Keri Phillips & Meranda Roy

Assignment 5: Gamification

1. Title: Gamifying APA Formatting

2. Description of the original project/activity: In graduate classes, specifically our program, it is
assumed that students already know APA formatting. However, in our experience we have
noticed a) students do not have any experience with APA (used other forms of scholarly writing
such as MLA), b) students have some experience with APA, c) students are fairly familiar with
APA. In any case, the APA manual contains countless standards and rules for scholarly
communication that students must be familiar with to successfully write papers.
Given the importance of knowing APA formatting, we are proposing taking APA formatting and
gamifying the content. In our first year in the program, we noticed students would often work
together to figure out the basic standards and rules of APA. For example, common questions
included “How do you cite an article in the references?” “What is a DOI and do I really need to
include this?” “Are the headers in Word the same as the headers needed in APA?” Through this
collaborative experience and shifting through the APA manual, students would be able to figure
out the basics. Ideally, this activity would be included in the Introduction to Research in
Learning Technologies (LTEC 6510).
3. Gamification design: Describe your gamification strategies and rationales in detail.
We used the Octalysis Framework (Chou, n.d.) for our gamification elements and strategies.

Game Elements Strategies Rationale

Development & Leaderboard Similar to Learning (2015), we decided to use a
Accomplishment tool that has a leaderboard to increase student
enjoyment, motivation, an engagement. The
author also found that students reported higher
perceived learning and engagement which we are
hoping to replicate with Quizlet. Since students
are competing with other groups, we anticipate
an increase in student motivation to learn the
basics to APA formatting.
Empowerment of Instant feedback Buckley & Doyle (2016) used feedback as one of the
Creativity & Feedback Real-time control gaming elements and found students were more
motivated to learn additional materials covered in
class. Since Quizlet provides instant feedback as well
as real-time control (student selected responses with
graphics showing where groups are in comparison to
each other), we are hoping this motivates students to
learn additional information about or apply the APA
 formatting outside of class in their course writing
assignments.
Social Influence & Social responses Sailer, Hense, Mayr, & Mandl (2017) analyzed various
Relatedness gamification elements to determine the effects on
students’ basic psychological needs. The authors
determined that teammates (as well as avatars and
meaningful stories) affect experiences of social
relatedness. Although the teammates in our proposed
activity are not in virtual worlds, we anticipate positive
experiences since students will be working together
with teammates to quickly figure out the answers to
the APA formatting questions.
Unpredictability & Challenges/rounds Strmečki, Bernik, and Radošević (2015) identified a
Curiosity variety of different gamification elements that were
suitable for e-learning systems including challenges
and freedom to fail. Students in the gamified version
of the online module achieved higher performance
than those students enrolled in the non-gamification
module. For our activity, students will be progressing
though the randomized questions they answer
correctly. For those questions that are answered
incorrectly, groups will get a new set of questions and
the opportunity to continue with the game.
You must include 2+ images that illustrate your gamification strategies.

The above picture shows the leaderboard as teams play against each other.
The above picture shows how screens look mid-game. This show why students must collaborate; they
cannot see what answer choices their partners have.

4. Gamified online collaborative learning: Using https://quizlet.com, the instructor would

create an APA formatting quiz. If this is a student assignment, students can create their own
quizzes. The quiz questions should include APA formatting content like in-text citations,
formatting a reference sheet, headers, title pages, ect. The quizzes should also include samples
of formatting that are correct and incorrect. For incorrect examples, students will have to
provide suggestions on how to make the formatting correct. Once the quiz is created, it’s time
to play. The game creator shares the game code for https://quizlet.com/live for their game to
the class or group of students. The group uses the website https://quizlet.com/live to enter the
code. Once the players are logged in, the game will sort the players into groups of 3 or 4 for
gameplay. When the game starts, all players in the same group will have the same question, but
every player in the group has different answer choices. The group will have to work together
collaboratively to figure out the correct answer for each question. All the groups are competing
to get all the answers correct the fastest. The instructor will move group to group to
formatively assess what aspects of APA formatting students discuss the most. After each round,
the game will highlight the incorrect responses. Instructors can use that information along with
what she/he learned while floating to guide clarification discussion. Then, then the instructor
can reset the game, shuffle the teams, and play again, or the instructor can rotate student-
created games to play everyone’s quiz.
5. Gamification platform:
The “ideal” platform is the internet since this is a webtool. The most important benefit for this
platform is that the internet is device neutral. All students can play as long as they have a
device connected to the internet. The game itself is already designed as a template so that
content can be plugged in. This simplifies the game-making process which ultimately would
make this tool ideal for all levels of expertise in game design.
Quizlet exemplifies gaming strategies we hoped to use. For example, every round of quizlet.live
includes a live leaderboard that adjusts in real-time according to group performance. So, the
groups who answer both correctly and quickly will be winning on the leaderboard. What
enhances engagement is when groups get a wrong answer, they lose all their points, drop to
the bottom of the leaderboard, and must start the quiz over.
Another example is the instant feedback for players as they move through questions. Groups do
not have to wait on an instructor to grade the quiz to know how they performed. The game
provides right and wrong indicators immediately after the group has answered. Also, if an
answer is wrong, the game shows the correct answer so that players can correct their
understanding in the moment.
Finally, Quizlet creates a social yet unpredictable environment for gameplay. Because groups
have different answer choices, groups must interact with each other to find the right answer.
Also, the game shuffles the questions and answer choices so that different groups are working
on different questions simultaneously. Further, the game maker can create a question bank of
thirty questions, but the quiz will only pull ten to twelve questions at a time. This component
keeps players on their toes because they could face new questions every round.
6. References
Buckley, P., & Doyle, E. (2016). Gamification and student motivation. Interactive Learning
Environments, 24(6), 1162–1175.
Chou, Y. (n.d.). Octalysis – the complete gamification framework. Retrieved from
https://yukaichou.com/gamification-examples/octalysis-complete-gamification-
framework/.
Leaning, M. (2015). A study of the use of games and gamification to enhance student
engagement, experience and achievement on a theory-based course of an
undergraduate media degree. Journal of Media Practice, 16(2), 155–170.
Sailer, M., Hense, J. U., Mayr, S. K., & Mandl, H. (2017). How gamification motivates: An
experimental study of the effects of specific game design elements on psychological
need satisfaction. Computers in Human Behavior, 371–380.
Strmečki, D., Bernik, A., & Radošević, D. (2015). Gamification in e-learning: Introducing gamified
design elements into e-learning systems. Journal of Computer Sciences, 11(12), 1108–
1117.