Gamifiying a course, phase 8: Oopsies!

Sometimes, things don't work.  It doesn't matter how much planning you do - some things just do not work out the same way you think they will work. 

While, overall, I feel the course is working, I wanted to share some Oopsies that have occurred.

Badges

I suppose this isn't really an OOPSIE, so to speak, just something I have noticed. Not everyone is intereted in picking up their badges. Although I could award them manually, I have decided to just montor and see what happens. It is not really that important that students pick up a badge, just more of a curiosity on my part. I will be surveying them about this at mid term.

Choices

So far, students are selecting different choices as they progress through their units, and I am enjoying reading their blog posts and briefs. It is interesting to note, however, that everyone has selected a specific topic, meaning they have avoided the "create-your-own" activity. I want to add that to the mid-curse assessment to see whyand whther to keep offering them or remove them.They do no harm, I suppose, by keeping them in, but they may not be necessary.

MasteryPaths

 MasteryPaths is a new feature in Canvas. ...and I am an early adapter. :-)

For those of you who use Canvas in a classroom or training setting, you cannot really use masterypaths until a class in published....  and, what I have just learned....if someone adds the class after the paths have been created, the paths disappear....and when one path s not assigned to anyone, it takes over and reassigns itself!



This was brought home to me through an email from a student:

" Hi Molly,
I was just a bit confused on this one. There are three ACCESS Resources "assignments." I got a pass on the first one (which is actually 03). Then a partial pass on the second one, needing to read chapters 4-5 but no articles. Then on the third one (which is actually 01), it repeats that I have to read chapters 4-5 and now also have to read 3 articles, which are the same articles that were optional before. So I am just curious what it's doing?"

Good question!

When I checked her mastery path, all three reading assignments were linked to her, instead of of just 02. I know that wasn't correct because I remember checking - painstakingly checking - each student's pathway. to make sure each student had only one reading assignment per topic.

Alas....

So... after scoring the pre-assessment, I created a card with scores and used that to map out each student's MasteryPath. That worked well until I added our L-R instructional Designer, Jenny, as a student, to do some troubleshooting and to share my experiment.  Jenny and I have dreams of one day teaching a course in Gamification for Business and Education, but I digress.

Adding Jenny disrupted the flow..... MasteryPath grew confused because it had a student who was not tagged in anything.... so it gave folks what it wanted them to do. Reading Resources that I had not assigned to anyone suddenly became assigned to everyone.  I have since gone back in and assigned all of those to Jenny, the student...sorry, Jenny!

Next time I will know to create a dummy student  - no offense meant - and assign all of the leftover assignments to him or her.

Voki

VOKI started as a good idea and something a little different, but they began to take on a life of their own. I quickly earned to provide a transcript for those VOKI who delivered content, thinking that not everyone might want to learn through listening. While time-consuming to produce, they are easier than other ways to deliver instruction and to help provide a framework within a gamified course..

But...they  become obnoxious... I had one on the Home Page to introduce the course. Great in theory!In reality, every time the course opened, the VOKI started talking.   I quickly grew tired of this and turned it into a link that students needed to click to view...I did wait, however, until I was sure everyone had the opportunity to view her, but I am convinced she was obnoxious just the same.

Originally each VOKI was a separate tour guide serving just to escort students to the next stop, but then, the VOKI  wanted more involvement. I think they called the VOKI UNION on me and demanded equal time....Any way, they became interesting ways to deliver content, as long as I also provide a transcript.

Conclusion?

To the best of my knowledge, there are no more "sudden learnings" or oopsies at this point of the semester although I am sure they are not over :-) Students will be competing a quick survey in a few weeks, and I will share those results at that time.

Meanwhile..happy gaming, y'all!

Next in this journey is... Level up!