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I remember sitting in my Economics class during my undergrad feeling incredibly uninspired.  During my 3rd year, I had a chance to take an Economic Development course with a professor who inspired student collaboration through team based papers and presentations.

7 years later, I was teaching my own Economics course and wanted to provide my students with the same level of excitement I had felt through collaboration but I wanted to infuse it with the gamified, instant gratification students were getting used to.

I infused Kahoot into my classroom for my economics quiz and it was a huge success! So successful in fact that I decided to run a little study.

I was teaching two sections of ECON 100. In one section, I would give the students a quiz using Kahoot and after the quiz, I would spent 5-7 minutes explaining the answers to each question and students would take notes.

In my other section, once they finished the quiz, my students were separated into Team Based Learning groups where they would retake the quiz but collaboratively. The students who retook the quiz again in the collaborative group on average scored 3 percentage points higher then the other class!

This is my only real exposure to GBL but it would a remarkable experience and I look forward to continuing with it.

Awesome work team, what a great OER!

Aaron Friedland

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At my organization (Pharma), we have designed the Serious Gaming solution for our front line technician where they would play this game to learn the skills to identify risks in vaccines manufacturing and provide solutions to overcome them. They play this game on their own, but the feedback is being provided by their Managers. The managers can also monitor their progress and the decisions they have taken and guide them through the game.
Our game also allows collaboration between the employees but for now we have not activated this feature as it would be a little more stress on the learners.
We have also incorporated reward system (awarding Bravo points that allows them to buy food coupons for various food outlets) at every level that motivates them getting further and also making the right decision. Since this is skill-based games, therefore, we have incorporated negative marking for any wrong decision. We manufacture vaccines, any wrong action can lead to millions of $ going in drain. Therefore, we take this training very seriously.

The benefits that we have seen in our employees are:

1. Stimulates the mind

2. Improves self-esteem

3. Applicable to the real world (their job)

4. Permanent personal development

5. Immediate Feedback

6. Interactive and Collaborative learning

It was indeed an expensive project and we did get lots of help from external vendors and it took us almost 2 years to launch it.

Zain

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I have used both gamified incentives and game-based learning in my classes and find they are of great benefit. Students have always been engaged and active during these activities. For example, in my introductory coding class I have students play Code Combat () to learn the basics of Javascript (JS). Learners direct their hero through a quest by writing code to problem solve different puzzles to move through the levels. I guess they technically don’t exactly write Javascript but they write character statements, events, conditional loops, and more. They use the JS syntax to move their character as they would program objects on the DOM (document object model of HTML).

Learners really enjoy GBL. They are having such a good time that they don’t really realize that they are being introduced to one of the course outcomes. Many of them continue to play the game beyond what is asked of them in class. I really see the benefit of GBL particularly for the students who have grown up being exposed to GBL objects most of their lives. Thanks Dora the Explorer!

Until reading these pages I didn’t really think about the differences between gamified activities and Game-Based Learning. I have used Kahoot in the classroom for exam reviews. It opened my eyes to the benefits of gamification as I had never seen learners have such a good time reviewing for a quiz!

--Tanya Weder

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I remember playing this game for hours with my two older brothers. I remember loving being a detective and trying to solve the mystery. When I was in elementary school we used to use "Edutainment" games to learn how to type. The games taught basic information and skills in a drill format. To be honest, I learned how to type when MSN messenger game out, but I'm sure some of that basic skill was from the typing drill games that we had to play in computer class.

-Kat

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I have enjoyed using games within my classroom and on my own to help improve my own learning. Kahn academy (https://www.khanacademy.org/) is something I do with my students regularly that adds a fun element to their learning. I typically use this as a reward and it seems to motivate students to complete their work to a better quality. I believe that game based learning can be a powerful tool to keep students engaged for a longer period of time. I believe that having more course work based on games can be just as valuable as doing bookwork if done correctly.

-Marshall H

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I have always loved the idea of incorporating games in the classroom. However, I am wary of using a game just for the sake of using it, without a necessary and clear connection to my course, and falling into the trap of resorting to the game as filler in class. The one game I find useful is ZType (or any other typing game, really). I think the reason why I like using a game like this for my course is because the game is NOT the focus. My kids don't spend a lot of time in class playing, but I use the game as an extra-curricular augmentation to some of the skills (typing and reading) that are necessary to the course. By using ZType here and there - and throwing in a slurpee for the highest score - students are engaged and encouraged to pursue an aspect of their learning at their own pace.

Scott P.

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Unfortunately in the classroom the most technological equipments we used were overhead projectors and VHS. Fortunately though we had a computer and Learning English products were very popular. My interest was more towards languages that does not use Latin Alphabet so I bought two CDROMs that include video, sound clips as well as funny games to teach me Japanese and Greek. It is interesting that the foundations of learning Greek laid on these days lead to today, me living in Greece and speaking this language that I have been introduced many years ago.

---Ebru

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The digital learning spectrum of my childhood :)

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The digital learning spectrum of my childhood :)

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The GBL History slideshow was very much a trip down memory lane, and I have fond recollections of playing many of those MECC titles. My elementary schools in the late 70's/early 80's had several Apple 2c's and 2e's and we would often played Lemonade Stand or the Oregon Trail in pairs or trios. Looking back, the collaborative decision making and problem solving that occurred seems as valuable as the content that we were working with.

