Gaming for Your Grades: The Gamification of Education at Penn State

Marshall McLuhan once said, “Anyone who makes a distinction between games and learning doesn’t know the first thing about either.”

With this statement in mind, Penn State has responded to the innovation of gaming with the Educational Gaming Commons (EGC) and various gamification aspects incorporated into University syllabi.

"Most games are built from a set of core mechanics- points, systems, rewards, etc. Gamification is the idea of extracting those concepts and using them in non-game situations to make an experience more compelling,”  said Chris Stubbs, a designer and programmer for the EGC. “It sounds like a mouthful, but most people are already familiar with the concept, even if they don’t know it. Weight Watchers points, grocery store shoppers cards, airline miles - they’re all examples of gamification that is occurring in our everyday lives.”

The point of gamification or “gamifying” course materials is not necessarily to make an activity or subject more “fun,” but to make it more interesting and appealing to students. The goal of gamification is to change students’ behaviors in relation to education and engage them with the course material. Designing instruction and daily lectures using game-like elements is a way to accomplish this.

The very process of designing a course syllabi with the incorporation of gamification forces an instructor or professor into critically analyzing their learning objectives and creating a game, points system, or competitive element that brings added value, interest, and connection to their students. This commitment on the part of the instructor presents the course material and text in a contemporary way and relates to the pupils they are teaching while re-evaluating the very structure of the course itself.

Gamifying a course has several expected impacts it hopes to obtain besides increasing student engagement and learning. The implementation of a game-like scenario into a classroom can increase the amount of time a student is willing to spend on an assignment, encourage a willingness to discuss ideas in class, and provoke a long-term retention beyond a mere improvement in exam grades. One of the research interests of the EGC is to explore these benefits.

The betterment of gaming in education also serves the students’ interests, not only the courses. Each individual learns in a different way and not everyone can truly acquire knowledge through the memorization of a textbook. Gamification reaches out to students who kinetically learn from experience or “doing” while providing unique opportunities for engagement in classes of 300 or more.

The virtual advantages and lack of consequences to games are also a major asset. Games actualize experiences which otherwise would be impossible. An exploration of the human body or the re-enactment of World Wars is no longer hypothetical, but can be depicted on a computer screen. Games also allow students to make mistakes in multiple situations and see the projected outcomes of their mistakes without the fear of risks associated with reality, allowing for a deeper understanding of the concepts of course materials and the number of strategies one can employ in order to achieve a goal or need.

The mission of the Pennsylvania State University Gaming Commons is to “develop physical infrastructures and community connections in order to promote the broad impact of educational gaming within the Penn State teaching, learning, and research environment.” The EGC has created and supported the use of games in various fields, such as English, chemistry, health policy administration, music education, engineering, and many more.

However, the creation of games and gamifying aspects requires a significant amount of time and the EGC is currently working on creating flexible game engines that with a small amount of customization could be used in a vast array of courses and disciplines. With the implementation of a “gaming shell” the gamification approach to education would be able to reach a large amount of courses and students and increase the availability to professors.

The futures of education and gamification seem to be entwined together. “When you think about it, every game is ultimately a learning experience,” Stubbs said. “Every game has controls you must learn and master, objectives you must reach to succeed, ways to fail, assessments to measure your performance, and feedback systems to help you manage and grow from mistakes.

“A game which does not teach you would be impossible and a gamer who does not learn could never succeed.”

To learn more about the EGC and services it provides, please go to http://gaming.psu.edu.