THE QUESTION:
In your present circumstances, what level of problem is most urgent to solve and why? What type of team would you need in order to solve it? Who would you place on the team, and who would lead it?
In your present circumstances, what level of problem is most urgent to solve and why? What type of team would you need in order to solve it? Who would you place on the team, and who would lead it?
THE ANSWER:
In the organization that I contract to we are using an Online flipped model that has a weekly synchronous component and a gamification approach coupled with a blog. As students blog responses to questions and also do reflective journal posts they acquire "experience points" that supposedly allow them to up-level to the next module. Unfortunately the fifth and last module uses the same structure and there is no further module to up-level to. Also the weekly blog posts do not really give a student extra points although there is mention in the introduction that this is so. Essentially to complete this part of the program a student only has to do two reflective journal posts. To complete the full module they also have to do six mentor calls and an oral assessment. The weekly blog posts do not affect a student's completion and this is starting to create some havoc in the program. Some students realize that they can still complete without doing the blog posts so simply do not do them. Other students who do the posts resent the students who do not post and start to doubt the integrity and validity of the program. They also start to question the whole "experience points" concept.
With a gamification concept the points must connect to a reward in a true and meaningful manner. There also must be some sort of penalty or consequence if certain thresholds are not met. Otherwise the validity of the concept suffers.
For my team I would I would first of all include a number of student representatives to use a sounding boards and idea judges. I would also include a gamification expert such as Avi Luxenburg, a teacher representative to give the teachers voice and also to get them on board with new concepts. Their buy-in would be essential as they are responsible for delivery and there has been some resistance to the flipped concept, partially because they were not involved with the development process originally. I would also like to be on the team as intermediary between the different stakeholders, person responsible for the greater vision and understanding of what we are trying to accomplish overall.
References
Extra credits. (2012). Extra Credits: gamification education. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/MuDLw1zIc94
Herger, M. (2011, October 24). A checklist for evaluating gamification platforms. Enterprise Gamification Consultancy. Retrieved from http://www.enterprise-gamification.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=42:a-checklist-for-evaluating-gamification-platforms&catid=4&Itemid=251&lang=en
Hu, S. (2014). Gamification in education. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/wfivasin9j4
In the organization that I contract to we are using an Online flipped model that has a weekly synchronous component and a gamification approach coupled with a blog. As students blog responses to questions and also do reflective journal posts they acquire "experience points" that supposedly allow them to up-level to the next module. Unfortunately the fifth and last module uses the same structure and there is no further module to up-level to. Also the weekly blog posts do not really give a student extra points although there is mention in the introduction that this is so. Essentially to complete this part of the program a student only has to do two reflective journal posts. To complete the full module they also have to do six mentor calls and an oral assessment. The weekly blog posts do not affect a student's completion and this is starting to create some havoc in the program. Some students realize that they can still complete without doing the blog posts so simply do not do them. Other students who do the posts resent the students who do not post and start to doubt the integrity and validity of the program. They also start to question the whole "experience points" concept.
With a gamification concept the points must connect to a reward in a true and meaningful manner. There also must be some sort of penalty or consequence if certain thresholds are not met. Otherwise the validity of the concept suffers.
For my team I would I would first of all include a number of student representatives to use a sounding boards and idea judges. I would also include a gamification expert such as Avi Luxenburg, a teacher representative to give the teachers voice and also to get them on board with new concepts. Their buy-in would be essential as they are responsible for delivery and there has been some resistance to the flipped concept, partially because they were not involved with the development process originally. I would also like to be on the team as intermediary between the different stakeholders, person responsible for the greater vision and understanding of what we are trying to accomplish overall.
References
Extra credits. (2012). Extra Credits: gamification education. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/MuDLw1zIc94
Herger, M. (2011, October 24). A checklist for evaluating gamification platforms. Enterprise Gamification Consultancy. Retrieved from http://www.enterprise-gamification.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=42:a-checklist-for-evaluating-gamification-platforms&catid=4&Itemid=251&lang=en
Hu, S. (2014). Gamification in education. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/wfivasin9j4