GAMIFICATION & GAME BASED LEARNING

MMORPG & Serious Gaming

MMORPG & Serious Gaming: Features

• 3D, graphics, audio rich, detailed stories
• Interact with others  + join guild/clans
• Move within virtual environment
• Quest-based
• Gain items and/or status

before we begin...download runescape

• Go to: http://www.runescape.com/
• Click on “Play Free Now”
• Click on “Download Runescape”
• Click Run & then Complete Download
•  Desktop Icon, Create New Account, Play!

Games & Higher Ed

• Gamers average age: 30
• Gamers over 18: 68%

Games in higher ed

• Tasks become stimulating challenges
• Students who show dedication & efficiency are rewarded
• instinctive leadership skills become apprent
• help stimulate dopamine production

How are games used in Higher ed?

• used as tools to help evoke change (Jane McGonigal)
• virtual simulations of real situations (concepts applied)

Games in the Curriculum

• Incorporate game mechanics in curriculum
• Supplement curriculum with games
• Have students produce games

MMORPG: Educational Value I

• appeals to multiple senses / multiple intelligences
• Experience environments linked to study area
• Exploration or roles & identities
• Communication skills, social interaction, collaboration 
• Failure part of learning

MMORPG: EDUCATIONAL VALUE II

• Challenging & Improvement (ZPD)
• Increased motivation and agency
• Reward & recognition (social, psychological, virtual)
• Think like scientists 
• Tasks adapted to individual skill levels

MMORPG produce Lifelong Skills

• Strategic and critical thinking
• Goal setting & planning
• Resource management
• Decision making & problem solving
• Multi-Modal literacy 

Can video games make you smarter?

Example Games

World of warcraft I

• Guilds, Community & Collaboration
• Missions & Quests
• Identity Construction
• Social Learning & Global Scale Interaction
• In-game Currency

Wow characters talking about educational value

wow integrated in the curriculum?

• “Warcraft: Culture, Gender and Identity”
• Citizenship, language, technology
• Gender, stereotypes, subjective culture
• Personal & group identity
• WOW as the class environment

Urgent Evoke

• Missions based on real world issues
• Objectives: LEARN, ACT, IMAGINE
• Document mission completion online
• Example: save someone who's hungry

Civilization: The Game

Civilization:Educational?

• can introduce concepts and tie together periods in history
• partake in social & economic processes
• global perspective & hypothetical history
• history as product of changing, interrelated forces

Lord of the rings

Moonbase Alpha I

• NASA establishes settlement on Moon
• hit by meteorite 
• role of astronaut
• limited time to repair equipment

Moonbase Alpha II

• virtually experience lunar landscape
• use NASA technology
• exploration training to prepare for mission
• collaboration & efficiently using resources  

Critical Mass or Chemistry: The Game I

• Purdue University
• underground lab - beneficial product
• robots took over - dangerous product
• help scientists & save planet

Goals of Critical Mass/Chemistry: The Game

• lower anxiety around subject 
• empower students 
• assess concepts that need to be reviewed
• generate excitement
• learn chem/science can be wielded for good or evil

YOUR TURN TO PLAY!

Runescape

Let’s START Playing! --> instruction recap:

• Go to: http://www.runescape.com/
• Click on “Play Free Now”
• Click on “Download Runescape”
• Click Run & then Complete Download
•  Desktop Icon, Create New Account, Play!

Your Challenges

• Create your character
• Discover your character’s abilities / Determine your purpose
• Learn how to navigate through the land
• Geographically orient yourself
• Talk to other characters

YOUR PROCESS

• Was it intuitive to begin playing?
• Do you know what you are doing?
• What are the challenges for you?
• What did you pick up easily? What was difficult? 
• How can you teach yourself how to play?

DISCUSSION AND REFLECTION

• What are your impressions?
• Do you believe there is value in gaming?
• What are the connections between game & instructional design?
• How would you integrate MMORPG in your class?

brainstorm & try: game integration in the classroom

• STEP ONE: Examine course objectives
• STEP TWO: Play and explore games
• STEP THREE: Think about the logistics and access.
• STEP FOUR: What type of learning task will the game be?
• STEP FIVE: Align the learning task with course objectives.

thank you / references available on the course wiki