Infusing Our Online Learning Environments with Play: Applying Game Mechanics to Your Learning Activities
By Joe Bisz (Professor at City University of New York BMCC) and Tori Mondelli (Director of the Teaching for Learning Center at University of Missouri)
INFUSING OUR ONLINE LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS (Video)
This video (linked above) discusses the following:
Tori’s Segment:
- How to add small elements of play to your exercises (using the “5 Simple Mechanics”: random, rapid, rival, reward, role)
- Applied Online Example: Zoom Breakout Rooms (using the Simple Mechanics)
Joe’s Segment:
- How to design playful learning activities for your discussion board (using the “Complex Mechanics”: Challenge and Switch, Cut-ups)
- How to design basic activity-games in PowerPoint that your online students can play together
This is new content expanded from the core theories in our upcoming book The Allure of Play. The book applies the learning principles and mechanics behind game-based learning to both our in-person and online classrooms, but given the new teaching landscape in 2020, we decided to make a video that focuses mainly on online learning.
- For more info about our BOOK, go here.
- To obtain the complex mechanic/simple mechanic FLASHCARDS featured in the video, go here.
Want to hear more tips and strategies for online learning? You’re in luck: our video is part of a small collection of videos by other widely-known educators titled Pedagogies of Care: Open Resources for Student-Centered & Adaptive Strategies in the New Higher Ed Landscape. We all worked together to make sure we were bringing you high-quality material. Watch these videos here.
POWERPOINT GAMES YOU CAN DESIGN
Our video discusses how to build simple, highly visual and manipulatable learning activities in PowerPoint! These activity-games could be played by students on computers, in groups, or just one game projected before the whole room. In addition, it explains how students can play your games synchronously together online—with no software to download—using just Google Slides/Docs. This is a powerful way to provide online students with active learning exercises.
After watching the video, download the below file “Overview of PowerPoint Games.pptx,” which contains a short version of each game (in PowerPoint format) so you can actually play the game and decide if you’d like to download the full version (also free).
The full PowerPoint games (which include instructions on how to build and play them, alternate layouts, answer sheets, etc.) can be found on Joe’s website here. (If you don’t see the ones you’re interested in, check back in February 2021, since they’re still being edited.) The full Crossword game is also included below.
*Overview of PowerPoint Games.pptx
Contains overviews of:
- Crossword Puzzle PowerPoint Game
- Concentration with Parts of Speech PowerPoint Game
- The Perfect Grammatical Sentence PowerPoint Game
- Math Equation Cut-up PowerPoint Game
- Diplomacy Game Board with Movable Pieces
*Crossword Puzzle PowerPoint Game.pptx
*How to Design Activity-Games in PowerPoint.pdf
This is not an exhaustive design tutorial, but just a one-page summary of important items to be aware of. If you’ve created a solid PowerPoint presentation before, you probably have the skills to design a simple activity-game.
*How Students Can Play Your Activity-Games Online Using Google Slides.pdf (Vers 1.2)
Read the above document for a concise explanation of how students can play your games synchronously or asynchronously online, and important considerations when using or designing PowerPoints for Google Slides. Remember to give your Google Slides file “edit” permissions before sharing it with students (since moving pieces within your file counts as “editing” it).
CROSSWORD PUZZLE THEME: SELF-CARE (for Faculty or Students)
Since Tori is a CTL director, she has taken one of our crossword puzzle templates and designed a puzzle around the theme of self-care! You can use this puzzle at your own organization, and it is an excellent way to casually teach faculty in the ways of activity-game design while getting them to relax and have fun. Take a look at her handiwork and her blog post where she describes its tremendous success at the EDUCAUSE conference.