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Gamification with Moodle
Gamification with Moodle

Gamification with Moodle: Use game elements in Moodle courses to build learner resilience and motivation

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Profile Icon Natalie Denmeade
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Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Half star icon 4.8 (10 Ratings)
Paperback Oct 2015 134 pages 1st Edition
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Arrow left icon
Profile Icon Natalie Denmeade
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Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Half star icon 4.8 (10 Ratings)
Paperback Oct 2015 134 pages 1st Edition
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$17.99 $25.99
Paperback
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Gamification with Moodle

Chapter 2. Communication and Collaboration (Labels and Forums)

This chapter is about establishing a culture of communication and collaboration in your class as a learning community. You will learn to use Moodle labels in inventive ways to mimic games and set up a Moodle forum for peer interaction.

The time allotted will be 30 minutes to set up a forum and some labels in your course.

This chapter will cover the following topics:

  • Activity loops and onboarding experiences
  • The importance of ownership and choice in creating an identity
  • Establishing a culture of communication and collaboration

Mount Orange demo Moodle site

It is best to follow these steps in your own test Moodle course that you will set up on www.moodle.com. As an example, we will refer to the demonstration course on Mount Orange School at http://school.demo.moodle.net/course/view.php?id=63:

  1. Go to http://school.demo.moodle.net/login/index.php.
  2. Log in to this free test site with the teacher username and moodle password.
  3. Take a note of the message in the bottom right corner that states the number of minutes until the site is automatically reset (maximum of 60 minutes). Any change that you make will be wiped at this point, so play away—you can't break it!
    Mount Orange demo Moodle site

    Figure 2.1: The preceding screenshot is of a free demonstration site to experiment with Moodle LMS using the fictional "Mount Orange School"

You are now logged in to this test Moodle site as Jeffrey Sanders, a teacher at a fictional place called Mount Orange School. From the My home page, find the course "The Impressionists" that we...

Profiles and avatars

Select the name Jeffrey Sanders (in the top-right corner) and view My profile. Imagine this from a new learner's point of view. First impressions are very strong. Do you feel that you know Jeffrey Sanders from the image he chose? What information is missing from this page? The profile page in Moodle is an important way for learners to get to know each other and find out how to contact each other.

Select Edit profile from the administration block to make changes. The first activity that a new person needs to do, when they start a Moodle course, is to update their profile. It is not necessary to explain everything to the learners, but here are a few important things to demonstrate:

  • Make sure that their e-mail addresses are current, so that they receive notifications of new messages.
  • Explain the privacy options to show or hide their e-mail addresses, and use nicknames for their online personas rather than real names. The city can be entered as Anonymous where appropriate...

Messaging and forums

In the administration block, go to Messages. Ask learners to look for your current course in the contacts list. Ask them to send a welcome message to you explaining how they found out about this course and what they want to achieve. They should also send a brief welcome message to two other learners who have similar interests. Explain to them that they can create a "contacts list" and block anyone if necessary. You may wish to negotiate some boundaries around online communication and review your school's online etiquette and anti-bullying policies. Try this in "The Impressionists" course where you can find test users contacts for practice.

Taking the time to guide the learners through the creation and upload of an avatar is a crucial step towards making them feel welcome in this new environment and having some ownership. Watch how long children spend in dressing up their avatar in the games. It brings them joy and power to choose how they are...

Activity loops

Game designers use the activity loops of Motivations, Action, and Feedback. This holds people accountable for an action. Instead of just asking people to create and upload an avatar and hoping they would do it, you could incorporate this in a series of activities. Set up a forum and make a post to invite people to reply with a Hello message. Each person has to select another learner's name to view their profile, and then rate each other's avatars by rating the forum post out of 3. First, let them rate your avatar so that they know how this works.

This completes the activity loop as you have provided them with three things: motivation to participate, a clearly defined action, and peer-generated feedback.

Activity loops

Figure 2.5: Every action can be mapped to multiple motivations

To set up a forum in a Moodle course, you need to add an activity as follows:

  1. In your test course, turn on the editing mode using the button on the top-right corner.
    Activity loops

    Figure 2.6: Turn on editing to allow teachers...

