotions” ( Simões, Redondo, & Vilas, p.348 ). Figure 2 Game Elements Game Mechanics Game Dynamics Points Reward Levels Status Trophies, badges, achievements Achievement Virtual goods Self expression Leaderboards Competition Virtual gifts Altruism (Simões,Redondo, & Vilas,2012) An example of gamification can be seen in Sweden when gamification was applied to their speed cameras. As part of a contest called the “Fun Theory,” Kevin Richardson proposed that instead of using the speed cameras to only ticket people for speeding, it would be used as a lottery system. Those who passed the speed camera going the speed limit and under would be entered into a lottery where the winner would receive the proceeds collected from those who were ticketed for speeding. In Sweden the price of a ticket is determined by the size of your income. This plan was implemented and at the points of origin there was a 20% reduction in speeding (Zichermann, 2012). An example of gamification in business can be seen with companies like Rypple. Rypple is a social performance platform that is cloud-computing based. Rypple provides real-time feedback, continuous coaching, and recognition. Not only does Rypple provide feedback to employees, but it also allows businesses to capture what areas its employees excel in. This reward system that is utilized is an example of applying game mechanics to a process. Though digital technologies are used in this process it is not a video or board game (Rypple, n.d.). An example of successful use of games in the classroom can be seen in Minnesota. Ananth Pai, was the teacher of a failing class of third-grade students. He redesigned the curriculum to include the use of Nintendo DS' and computers. Pai then purchased off-the-shelf educational games for these platforms and used them to supplement reading and math. Within 18 weeks, students went from failing third grade to being at a fourth grade level for math and reading (Zichermann, 2012). Benefits In many classrooms grades are determined by awarding grades for assignments completed by the student. This grading system follows a grading scale where A is the highest grade achievable and F is the lowest. In contrast, gamification when applied to education rarely uses this grade mechanic. Instead game mechanics are applied. This includes awarding experience points, badges, and levels. This grading game mechanic encourages students to not fear failure. Because the fear of failure has been removed, students are more likely to examine causes and effects. It is in this examination that they will learn as much from failure as they would from being correct (Kapp, 2012) Methods All game development requires a deep understanding of the user and a technical skill set that will support the execution of the project. At the beginning of this project I did not possess a deep understanding of the user and I was lacking some of the necessary skills. In order to gain an understanding of the user, I completed two online courses. The first of these was Digital Creativity in the classroom. This class was offered by Adobe on edex.adobe.com. As the name implies, in this class I learned how to incorporate digital creativity into a classroom. In addition to this, through my interactions with fellow classmates on social media and the courses’ website, I was able to gain insight into educator’s frustrations with education and learn their creative solutions for some of these problems from educators around the world. The second course I took was Entrepreneurship 101: Who is your customer? offered by MIT on edx.org. Through this course I learned how to identify my target audience and their needs as well as how to develop a product that took these needs into consideration. The skills that I identified that I lacked that were need to complete the project were knowing how to develop educational technology and writing code. To gain the skill of how to develop educational technology, I completed two courses; Design and Development of Educational technology and Introduction to Game Design. These two classes were conducted online by MIT on edx.org. Through my interactions with fellow classmates on social media and the courses’ website, I was able to gain insight into an educators perspective on educational technology from educators around the world. I took online tutorials through codeacadmy.com, udemy.com and tutsplus.com to supplement my understanding of writing code. The education that I gained was then applied to this multi-media learning system. I created, an e-learning system that utilizes multiple forms of media in order to appeal to a larger number of learning styles. The project uses gamification and gamified learning to engage and keep the interest of the learners as discussed by McGonigal (2010), Zichermann (2012) and Kapp (2012). The story line for this system is, cryptids are really aliens here to observe earthling and take what they have learned back to their planet in order to help them survive a drastic climate change. It is a first person role playing game where the player is the cryptid. The cryptid that was used for this thesis project was the abominable snowman. The design of this character has been anthropomorphised to make it appeal to the target audience (see appendix C). The design of the system was inspired by travel posters that were used as advertising in the United States of America from 1936 to 1943 (see appendix D). The simple lines of this design aesthetic make it well suited for an educational technology. The simple lines will provide a clean backdrop for the educational material being presented and will not interfere with its message (see appendix E). The prototype that was created for thesis project can be found at http://astroagents.businesscatalyst.com/. To bring a deeper level of understanding to the material and increase the user’s motivation, the following gamification techniques have been incorporated into the educational system; points, levels, trophies, badges, achievements, and virtual goods. This system includes: an illustrated science experiment, an animated science experiment, a video game, and a printable game. These elements work together to create a gamification educational system that contains two educational games. The subject matter for this learning system will focus on physical science. The focus of the lesson for the prototype created for this thesis project is melting ice. The players are able to interact with the media in any order they choose, but it was designed to be interacted with in the following order: illustrated science experiment, animated science experiment, printable game, video game. The illustration and animation are designed to supplement each other. The reason for this is that the game is designed to appeal to as many types of learners as possible. By making the science experiment animated and illustrated, the game will be appealing both to visual and auditory learners. The player will be able to print off a field journal that will act as a place to keep their score and to document the results of their science experiment. This game system was