Gamification: Theory and Applications in the Liberal Arts

Benjamin Balak and Connor Neve (Rollins College, FL)

I see and I forget

I hear and I remember

I do and I understand

(Confucius)

● 1st generation gamer (1976: Star Trek on IBM 360)● UNC-Chapel Hill: love of teaching + education tech● Econ education is worse of the worse:

irrelevant, doctrinaire, boring, anti-experiential● Solutions:

○ Content: HoT, methodological pluralism, heterodoxy○ Form: teaching experiments, media, role-playing

● Rollins (2002): finally did my homework on pedagogy

10 years using computer games

● Reading Benjamin Bloom (1956):○ Gaming industry uses sophisticated pedagogy○ Schools don’t (not my kids nor my workplace)

● Learning by playing is not new:○ Zoology, anthropology, psychology○ Mind games: Socratic elenchus, debates

● Hierarchical opposition (Victorian?): serious work / frivolous play

Overarching Insight:

● Key: the fun IS the learning○ NOT learning delivered in a fun way

(edutainment)○ learning in context:

■ Encyclopedic vs simulation (Zoo Tycoon)■ Textbook = manual without the game (Gee)

● Hard to compete with almost $100 billion industry○ Plenty of great games (I have a wish list!)○ Not labor-replacing: teachers absolutely needed○ Debriefing, modding/customization, guidance, ...

Educational or commercial games?

● Primarily Civilization (since v3 now at v5 + 2 expansions):○ Over 200 discrete concept with multiple interconnections!

■ Lot’s of work by Kurt Squire■ Games in Education: September 2013 Special Issue of

Transformations (esp Todd Bryant and Ed Webb)■ Ed Webb’s Seminar: Games in Education: A Classroom

Perspective (Oct 17th, 2013)● Also MMORPG: World of Warcraft (aka “g33k crack”)

○ Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game■ WoW in School■ Foreign language potential: immersion (e.g.)

Which commercial games?

● 1st in economic history elective (freedom to experiment)

● Ever since: Economics in Historical Perspectives○ Rollins Economics Curriculum:

■ ECO 202: Starts with history (empirical)■ ECO 203: Traditional “mic-mac” (theoretical)■ ECO 204: Alternative Perspectives (method)

● Twice in freshman seminars: Deus Ex Machina: Social Evolution in Virtual Worlds*

* the most pompous name for a course ever ;p

Which courses using games?

● See CIV General Comparative Analysis document● A comparative analysis between:

○ Simulation processes and outcomes○ Real world: history, institutions, processes, ...

● BTW: This is what is done in professional research using simulation methodology (Santa Fe, complexity)

● Variations:○ Write in epic prose (role-playing)○ Group work encouraged

What do we actually do?

● Broad enthusiasm for history (say no more!)● Reaching upper cognitive levels of learning (Bloom)● Higher retention (Dale)

○ in subsequent major/minor courses● Experience economic concepts

○ Personally (ownership)○ Meaningfully (in context of decision making)○ E.g.: consumption vs. investment

● Systemic and strategic sophistication

General Results:

Bloom’s Taxonomy (1956)

Edgar Dale’s Cone of Learning

● Hard to push students from the virtual world to the real world (semantic spaces)

● Nevertheless:○ Even students who resist develop high levels of

sophistication in the analysis of their game-word● Effective only with good debriefing

○ Like any experiential learning○ maybe why distance learning is generally awful?○ Potential for gamification to contribute

However...

● CIV multiplayer (pilot this summer)○ more intense use○ in-class play (social epiphenomena)

● Other games: Expand use of MMORPGs○ As social laboratories○ Behavioral economics○ Finance

● Simulation methodology: MMORPGs and Netlogo?

Further Developments

>>> Q&A>>> Poll #1Have you had any experience with using games or simulations in education?[] None[] Some[] Lots[] I play games but not in education

Since last summer so 3rd iteration/generation (see syllabi): 1. Summer 2013:

● Economics, Media, and Propaganda2. Fall 2013:

● Economics, Media, and Propaganda● Deus Ex Machina: Social Evolution in Virtual Worlds (WoW)

3. Spring 2014:● Economics in Historical Perspectives (CIV)● Economics, Media, and Propaganda (now “Blended-Learning”)● Senior Seminar in Economics (individual research capstone seminar)

To be definitely continued...

Gamifying the Entire Course

>>> Prezi… over to you Connor

http://prezi.com/gyo9_kunzsdr/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share

● 3D GameLab (3dgamelab.com)● 1st fully gamified LMS● Individually affordable ● Thus possible for isolated faculty to try

http://portal.3dgamelab.org/

Learning Management System

● Like games but applicable to entire course● Most student love it for the best reasons:

○ Flexibility:■ Time and Space■ Learning styles ← VERY important

○ Feedback: quick, specific, clear○ Security:

■ Low risk--can resubmit until accepted

Preliminary Results

Technological change is not at moment of invention● Change in social relations (social science)● Change in the human experience (humanities)

Consider the steam engine: 100+ years from invention to wide adoption● Desktops are “19th century clerical metaphors” ● From FB to mobile devices: interface design is gaming-driven

Games are leading tech innovation (under-recognized)● Impacting social relations and the human experience (web2.0)● Massive parallel processing of information (“dashboards”)● Culture: most smart kids are avid gamers-- the new hochkultur● of course there’s lots of junk; like when the novel was “invented”

The “Information Revolution” has just barely started

>>> Q&A>>> Poll #2Does any of this make sense?![] None[] Some[] Lots[] In theory yes; but technology is being used as a cost-cutting racket in education!

● Difficult without dedicated institutional support:○ tech support○ surprisingly tech-illiterate students○ BUT: provide practical job-skills

● Solution:○ Undergraduate TAs (Buffalo State)○ Collaborative / Guild elements and quests○ Active participation: “figure it out!”

● Working with students as co-researchers

The Political Economy of Gamification

● Difficult within a traditional institution’s system:○ Experimental, evolutionary, and even anarchistic

pedagogical ethos (oh my!)○ Grading structure

■ unfamiliar culture of trust and cooperation■ flexibility pushes me to bottom of to-do list

○ Popularity: gamified courses draw students○ Lack of economies of scale

Stay calm and give up control...

● Lots of bad blood in many (most?) institutions today● Technology in education is caught between:

○ Administration rhetoric:■ MOOCs, blended, flipped, …■ Gimmicky? PR driven?■ Labor and property rights?

○ Faculty intransigence:■ Luddites? sticks-in-the-mud?

● Is it political, cultural, generational, irrational?

The battle lines are drawn!

Resistance IS very understandable:● Most distance-learning IS awful● Many worrisome developments in higher education● Push to cost-cut and a sharp decline in the faculty● Problem with ownership of the curriculum

> web2.0: public content → private profits● Problem with monopolistic power

> MOOCs vs Distributed Open Collaborative Course see Fem Tech Net + Shared Academics here.

A hard sell to many faculty

● Teachers must be in control of teaching (tech ethos)● Winter is coming (faster than you think!)● Gamification in particular:

○ Labor-ENHANCING not labor-REPLACING○ Unlike:

■ traditional distance learning■ MOOCs■ even blended learning (to an extent)

On the other hand

We better grab the bull by the horns or it will grab us by the _____.

TYVM. >>> Q&A