I'm proud of myself...

The words "I'm proud of myself" should be what every teacher strives to hear from his/her students.  As my students finish up their final culminating game build I heard those words a few times and nothing could make me happier.  Not because I felt like I did a good job or I taught them well but because it means I allowed the students to take charge of their own learning and do things for themselves.  Had I of given the students step by step instructions and a strict guildeline I don't think I would have heard those words.  After all- handing someone answers doesn't mean they'll ever be able to do it for themselves; let alone feel pride in what they accomplished.  Working through issues, getting stuck and turning things around, problem solving, and coming out with a viable product fosters pride.

I'll post a dropbox link to some of the students games soon but those words "I'm proud of myself" make me proud to be a teacher.  I don't need validation of my teaching skills or for my students to think I am all-knowing (because I certainly am not) but I do need to know that my students feel comfortable, proud, and confident in my class.  While I cover standards and follow certain rules none of those are my ultimate goal.   My ultimate goal is to know my students are thinking for themselves, making their own conclusions based on facts, and keeping an open mind to new learning experiences. All in all I'd say this school year has been a success on all those counts.

Final Exams

It's that time of year again and final exams are coming!  While preparing my final exams it is important to me to test actual learning and not my students ability to make a guess based on four possible answer choices (i.e. multiple choice questions).  I am designing my finals around project based learning just like lessons.  No standardized testing will be used as I don't believe you can can judge a goldfish on its ability to fly.  It is however important to ask- what have my students really learned this year?

Students will need to demonstrate overall game design knowledge by creating a game on exam day- similar to a quick game jam.  Students will have choice in the theme and type of game with several options to choose from.  I am also having students choose one area to show me advanced learning in which needs to be game related and based on their career interests.  Students can choose things like creating 3D models in Blender, 2D models in Photoshop, concept art using digital tablets, coding samples in notepad ++, business requirement and architecture documents, etc.  There will be a few question based items as well that require the students to think like game designers.  I am hoping for successful exam days and wish all the students good luck! I am excited to see the differences in what students come up with which will hopefully all display learning- just in different ways.

Doctorate and Gamification

Obviously there's been a delay in posting for a long time but I hope to be able to post more regularly in the future!  Yesterday I successfully defended by dissertation "Examining the Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership® Model Use by District Managers Responsible for Sales".  I have a few pieces of paperwork to send in and my editor is finishing up final edits before we can publish but I am within a couple weeks of earning my Doctorate in Business Administration with a concentration in Management.  Anyway back to the topic at hand- personal learning!  

I am very excited to completely re-work my class for next year and I have enlisted the students to help me.  Next year we will still have a gaming class with the amazing culture that we've built this year but in addition we are working towards complete gamification of the course.  I sought out the students input along the way because, as always, I want to hear their input.  The students created the "game mechanics" and badges that would be awarded and we worked together to build a gamification process to motivate students to go above and beyond.  It is important to note that the XP and badges they earn will not be for completing regular course work.  You only get awarded XP and badges for going above and beyond which allows me to post the leaderboards for motivation.  Students do of course have have the option to "opt out" of the leaderboard if they do not want the other students to know how much XP they have earned.  Next post I will go into more detail about the usefulness of gamification but here are some of the things my students and I came up with for next years game!

Student Created Badge Examples:

Below is a summary of how rules and descriptions of the overall "game":

Story (fictitious):

Tencent Holdings Limited has left the video game industry and now the remaining companies are vying to control the industry!  Test the strength of your company and individual game development skills to try to prove your company and division is the best!

Rules:

You earn badges for various things.

You can’t be rude towards other players and or not showing sportsmanship. This is for fun.

Each player must cooperate with their division (group) and company (period).

No cheat codes.

Leaderboards:

There will be four different sets of leaderboards. One ranking the companies (periods) as a whole against each other, one ranking the individuals in their respective companies against everyone else in that company, one ranking the individuals against everyone in all three companies, and one ranking the members of the divisions/departments in each company against the rest of that respective company.  You can opt-out from the individual leader board rankings if you wish- see Dr. Kirk to do so.

Leaderboard Descriptions

1.  Companies (periods)

2.  Divisions/Departments (groups of 5)

3.  Individuals (from all three companies)

4.  Individuals (only listed with others from their own company)

The rankings will be based on XP. Each individual’s XP is added towards their division and company. Say, SONY had 200 XP total, and a division in that company had 20 XP, before one of their members, Sharon, earned an extra 5 XP, giving their division 25 XP and their company 205 XP.

Each company’s XP can be raised or lowered at any time if each company does not have the same number of players participating.

Levels:

Level 1 (50 XP) - Entry Level QA Tester

Level 2 (75 XP) – Game Designer

Level 3 (100 XP) - Lead Designer

Level 4 (125 XP) - Project Manager

Level 5 (150 XP) - Creative Director

Level 6 (175 XP) – Chief Executive Officer (CEO)

Chief Executive Officer is the highest level/title but you can continue to accumulate points.

XP:

The XP earned through the badges will grant the player access to any reward that the card specifies, if specified, plus an XP bonus depending on how quickly the badge was earned and how much XP it was. There shouldn’t be a bonus for a card easily obtained/able to be normally achieved in a day. 

Starter Badges:

Self-explanatory. Players only gain these badges once at the beginning of the game (school year), and cannot be earned later on.

Leader Badges:

The same Leader Badge can only be earned a limited amount of times. The limit depends on the badge itself. If it’s a badge that can easily be exploited by offering max XP (15), only allow each player to earn it three-five times (depending on how difficult it is to earn said badge). 

Mini Badges:

This type of badge can be earned up to 10 times (depending on the badge- only badges 5 points or less). Keep in mind the limit, especially if it offers the max XP (10) to prevent exploitation of the system. Mini badges worth more than 5 points can be limited by the teacher at any time but to start we’ll put the limit at 3 times per year. Participation mini badges (worth 1 point each) can be earned each day.   

Side Quests:

Players can only complete a specific Side Quest once. If the player decides to complete the same Side Quest more than once, they will only receive that badge once, regardless of the amount of XP the badge is worth.  The side quest they choose must be good quality that took time outside of class to complete.

Negative Badges:

Players earn this type of badge which removes XP from their overall XP for ignoring assignments, being a hothead, watching too many hours of unrelated YouTube, being rude, etc.  It pays to work hard and be kind to others!

Boss Level:

Divisions will face against each other in their own company over large amounts of XP. These competitions can range from constructing a specific game to creating the best assets. It’s somewhat like an Olympics. It challenges each division on everything that’s expected in a decent game. The winning division in that company will receive a fixed XP boost and will be able to compete with the winning divisions from the other companies. The overall winning division will receive a bigger XP boost and earn a pizza (or some kind of relatively universally appreciated food stuff like that). The XP earned will not go towards individual scores but it will go to the divisions.

Winning Condition:

To win this game, the player/division/company must have more XP than anyone else. There will be different awards for the winners of each section, but each award will be different, the grandest one going to the player with the highest overall XP.