Book Image

Gamification with Moodle

By : Natalie Denmeade
Book Image

Gamification with Moodle

By: Natalie Denmeade

Overview of this book

This book describes how teachers can use Gamification design within the Moodle Learning Management System. Game elements can be included in course design by using, badges, rubrics, custom grading scales, forums, and conditional activities. Moodle courses do not have to be solo-learning experiences that replicate Distance Education models. The Gamification design process starts by profiling players and creating levels of achievement towards meeting learning outcomes. Each task is defined, valued, and sequenced. Motivation loops are devised to keep the momentum going. In a gaming studio, this approach would require a team of specialists with a large budget and time frames. Preparing for a class rarely has these optimal conditions. The approach used in this book is to introduce game elements into the course design gradually. First, apply gamification to just one lesson and then build up to gamifying a series of lessons over a term. Each example will indicate the difficulty level and time investment. Try it out to see what is most effective with your learners and choose wisely in your use of technology. By the end of this book, you will be able to create Moodle courses that incorporate choice, communication, challenge, and creativity.
Table of Contents (18 chapters)
Gamification with Moodle
Credits
Foreword
About the Author
Acknowledgement
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
6
Mastery Achieved (Badges and Motivation)
8
Completing the Quest (Reporting Activities)
Index

Activity loops


Game designers use the activity loops of Motivations, Action, and Feedback. This holds people accountable for an action. Instead of just asking people to create and upload an avatar and hoping they would do it, you could incorporate this in a series of activities. Set up a forum and make a post to invite people to reply with a Hello message. Each person has to select another learner's name to view their profile, and then rate each other's avatars by rating the forum post out of 3. First, let them rate your avatar so that they know how this works.

This completes the activity loop as you have provided them with three things: motivation to participate, a clearly defined action, and peer-generated feedback.

Figure 2.5: Every action can be mapped to multiple motivations

To set up a forum in a Moodle course, you need to add an activity as follows:

  1. In your test course, turn on the editing mode using the button on the top-right corner.

    Figure 2.6: Turn on editing to allow teachers to...