How to gamify?: Example scenarios for participation in synchronous online learning

Abstract

Participation in synchronous online learning is an increasing need for students’ learning outcomes. Teachers generally cannot be sure about the fact that students who are seen in the participation lists are really following the online tasks. Recent studies have shown that gamification can be an effective way to support learners’ participation in the tasks. This study intended to suggest sample scenarios in line with using gamification elements in online learning environments. Two basic scenarios were developed considering the properties of online learners’ characteristics and gamification elements. First scenario giving learning responsibilities to the learners includes a puzzle activity. Second scenario presents a block-building activity including the leaderboards. The suggested model includes some new ways of using awards, reputation, badges, levels, and leader boards to provide an attractive learning environment. It is hoped that suggested scenarios can provide learning opportunities via increasing participation in synchronous learning environments.