game on! motivating with badges at michigan state university | online learning consortium 2015

Game On!Motivating with badges at Michigan State University

Emily Brozovic | Instructional Designer, Michigan State University

Earn a badge• Tweet something learned using #MSUbadge

• Tweet me (@emilyjbro) your session feedback

• Mystery badges? Maybe!

Emily Brozovic | Instructional Designer, Michigan State University

Hi, I’m Joe Grimm.Sorry I couldn’t be here today.I’m sure Emily will do a fine job showing you what we did.I’ll pop in now and then with some tips.

Ok, maybe not everyone, but I digress.

We love them…

We eat them up…

It’s a thing!

Take it away, Emily!

THE COURSE‣ Focused on professional carer branding

‣ SUGGESTS badges as credentials

‣ Many pass/fail assignments

‣ Taught face-to-face, initially

THE HOOK

“You earned a badge!”

DETAILS‣ Elective

‣ Fully online

‣ Summer semester (7 weeks in length)

HYPOTHESISBadges will motivate students to score more than the minimum number of points needed to gain a 4.0 for the course.

Challenge(s)

Challenges (pedagogy)

1. Create a new learning incentive

2. Increase student engagement/interest/fun

3. Progressively elevate the difficulty

4. Reward participation and timely submissions

5. Teach by example and brand the course to MSU

Challenges (technology)

1. How to award badges inside our LMS (Desire2Learn)?

2. No existing badge platform at MSU to build from

3. Each student could earn their own combination of badges, at any point in time, and in any given order

illustration from Design for How People Learn by Julie Dirksen

End Goal

Students have a consistent and professional online presence covering a variety of outlets

illustration from Design for How People Learn by Julie Dirksen

illustration from Design for How People Learn by Julie Dirksen

illustration from Design for How People Learn by Julie Dirksen

illustration from Design for How People Learn by Julie Dirksen

illustration from Design for How People Learn by Julie Dirksen

Students have choices along their path

Ways to get there

illustration from Design for How People Learn by Julie Dirksen

illustration from Design for How People Learn by Julie Dirksen

Students are assessed along the way to know they’re heading in the right direction

Checkpoints

illustration from Design for How People Learn by Julie Dirksen

This course had checkpoints in total19 badges

Everything you need to know is in the Boy Scout merit badge handbook.

Cheese Badge (5) Post the same profile photo on your Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook accounts. (I also use my profile photo on Pinterest, Cover it Live, YouTube, this course, etc.) The photo should be professional. There should not be other people in the photo (say, someone's ear) and it should be in focus and well exposed. Yes, you can be creative. Photographers might want to include a camera in the photo. A restaurant critic might want to be peeking over a menu. Be creative, but stay classy.

Lesson Be deliberate and consistent in how you convey the most visible element of your brand: your face. Do not just use something you have hanging around. You take some time to write a resume; do the same with your image. !

Benefit A consistent image helps people recognize you and draw a connection among all your career tools. We are not looking to build a trademark look, but consistent messaging that helps people recognize you.

THE ‘HOW’(how I hacked D2L to fit our needs)

“My Badges”

module full

of badges

Did students work for badges?

1. 130 maximum points possible

2. Collect 90 points to earn a 4.0

3. Of 15 students enrolled, 2/3 went beyond 90 points

4. 6 students earned more than 106 points

SIRS scores* were higher on 17 of 18 measures, compared to another course taught online that semester by the same professor. On the 18th metric, the scores were tied. !

*lower scores are desired*

Did they like it?

SIRS average in badging course:

Did they like it?

*lower scores are desired*

vs. 2.16 in other online course

1.69

‣ Student’s general attentiveness 1.50 vs. 2.25

‣ Instructor’s receptiveness to new ideas 1.66 vs. 2.58

‣ Student’s opportunity to ask questions 1.77 vs. 2.83

‣ Appropriate amount of material 1.62 vs. 2.41

‣ General enjoyment of the course 1.55 vs. 2.25

Largest SIRS benefits

*lower scores are desired*

NEXT STEPS1. Considering use of badges in other types/sizes of courses

2. Looking to conduct A/B testing on section of course with badges vs. section without

3. In early testing stages of badging platform at MSU badges.msu.edu

Emily Brozovic | Instructional and Graphic Designer, Michigan State University

Earn a badge• Tweet something learned using #MSUbadge

• Tweet me (@emilyjbro) your session feedback

• Mystery badges? Maybe!