created using the following software: Adobe Muse, Adobe InDesign, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Edge Animate, GameSalad, and Adobe Premiere Pro. The website will be formatted for Google Chrome, and Firefox. The gamification of this learning system will engage the learners because the design of this system is governed by the following models: ARCS Theory of Motivation, Malone's Theory of Intrinsically Motivating, Instruction and Lepper's Instructional Design Principles for Intrinsic Motivation (Kapp, 2012). ARCS theory of motivation stands for Attention, Relevance, Confidence and Satisfaction. This acronym describes the elements of the theory that I will utilize. Attention refers to grabbing the user's attention. There are many ways this can be achieved, including asking the user a question, or presenting the user with a problem they are interested in solving. Relevance refers to establishing the relevance of the material that is presented. Confidence refers to the user's confidence that they are able to accomplish the task successfully. Lastly, satisfaction refers to the satisfaction of the user. This satisfaction is gained from feeling the information that is being taught has value and that it is worth their continued effort (Kapp, 2012). Malone's theory of intrinsically motivating instruction consists of three key elements: challenge, fantasy, and curiosity. According to this model these are the three elements that make a game motivational. The challenge element is dependent on the game having goals that have uncertain outcomes. If it is definite that you will succeed in the goal then the game is not challenging. This is also true if it is certain that you will fail. Fantasy is defined as “evokes mental images of things not present to the senses or within the actual experience of the person involved.” In this context curiosity refers to the user's curiosity (Kapp, 2012). Lepper's instructional design principles for intrinsic motivation is a model that focuses on how to promote intrinsic motivation so that extrinsic motivation may be avoided. Intrinsic motivation is behavior that is executed because of the learning that is gained, the feeling of accomplishment that is achieved, or the enjoyment that is received . Extrinsically motivated behavior is behavior that is executed in an effort to avoid punishment or to receive an award. The first principle of this model is the control that the learner feels over the learning activity. The second principle is that an activity is continually challenging to the learners. The third principle is that the activity appeals to the learners' curiosity. The final principle is the presentation of the material in a fantasy context. This material should be presented in a way that highlights the functionality of the activity, if possible (Kapp, 2012). The development of this system will continue after the completion of the prototype for this thesis project. The next phase of this project will test for quality assurance. Quality testing is scheduled to begin Fall 2015. This will be done by testing the user experience, website speed, accessibility, navigability, analyzing user task completion and readability as outlined in Mashable's article 22 Essential Tools for Testing your Website's Usability. The user experience will be evaluated by interviewing test users. During these interviews the test users will be asked about the usefulness of the site, their enjoyment level, their positive emotions and their level of fulfillment after interacting with the site. I have commitments from one elementary teacher and one junior high school teacher to test this project in their classrooms in fall 2015. The speed of the website will be determined by testing the webpage response time and evaluating the file size. The accessibility of the website will be evaluated by testing that the color choices do not effect the readability of the site for those who have poor vision or are colorblind, cross-browser/ cross-platform compatibility and HTML markup. The site navigation will be evaluated by looking at the efficiency of the navigation, how easy it is to find what you are looking for on the page, and evaluating the information architecture of the website. Analyzing user task completion will be done using the following criteria: learnability or how easy it is to learn how to use the website, intuitiveness, will it easily recover in the event a mistake is made, how often errors occur, efficiency, how easy it is to repeat a task, and ease of using interactive elements. Readability will be evaluated using three criteria: the legibility of the website, the ease of comprehension and the overall quality of the writing. References Caillois, R. (1961). Man, Play, and Games . New York: Free Press of Glencoe. Gamification of Education. (n.d.). Retrieved October 9, 2014, from http://badgeville.com/wiki/education Huizinga, J. (1938). Homo Ludens . Haarlem: Tjeenk Willink. Kapp, K. (2012). The Gamification of Learning and Instruction: Game-based methods and strategies for training and education . San Francisco, CA: Pfeiffer. Kapp, K. (2012). Games, Gamification, and the Quest for Learner Engagement. American Society for Training & Development . McGonigal, J. (2010, February 1). Gaming Can Make a Better World. Retrieved October 7, 2014, from http://www.ted.com/talks/jane_mcgonigal_gaming_can_make_a_better _world ?language=en Park, H., & Bae, J. (2014, January 1). Study and Research of Gamification Design. March 14, 2015, http://dx.doi.org/10.14257/ijseia.2014.8.8,03 Rypple. (n.d.). Retrieved October 12, 2014, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rypple Simões, J., Redondo, R., & Vilas, A. (2012). A Social Gamification Framework for a K-6 Learning Platform. Computers in Human Behavior, 345-353. The Future Of Games In Education. (n.d.). Retrieved October 1, 2014, from http://edudemic.com/games-in-education/ Zichermann, G. (2012, April 27). Keynote Gabe Zichermann at TNW2012 The Next Web. Retrieved October 10, 2014, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdUclLUDxRg Appendix Appendix A Thesis Timeline Date Accomplishment 10/23/14 First Draft video game design outline and printable game outline 11/20/14 First draft Youtube script and at least science portion of comic book or graphic novel script (more of subjects will be included as time permits) 12/20/14 Final Draft video game design outline and printable game outline. Game character final design. Final draft Youtube script and at least science portion of comic book or graphic novel script 01/20/15 Beta video game of at least science portion of game (more games will be available as time permits), beta printable game, and final draft of comic or graphic novel 02/20/15 Beta test results and Youtube video 03/01/15 Completed project: Youtube video, at least science portion of comic or graphic novel, printable game, and at least science portion of video game. Prototypes of the video games for the subjects that were not completed will be included. Appendix B Thesis Budget Item Software $35.00 a month Time 720 hours Appendix C Appendix D Appendix E