Too cool for school?: The effects of gamification in an advanced interdisciplinary course

John Penley,Laura Cruz

doi:10.14434/jotlt.v3n2.12991

John Penley, Laura Cruz

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.14434/jotlt.v3n2.12991

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Abstract

Gamification is a subject of a great deal of conversations and advocates believe that the familiarity of gaming to the current student population gives it considerable potential to transform teaching and learning. The research literature presents a more ambiguous view and it remains to be seen whether or not gamifying instruction can significantly strengthen student learning outcomes. This question forms the basis of the current study, which focuses on an extensive gamification exercise applied in an upper-division interdisciplinary course. To phrase it colloquially, this research asks whether or not gamification is too cool for school.

Highlights

The study asked consenting students to provide researchers with copies of all course materials related to the gamification exercise and to complete a short survey regarding their perceptions of learning through gamification
In order to take advantage of gamification’s concept of persistent narrative structure, and to more elegantly tie the activity to the major themes of this interdisciplinary course, the Capitalism Quest for Knowledge was couched in terms more common to games than in traditional review assignments: “questions” became “quests,” “modules” of questions became “quest lobbies,” each characterized with the name and visage of a luminary from the history of capitalism (“The Karl Marx Lobby,” “The Adam Smith Lobby”)
Perhaps the only, central conclusion that seems to characterize all pedagogical studies is that certain teaching methods or approaches may be better suited for particular disciplinary, institutional, demographic, or individual contexts

Summary

Introduction

The study asked consenting students to provide researchers with copies of all course materials related to the gamification exercise and to complete a short survey regarding their perceptions of learning through gamification. In a traditional review exercise, students begin at “Question 1” and proceed with the assignment until completing “Question 34.” While there are linear games, a nonlinear structure provides more opportunity for players, or in this case forty-three university students, to interact with the assignment; input and response are some of the most basic gamification attributes that can be applied.

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Conclusion