Preface

This book describes how teachers can use Gamification design in their course development with the Moodle learning management system to build learner resilience and motivation.

Gamification is a design process that reframes goals to be more appealing and achievable using the principles of game design. The goal of this process is to keep learners engaged and motivated in a way that is not always present in traditional courses. When it is implemented through elegant solutions, learners may be unaware of the subtle game elements being used. A Gamification strategy can be considered successful if learners are more engaged and feel challenged and confident to keep progressing, which has implications for the way teachers consider their course evaluation processes. It is important to note that Gamification in education is more about how the person feels at certain points in their learning journey than about the end product, which may or may not, look like a game.

After following the tutorials in this book, teachers will gain the basic skills needed to get started with applying Gamification design techniques to their Moodle courses. They can take learners on a journey of risk, choice, surprise, delight, and transformation. Taking an activity and reframing it to be more appealing and achievable sounds like the job description of any teacher or coach. Therefore, many teachers are already doing this! Understanding games and play better can help teachers be more effective in using a wider range of game elements to aid retention and completion in their courses.

In this book, you will find hints and tips on how to apply proven strategies to Moodle course development, including the research on a growth mindset from Carol Dweck in her book Mindset. You will see how the use of game elements in Foursquare (badges), Twitter (likes), and LinkedIn (progress bar) can be applied to Moodle course design. You will use the core features available in Moodle. We will also explore new features and plugins that offer dozens of ways that teachers can use Moodle game elements such as, badges, labels, rubrics, group assignments, custom grading scales, forums, and conditional activities.

What this book covers

Chapter 1, Setting Up Gamification in a Moodle Course, shows you how to set up a scoring system using the Moodle gradebook. You use weekly categories to automatically add up scores for activities.

Chapter 2, Communication and Collaboration (Labels and Forums), explains how to establish a culture of collaboration in your class using Moodle forums. You will learn how to make use of activity loops that identify a kind of behavior and wrap motivation and feedback around that action.

Chapter 3, Challenges for Learners (Self-Assessment and Choice), helps you set challenges for learners to self-assess their current ability and set learning goals with the choice activity.

Chapter 4, Passing the Gateway (Conditional Activities), shows you how to configure gateways to check and ensure progress before new content or activities are released. These checks may be based on self-assessment, peer assessment, computer-based marking, or teacher grading.

Chapter 5, Feedback on Progress (Marking Guides and Scales), covers the setup of Moodle assignments and providing effective feedback through a comment bank and custom scales.

Chapter 6, Mastery Achieved (Badges and Motivation), illustrates how to issue open badges to recognize achievements and set up an online backpack to share digital badges.

Chapter 7, Leveling Up (Rubrics), helps you reduce anxiety for learners by using game-like Leveling Up. Through Moodle rubrics, learners can identify their current level and where they would like to be at a near point in the future.

Chapter 8, Completing the Quest (Reporting Activities), lets you quickly see who has read the instructions and completed tasks using Moodle automatic reports. These in-built analytics helps you identify and support those who need it the most.

Chapter 9, Super-boost Gamification with Social Elements (Groups), is where you discover how to increase motivation and participation by including social game elements in your Gamification strategies.

What you need for this book

You need access to your own test Moodle site using version 2.8 or later. The easiest way of doing this is by registering for a free Moodle Cloud site at www.moodle.com/cloud/.

Who this book is for

This book has been designed for teachers who use technology to create more engaging learning experiences for both online learning and face-to-face sessions. It will especially appeal to people who are interested in the underlying mechanics of playing and games and want to know more about applying these concepts in an educational context. It is assumed that you are a teacher and expert in your field, have basic computer skills, and have access to the Internet. If you have no previous knowledge of the Moodle Learning Management System (LMS) or Gamification, then this is a great place to start. The focus of this book is on why you would want to use each activity rather than detailed technical descriptions. Links to Moodle documentation with detailed instructions are provided throughout this book.

This book describes how to facilitate learning for groups of people who use the Moodle LMS. Moodle has become the world's leading software for teachers and workplace trainers. Although the examples used are for Moodle, the ideas can be used offline or with many other types of software or learning management systems. If you are only interested in Gamification in education and you don't use Moodle, then please keep reading and you will be able to adjust these ideas to your own preferred technology.

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