Gamifying a course, phase 3: Content development

I assumed that creating content would be simple...... After all, I had already crafted content when I taught this course originally in 3D GameLab and even have far more tasks than I plan to use (see phase 1), so this should be a matter of cutting, pasting, and making sure the links work.

Ha!

Once more, I discovered the need to immerse myself in learning additional intricacies in Canvas while re-working content.... then adding those tour guides. I could do an entire post on creating Voki tour guides....stay tuned for that!

My first content module in this gamified course is referred to as the 2nd Stop: Student Lounge. James takes us over to the Student lounge to meet Elizabeth who provides a very brief overview of community college student demographics.

Students then view the Community College Fact sheet from AACC, they review the stop's learning objectives, then watch a few videos of community college students providing heir stories.  Elizabeth returns to gently nudge students into the completing the next component of this first stop, beginning with scheduling a second Virtual Coffee Break with me.  I plan to use this time as a status check: to answer questions, to make sure they undetstand their tasks, and remind them of what is coming up...just a chance for me to make sure they are on track.

Now... the readings.... Remember my mentioning learning the intricacies of Canvas?

Student scores on the pre-assessment determine which  Resource Reading they follow. Students were scored into one of three levels on each topic, with 3 being the highest level of content knowledge and and 1 being the lowest level. I want students to only have to complete one set of readings, so I gave each one 50 XP and grouped them together as an Assignment. Unfortunately, until I have a pre-assessment score for each student, I cannot set up a specific MasteryPath, so that will have to wait until the class is published and I have scores to use... More on that later.

This brings me to the Student Lounge: Four Choices. Gamification provides choices for players, and I do want to allow students some flexibility in designing and choosing various assignments...but I also want to reward completion and stellar work with badges.....This became an interesting puzzle to solve.

Part of the badge discussion concerned levels of badges. I wanted students to be able to earn two levels of knowledge badges: a silver badge for completing the readings and various smaller tasks  and a gold badge for completing a more advanced assignment.  Badgr and Canvas, however, only allow for one badge per module, so to provide levels I had to create a second module. In the main module for this stop, I created a content page with a Voki introduction  that explained need to choose one option only and the graphic to the right contained links to each of the four options...available in the submodule.

Here is an instructor view screenshot:

I really disliked having to add a separate module to house these assignment options to be able to award a badge. The module has to be published so students can see the assignments, but then, to me, it feels a little clunky. this is why I added the text  explaining  this was a sub module.

It would great if Badgr and Canvas would allow us the option of awarding a badge based on Assignment Groups, in addition to doing so by module.

Canvas Developers, do you hear this?

Here is close up of the sub module showing the options and the rule used:

On to develop more content...and figure out if this all really works..... MasteryPaths is next. . . .

Gamifying a course, phase 2: Onboarding

To continue from the previous post, phase 1 ....

My first step was to create a new course plan:

Now I have due dates ... which helps me organize... which helps me plan.

My next step was to review and streamline tasks, beginning with Onboarding.

Well...yes and no...   I had to multi-task, actually.   While streamlining the Onboarding tasks, I realized I needed to develop my narrative for the course...so I streamlined...then pondered my narrative, then streamlined, then threw out the narrative, then streamlined some more, then re-wrote the narrative....

Whew.... and decided to frame the entire experience from the position of each student being invited to serve as a Visiting Staff Member of the fictional Mountain View Community College.  While serving in this position, their goal was to learn as much as possible about the various units to better prepare them for an interview in May. They would be introduced by a variety of campus tour guides who would take them to the various units, proving overviews, content, even introducing them to "students."

I discovered I had to become both linear and nonlinear during this stage of creating...keeping both the big and small picture in my mind at all times.  What an exercise for me!

Trying to approach this from the perspective of being a new hire, albeit temporary, it occurred to me I needed to, once again, re-frame the experience.

Students entering the course were greeted by a Voki who provided an overview and introduction to the course.

But what else do then need to get started and not be overwhelmed and confused?

Thinking like HR, I considered most community colleges offer some sort of social for new employees, so why not Mountain View Community College? I crafted the following text for the course home page:

 So... I have set the scene...

What is the first thing that everyone does at a college-wide social?

We check in!

So will my students.  When they click on the check-in table a flip book will appear:

 What happens after we check in?   We attend the Staff  Social where we meet our new colleagues!

Clicking on this graphic takes students to the Staff Social Module in Canvas where they will participate in a forum to meet each other and have their first opportunity to earn a badge. The student view of the Staff Social is as follows:

 I want to make sure everyone attends the Staff Social and "socializes," so I am requiring students to complete all items and earn at least a score of 95 on the forum to earn their first badge.

Here is where I started re-learning Canvas.  I say "re-learn" because I considered myself extremely knowledgeable about Canvas, but gamifying a course has taken that knowledge to a whole new level.  (Wait until we get to Mastery Paths in a future blog post!)

I needed to edit my module settings to make each module item required and to set a minimum score. In the Canvas instructor view, each module has a little gear icon to the right with a drop down window In that drop down menu, I clicked on Edit and create these rules to edit my module settings.  Notice that I selected a minimum grade required and that students view a particular page. Clicking on Update Module saved this new setting, and this module is required!

Now...to add a badge.....  Gamification includes rewards, after all....

Badgr provides a lot of great resource videos to guide us through the badge creation and award process. After setting up an account in Badgr, viewing their videos,  and integrating Badgr into Canvas, I was finally able to set up the logic for automatic badge award!

Now students will automatically receive their Social Butterfly Badge once they have "attended" and completed their Staff Social Module.

Me, as a Voki

Completing this module is key as it unlocks the next component.

What comes after the Staff Social? They meet their first Tour Guide, me!

I then take them to meet James who will escort them to HR for their Mountain. View Community College Orientation. Just as in a typical work orientation, they review policies and procedures (Course Overview), they complete the requisite HR paperwork (in this case the pre-assessment mentioned in the previous blog post), and they schedule a meeting with their supervisor (Virtual Coffee Break with me).

James

Next they complete a knowledge capture - what they currently ow regarding faculty and staff  to be used later in a course project.  They watch  several videos (History of Community Colleges and Issues Impacting Community Colleges), discuss these with one another (discussion forums), and read a few chapters in their text.

James then returns to escort them to meet their next tour guide at the Student Lounge.

Completing the Orientation is pivotal, as other modules ("stops" along their tour) will not unlock until the Orientation is complete..  While part of the reason is to force students into completing all tasks to help prepare them for success in this course, the other reason is to allow me to individualize their journey through this course based on their pre-assessment scores.  I need to give myself time to score the pre-assessment and identify a mastery path for each student. This means I need to schedule the pre-assessment as early as possible to allow me the time I need to do my part.

Originally the orientation module included a lot of other tasks, such as creating a blog, Twitter account, instagram account,and so forth, but in streamlining I decided to omit some of those tasks, and others will be worked in as part of task options later.

Now...on to the next two stops:  Student Lounge and Faculty Lounge  Content in part 3.