Forum moderation

You have control over moderating comments made on this forum. Although it is a risk to ask learners to rate each other's work, having negotiated the agreed online etiquette you will be surprised how motivating this is for your group. Like Facebook has aptly demonstrated, tapping in to our need for affiliation is a very powerful force. Your learners will be generally fair in their assessments of each other. Feedback from peers is experienced differently than feedback from a teacher. Try this—you will be surprised what a good vibe this will create! If you didn't attempt a face-to-face lesson because there might be behavior issues to address, you probably wouldn't be a teacher. In an online environment, there will be a few tricky situations to navigate. However, the potential benefits of setting up communication lines and collaboration make this worthwhile. Each event is a learning experience.

Note

Watch this slideshare presentation by Vinnie Stocker on...

Mount Orange demo Moodle site


It is best to follow these steps in your own test Moodle course that you will set up on www.moodle.com. As an example, we will refer to the demonstration course on Mount Orange School at http://school.demo.moodle.net/course/view.php?id=63:

  1. Go to http://school.demo.moodle.net/login/index.php.

  2. Log in to this free test site with the teacher username and moodle password.

  3. Take a note of the message in the bottom right corner that states the number of minutes until the site is automatically reset (maximum of 60 minutes). Any change that you make will be wiped at this point, so play away—you can't break it!

    Figure 2.1: The preceding screenshot is of a free demonstration site to experiment with Moodle LMS using the fictional "Mount Orange School"

You are now logged in to this test Moodle site as Jeffrey Sanders, a teacher at a fictional place called Mount Orange School. From the My home page, find the course "The Impressionists" that we will use as a demonstration course...

Profiles and avatars


Select the name Jeffrey Sanders (in the top-right corner) and view My profile. Imagine this from a new learner's point of view. First impressions are very strong. Do you feel that you know Jeffrey Sanders from the image he chose? What information is missing from this page? The profile page in Moodle is an important way for learners to get to know each other and find out how to contact each other.

Select Edit profile from the administration block to make changes. The first activity that a new person needs to do, when they start a Moodle course, is to update their profile. It is not necessary to explain everything to the learners, but here are a few important things to demonstrate:

  • Make sure that their e-mail addresses are current, so that they receive notifications of new messages.

  • Explain the privacy options to show or hide their e-mail addresses, and use nicknames for their online personas rather than real names. The city can be entered as Anonymous where appropriate.

  • Explain...

Messaging and forums


In the administration block, go to Messages. Ask learners to look for your current course in the contacts list. Ask them to send a welcome message to you explaining how they found out about this course and what they want to achieve. They should also send a brief welcome message to two other learners who have similar interests. Explain to them that they can create a "contacts list" and block anyone if necessary. You may wish to negotiate some boundaries around online communication and review your school's online etiquette and anti-bullying policies. Try this in "The Impressionists" course where you can find test users contacts for practice.

Taking the time to guide the learners through the creation and upload of an avatar is a crucial step towards making them feel welcome in this new environment and having some ownership. Watch how long children spend in dressing up their avatar in the games. It brings them joy and power to choose how they are represented. A creative way...

Activity loops


Game designers use the activity loops of Motivations, Action, and Feedback. This holds people accountable for an action. Instead of just asking people to create and upload an avatar and hoping they would do it, you could incorporate this in a series of activities. Set up a forum and make a post to invite people to reply with a Hello message. Each person has to select another learner's name to view their profile, and then rate each other's avatars by rating the forum post out of 3. First, let them rate your avatar so that they know how this works.

This completes the activity loop as you have provided them with three things: motivation to participate, a clearly defined action, and peer-generated feedback.

Figure 2.5: Every action can be mapped to multiple motivations

To set up a forum in a Moodle course, you need to add an activity as follows:

  1. In your test course, turn on the editing mode using the button on the top-right corner.

    Figure 2.6: Turn on editing to allow teachers to...

