Gamification in Instruction and the Management of Intersubjectivity in Online University Courses

Abstract

Technology integration with twelve online undergraduate and graduate courses over four semesters provided the occasion for experimenting with effective ways of managing student learning at a distance. Students had online access to the publicly available applications used for communicating and coordinating activities with each other. Gamification principles guided some of the course procedures, such as a point system, feedback, awards and penalties, social networking, team tasks, individual options. A theoretical framework is proposed for understanding how to manage instructional intersubjectivity for students meeting online. Student thinking and motivation is observed to be higher under conditions of intersubjectivity in comparison to doing the same tasks alone. Learning from each other through participation promotes intersubjectivity when the instructional strategy installs technological affordances that keep each student informed of what the others are doing in context, and how they are reacting or responding to each other.