Study: Gamification Techniques Can Improve Online Teaching

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2021/04/12/study-gamification-techniques-can-improve-online-teaching.aspx

A new study out of MIT‘s Sloan School of Management explores the use of ideas and tools from the gaming community to improve online teaching and student learning outcomes.

four key elements for maximizing student engagement in online learning:

• Narrative — a specific storyline or overarching theme. For instance, study co-author Brian Stevens, senior lecturer at the University of Tennessee‘s Haslam College of Business, created a video game theme for his statistics class, incorporating “Boss Battles,” “Speed Runs” and wacky characters to spice up his lectures.
• Continuous flow of action in sight and sound, even before class starts. For example, Lo uses a countdown timer and upbeat music on his course page about 30 minutes before the start of a synchronous lecture, to build anticipation for class. He also switches tasks and/or scenes every 15 minutes to help maintain students’ attention and interest levels.
• Opportunities for two-way communication. To help turn students from viewers into participants, Lo uses a combination of the “Raise Hand” function in Zoom, polls, breakout sessions, surveys and the chat window.
• High production quality. Lo built a home studio with various input devices, professional lighting, a green screen and more to create richer, more engaging presentations for students.

The full study, “The World of EdCraft: Challenges and Opportunities in Synchronous Online Teaching,” is openly available online

serious gamers and gamification experts on that panel. More here on the initiative: https://tinyurl.com/IABOL2021

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more on gamification in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=gamification