Left arrow icon Right arrow icon

Key benefits

  • -Formulate a Moodle course that acts as a flexible framework ready for your own content
  • -Keep learners engaged and create opportunities for motivation through the concepts of status, access, power and so on
  • -A resourceful guide to innovative use of automatic reports, assessments, and conditional release of activities

Description

This book describes how teachers can use Gamification design within the Moodle Learning Management System. Game elements can be included in course design by using, badges, rubrics, custom grading scales, forums, and conditional activities. Moodle courses do not have to be solo-learning experiences that replicate Distance Education models. The Gamification design process starts by profiling players and creating levels of achievement towards meeting learning outcomes. Each task is defined, valued, and sequenced. Motivation loops are devised to keep the momentum going. In a gaming studio, this approach would require a team of specialists with a large budget and time frames. Preparing for a class rarely has these optimal conditions. The approach used in this book is to introduce game elements into the course design gradually. First, apply gamification to just one lesson and then build up to gamifying a series of lessons over a term. Each example will indicate the difficulty level and time investment. Try it out to see what is most effective with your learners and choose wisely in your use of technology. By the end of this book, you will be able to create Moodle courses that incorporate choice, communication, challenge, and creativity.

Who is this book for?

This book has been designed for teachers who to use technology to create more engaging learning experiences for both online learning and in face-to-face sessions. This book will especially appeal to people who are interested in the underlying mechanics of play and games and want to know more about applying these concepts in an educational context. It is assumed that you are a teacher and expert in your field, have basic computer skills, and have access to the Internet.

What you will learn

  • Set up a scoring system using Moodle Gradebook
  • Enable communication and collaboration in your class as a Learning Community using forums
  • Assess your learners' abilities by setting up challenges and quests
  • Configure gateways to check and ensure progress before new content or activities are released
  • Create Moodle assignments to provide effective feedback through a comment bank and custom scale
  • Issue Open Badges to recognize achievements and set up an online backpack to share digital badges
  • Reduce anxiety for learners by using the game-like concept of “Levelling Up”

Product Details

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Publication date, Length, Edition, Language, ISBN-13
Publication date : Oct 20, 2015
Length: 134 pages
Edition : 1st
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781782173076
Vendor :
Moodle
Languages :
Tools :

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Product Details

Publication date : Oct 20, 2015
Length: 134 pages
Edition : 1st
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781782173076
Vendor :
Moodle
Languages :
Tools :

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Table of Contents

10 Chapters
1. Setting Up Gamification in a Moodle Course Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
2. Communication and Collaboration (Labels and Forums) Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
3. Challenges for Learners (Self-Assessment and Choice) Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
4. Passing the Gateway (Conditional Activities) Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
5. Feedback on Progress (Marking Guides and Scales) Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
6. Mastery Achieved (Badges and Motivation) Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
7. Leveling Up (Rubrics) Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
8. Completing the Quest (Reporting Activities) Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
9. Super-boost Gamification with Social Elements (Groups) Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Index Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

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Vinay Dec 22, 2015
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Moodle's best book available in the market
Amazon Verified review Amazon
jmv May 14, 2019
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El libro es una muy buena introducción a la gamificación en Moodle.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Michael Sutton Dec 28, 2015
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Natalie Denmeade's new text been designed for teachers who to use technology to create more engaging learning experiences for both online learning and in face-to-face sessions. This book will especially appeal to people who are interested in the underlying mechanics of play and games and want to know more about applying these concepts in an educational context.Natalie is incredibly dedicated with her principles that she has embarked upon a journey to Zanzibar to work in villages to help young children develop literacy through mobile-based gaming, some of which is in Swahili. If you wish to learn more about Natalie's vision and mission, please check out http://www.dev4x.com.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Sally Drummond Dec 26, 2015
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
If you want to know how to create an interactive game for your students in Moodle, then the the 'Gamification with Moodle' book is a great resource to get you started. This informative book steps you through which resources and activities to use and how to configure the scoring and badges to motivate your students.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Hartmut Scherer Nov 26, 2015
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
This eBook makes it easy for teachers to add game elements to their face-to-face or online class. It has very good illustrations with enough details to implement the ideas. A colored PDF version of the illustrations can be downloaded. Natalie Denmeade suggests creative uses of familiar activities in Moodle like reassessing assignments with rubrics or using labels as a toggle for more detailed instruction. While using her ideas, a teacher will be able to facilitate communication and collaboration which will enable students to have a better learning experience. One purpose of this book is to provide an environment for personalized learning. Students will be encouraged to develop a growth mindset. For my next online class I plan to utilize game elements of this book.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
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