Monday, May 30, 2016: Gamification—Useful Tools for Teaching?

"Gamification" refers to the application of game-like principles and elements to a non-game context, such as learning specific concepts or behaviors. These applications range from smartphone or tablet apps in the style of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" to computer-based simulations of complex economic relationships in which participants compete against one another in a game-like manner, and even to board games, card games, or simple group games played during a seminar or lecture.

M.Sc. Fabian Uhrner, a doctoral candidate at the Institute of Organic Chemistry and winner of the 2016 Teaching Award, reports on his idea of “supporting self-study and independent monitoring of learning progress through mobile learning,” specifically in relation to the introductory courses in organic chemistry offered by the Institute of Organic Chemistry. The Teaching Award Committee particularly commended this project for its transferability to other departments and for supporting students in learning a highly complex and extensive subject matter. The teaching project uses a “gamification” approach to fundamentally support students’ individual learning processes. Detailed explanations and solutions to the individual learning questions motivate students to overcome learning obstacles, which specifically promotes their self-directed study.

M.A. Silke Frank (Subject Specialist at the University Library) reports on a project in collaboration with the university libraries in Braunschweig and Hannover. Here, a blended-learning platform was created for teaching information literacy in large groups, incorporating the gamification approach.

Within a brief, graphically enhanced narrative framework, students are provided with materials in the form of presentation slides, short videos, and glossaries to help them master the content. Short knowledge-assessment tasks—such as matching exercises or multiple-choice questions—help students reinforce the material. As a reward, students can purchase small games within the platform using points they’ve earned.

Some tasks must be completed in teams (which are formed by the platform). Rankings allow students to compare their performance with one another.

Instructors have access to overviews showing who has completed which assignments, so that certificates of participation can be issued.

For the Clausthal University of Technology version, the Clausthal University Library has adapted the materials and assignments to Clausthal’s specific circumstances, ensuring that Clausthal’s unique features are also taken into account.