Gamifying a course, phase 9: Level up!

Level up!

Words to warm every gamer's heart.

What does the phrase mean, though?

Games have different types of levels. 

One type of level is mission-based where players progress from one level to the next as they move toward the end of the game.

Another type of level relates to the degree of difficulty  a player chooses when entering a game.

A third type is the level of experience and skills the player receives while playing the game.

Normally all three types of levels occur simultaneously as a player moves through a game. Players  complete a task and earn points.  Points lead to badges and placement on a leaderboard. Badges can represent levels of knowledge and skills gained, and leaderboards allow players to compare their standings in the game to others. A specific number of of points are usually accrued to change levels. 

OK, but why use levels?

In game design, levels help designers direct a player through the game, assisting the player in learning how to play the game and acquire the necessary skills to be successful in the game. In each level, the player accomplishes a small set of goals and when completed, moves to the next level. A well-designed progression of levels serves three purposes:

1. Each level helps the game's narrative - or story line - progress. As the player moves to a new level, new information unfolds, and that information is necessary for the player to move to the next level. Unfolding the information a little at a time leads to player buy-in, player engagement, as the narrative - or story line - unfolds at each level.
2. Players build and reinforce skills at each level. At the beginning of a game, players are taught how to navigate the game and what is important.  Although they typically learn one skill at  time,  players may progress through  practice levels where no new skills are added.
3. As players progress through levels, and the levels become more difficult, players are required to remember and use more of the skills they had learned earlier....just to advance. They may have to perform these skills more quickly or under greater pressure...and by the end of the game players are applying multiple skills learned from previous levels  in combination to win the game.

 Levels are not new to education.

Come on - as you read the previous section, if you have ever taught before, you were probably checking each item off in your head..yep...I do that....

Educators currently call this scaffolding....but it is similar to the use of levels:  We give students the basic skills they need to succeed in a course and provide them the opportunity to practice them until students demonstrate achievement. In some instances we have to break down a skill or topics into a series of smaller skills or topics, but these are all similar to students "leveling up."

Isn't that what graduation is?

Using levels in a gamified course is really very easy if the narrative is strong. 

Remember, the level relates to the narrative and needs to assist in the unfolding of the story to help motivate the players to continue to progress. The type of narrative depends on the audience, i.e, the learners. Designing a narrative of interest to the entire class is sometimes tricky as the designer considers previous backgrounds, age, motivation, and, well, the learner's needs! With adults, I tend to lean toward a work-based narrative, thinking they might feel a more practical approach is useful or more engaging than participating in wizarding challenges where different wizards use a different style of leadership in their battles. Hmmmm...some days THAT seems pretty realistic...

I digress....

So... the narrative needs to intertwine with the levels, and the levels need to help learners engage with the narrative...and the course.

What does integrating all three purposes of levels look like in a gamified course?

In this course, students had to complete some modules in a specific order to learn a skill set or knowledge set necessary to progress to the next level or piece of content. This means some modules had to be completed to unlock other modules.  Unlike in many games with a prescribed order of progression, I had specific pieces of information that needed to completed before specific modules, but as long as the skill set/knowledge set existed, the order of completion of the next few modules (or "stops" in this course) was not crucial. After all, I work with adult students, and adults need a little freedom to choose. Canvas made this easy to accomplish by allowing me to set module prerequisites and requirements of completion. Students could see an upcoming  module, but it was grayed out with the notice that it had a prerequisite. 

 Earlier tasks required more basic skill sets for completion and were worth fewer points.

Also key to developing the basic skills to navigate the course was the Virtual Coffees with me as I required to students to navigate the course with a me "peeking over their shoulder" through screensharing during a video conference. This way I could see what was giving them trouble and direct them in their navigating the course. the Virtual Coffee also allowed me to be understand how students viewed the course, giving me their valuable input.  For example, when a student logged in and I realized a VOKI played automatically and she had it turn it off before proceeding, I immediately made that fix as soon as our coffee was over.

Every "stop" along their tour (module) afforded students the opportunity to earn a badge (a level of sorts), and for FERPA reasons, I removed the leaderboard option.

The very act of accruing points and earning grades provides levels, and I created this grading scheme  (see left) in Canvas. As in games where levels come with names or titles, I wanted to emulate that in this gamified course, so I used such titles as Rising Star, Networking Specialist,  Adventurer, Explorer, and Apprentice to represents grade percentages of  B- through A.

In the actual course, students earned XP, however, with the total possible points available of 7,660 XP. When students select their view in grades they see the screen to the right.  Notice that this student is just less than halfway through the course as shown in points (actually in week 6 of a 15-week course). Notice that students have to toggle off the Calculate based only on graded assignments section to see their points earned and their current level...in this case the You can do this! level.

So far, all is well, and students are progressing and appear to be enjoying the course design, but they will have several opportunities to provide input on both their view of gamification in general and this course specifically.

Stay tuned! Next stop is to hear from the students themselves....