Gamification in Maths Class

Using games to encourage student engagement is a concept I am quite interested in. I personally enjoy games and can see a range of cross over benefits. I love way that games employ Epic Meaning, Content Discovery and Application of Multiple skills to incentivise and engage players, and I am keen to use similar techniques for my students.  

So for final term of the year, when some students can find their focus waning and there is a few weeks with "non assessable" periods, I thought it was the perfect time to try Classcraft.

Classcraft is an attractive, customisable free classroom reward system. Something like classroom dojo, but more mature. Classcraft offers an $8 per month premium edition, with some more bells and whistles and a developing LMS. I am still working through the free edition, to check it works for my students (initial response is very positive).

If you would like 2 months free premium access, just tell them that I sent you,

or you can just use this link: https://game.classcraft.com/signup/i8z5qX4sKi7yYeE7j


Class Set up
Setting up classes is reasonably easy. I had a spreadsheet with my students' names and details, which Classcraft let me import. Then I needed to set up teams (knowing which students should be together, or not). All up it took less than 30 minutes to have all students in the system, with updated details and teams set.

Finally I wanted to adjust the 'abilities/powers' to ensure no rule broke school rules (no food in class, etc) and customise rewards for homework/good behaviour. This took perhaps another 30 minutes to work through the customisation.

Introducing this to students
The students came back from a 2 week holiday looking a little disappointed that the holidays vanished.

I started the lesson by reviewing the program...
probability....
consumer mathematics...
they were not impressed, so I proposed we have a little bit of game.

I presented Classcraft with the below Powerpoint.



You may notice that given this is a Mathematics class I have included a Probability task in week 3 called "Black Magic" to see how students choose between difference choices, and an Interest comparison task, called Coins of the Sphinx.

I told the students that all content and assignment submissions are happening through the existing LMS, however any request for points can be communicated through the Classcraft system.

I am still working through this system, but the initial response from students is very positive:

Comments sent by Students:

"I am really looking forward to this game!"

"I am totes into this roleplay thing thank you for doing this!! bruh it gr8 thank you"

I will put up another post in a couple of months to describe how the class enjoyed it.



Meanwhile here is the Infogram about Gamification
Created by Knewton and Column Five Media

(Classcraft short link: bit.ly/1Qi5X3Y)