I was also fortunate enough to work with the late 80's/90's generation of games, such as Carmen Sandiego and the various "Muncher" titles, when I worked in a public library computer lab during high school and university. Again, while there was tremendous engagement with the kids who were playing the games, the greatest amount of learning seemed to occur when groups of children played the game together.

Having been a teacher and IT facilitator now for 20 years, games in school still hold a place of interest for me. The various iterations of SimCity, Civilization and other Sid Meier games definitely had elements that creative teachers could apply to explaining complex concepts such as economics. The current use of Minecraft, both in elementary school and secondary, continues this and offer so many creative learning opportunities, ranging from math and social studies to entry level 3D modeling. But based on my earlier experiences (and now somewhat supported with a bit of zone of proximal development knowledge) , I almost always encourage staff I am working with to have the kids approach the games in pairs.

Thanks!
Jonathan Nilson

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As a child, I was never exposed to any type of gaming system or electronic games (we didn't even have a tv). My only exposure was from the Arcades that almost every mall had. As a result, I never really saw the value in them until my children were born. By this time, technology played a large roll in my personal as well as professional life. They played a lot of games using the cd-roms on our pc. Our first game system wasn't purchased until my son was 12 years old in 2006. As a teacher, I used a math learning game (I can't remember it now) where the students had their own logins and worked through levels within the game. The game provided me with learning analytics (although I was quite skeptical of the results as I watched some of the students "beat" the level and still not have an understanding of the concept). My only foray into GBL is a group project I was part of in 510 where a GBL environment was created to teach the Core Competencies.  It sure have me a whole new understanding of the complexity of the world of gaming.  ~Shannon H.

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In my classroom, this is "the Treat" that will come out at review time. :)
~Dana

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Kahoot! | Learning games | Make learning awesome!

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Kahoot! is a game-based learning platform that brings engagement and fun to 1+ billion players every year at school, at work, and at home.

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All the Right Type and Anecdotal Stories

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All the Right Type and Anecdotal Stories

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As someone who grew up at the start of internet and computer game popularity, I don't think I have experienced any major education altering games. My fondest memories of elementary school and the beginning of high school starts in All the Right Type - to which my understanding is more of a gamified strategy than a GBL. All the Right Type has lessons where you learn to type specific patterns before integrating the full keyboard into a typing test. There are also games in which typing the correct sequence of words will do something positive in the game, which again, seems to me like a gamified element. In terms of actual GBL, if I had to choose something in my life that is closely related, I'd say it would be MapleStory. MapleStory is a multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG) where you level up your characters through combat elements and increase your strengths through equipment and levels. The reason I chose MapleStory as my GBL experience is because of the financial understanding it brought to me, even at a young age. There was a "Free Market" in which I learned to do traditional buy low, sell high methods and learned to budget my in-game gold in order to maximize my purchases for larger items. The Free Market was a consistent and daily grind of managing my in-game money and eventually became something I would sell for real money. Through the game, I had learned how to sell my in-game services and items for real money. From my understanding of your explanation of GBL, this story is more along the lines of playing a game to learn, and learning to play the game. As a teacher, I don't employ games in the classroom and I am a trades and technology teacher. There are limited games related to my subject areas, although I have found gamified elements to be of assistance in the classroom. For example, Kahoot and similar activities keeps my students engaged but I have not yet seen a direct GBL for the subjects I teach in the school setting. While I believe there are valuable lessons that students and teachers can learn through video games, I am also hesitant to put too much emphasis on the topic. When I completed my Education degree at UBC, I had an instructor who had completed his Master's thesis with a GBL research study with students from the Greater Vancouver area. Long story short, he explained to me that the novelty of video games quickly encapsulated the fascination of students, but the education value did not carry over for a long period of time. Personally, I get relatively bored of games over long periods of time, and as a quick learner, I'd much rather have direct material provided to me.

Derek Wong

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Oregon Trail to Lemonade Stand, to Civ, to Minecraft

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Oregon Trail to Lemonade Stand, to Civ, to Minecraft

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I was fortunate to have access to Oregon Trail and Lemonade Stand in elementary.  I LOVED these games, as I was always a board game kid-- winning (and losing) at anything always gave me a thrill. I recall getting into Civ in Grade 12, but I had to stop since it was a huge "time suck".  Staying up until 2 am playing Civ was not a great strategy! Now, as a mum, I see the magic of Minecraft.  My son is a magician when it comes to this game.   The addictive nature, however, is problematic and now that he is in Grade 6,  the brakes are being put on.  Minecraft on weekends only! ~Dana B

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I remember learning to type using Mario, learning to write stories because it might I could design a cool picture on the computer to match (though usually the picture came first), and playing match games where you needed the correct answer to unlock secrets and finish games. I actually found all of them fun even though I played 'real' games as well, on N64. Some of the educational games were played at friends' houses as we actually found them fun together, plus there were no time limits by parents on how long we could play. I don't use them in my classes, as I haven't found anything appropriate for teenagers, but will definitely use them with my children. - Robert Rem