Educational gaming brown bag on using game-like elements to increase motivation and participation to take place Oct. 19

Anyone interested in the use of games in education is invited to attend a free educational gaming brown bag on "Using Game-Like Elements to Increase Motivation and Participation in Business Courses" on Wednesday, October 19 from noon to 1:00 p.m. Participants can attend in person in 202K Rider Building, University Park or via a Meeting@PennState desktop videoconference.

Sherry Robinson, associate professor of economics and Teaching and Learning with Technology Fellow, will discuss how she plans to use game-like elements in her courses to increase student motivation. Although considerable attention has been paid recently to the potential impact of games on learning, it can be time-consuming to develop a game geared for all the appropriate learning objectives of a course. An alternative is the use of game-like elements, or "gamification," such as badges, leader boards, prizes, and levels, to structure a course to be more like a gaming environment. The goal is to take the elements of a game that are fun and engaging and integrate those into the classroom in a way that makes that class as engaging as a game (just without the actual game). Is it possible that the qualities of games that cause people to become engrossed for hours at a time could also cause students to become engrossed in learning? This is a question that educators are beginning to investigate.

Discussion during the session will cover the concept of gamification vs. games, how game-like elements can be integrated into a conventional syllabus, and gamification strategies in Robinson’s undergraduate business courses.

The brown bag is hosted by the Educational Gaming Commons, a service of Information Technology Services. To register, visit http://its.psu.edu/training/ and select "Register for Training."