Explanations

=How To Get 35 XP per Week= Several are still unclear about how to proceed in this course. This course is designed as a game, and also meets the definition of authentic learning more than the typical structure of a class would. Both qualities are making game-based learning an exciting educational reform in America.

How to get 40 XP per week? Because you have choices and decisions, there are several ways. However, the following would be the most balanced way each week.

Pilgrimages = 15-20 XP, requires 2-4 Pilgrimages. See Pilgrimages below. Quests = 5-10 XP, requires 1-2 Quests. See Quests below. Journal = 3 XP. See Journal below. Surveillance = 3 XP See Surveillance below.

Total = 36 XP

There are ways to adjust this, which you will understand better after reading the Pilgrimages, Quests, Journal, and Surveillance emails.

=Pilgrimages= Pilgrimages are the portion of the course where “content acquisition” occurs. In the other 3 online courses you have had with me it was called CHAT. In those courses you typically were assigned to read a chapter that often was 20-30 pages long.

In this course, the readings are arranged by topic, so portions of chapters are used, rather than entire chapters. And, those portions may come from anywhere within the 3 textbooks for this course, or from somewhere else entirely, provided to you with a link or pdf file. Usually a 5 XP Pilgrimage will be about 5 pages or less and a 10 XP Pilgrimage will be about 10 pages or less. So, 15-20 XP should mean 15-20 pages of reading – usually LESS than in other courses for weekly reading.

Another difference in this course is that some Pilgrimages use videos instead of reading. Some videos are so short as to be barely longer than a minute. Other videos may be as long as 20 minutes, but often the longer ones have transcripts to help you with notes.

How do you find Pilgrimages? In Tournament Faire there are 6 paths. Each path has a theme. The themes are: Beginner’s Craft Why Use Games in the Classroom The History of Games and Education What Is a Game? The Psychology and Sociology of Games in Education The Physiology of Games in Education

The Pilgrimages are spread across the paths. You will have to explore the paths in the Tournament Faire to determine which is which. On a particular path, you are likely to find more than one Pilgrimage that covers approximately the same thing. This gives you a choice in which you prefer to read. Normally you will not need to read more than one Pilgrimage on the same topic. However, if you have trouble understanding one Pilgrimage, you may find another that covers about the same thing, but is clearer to you. For example, on one path there is a Pilgrimage “Engage me or Enrage Me,” a 5 XP Pilgrimage. Another Pilgrimage, Educating Millennials” is a 10 XP Pilgrimage that says about the same thing. There is no need to read both. Generally, the shorter Pilgrimage is enough, unless one especially likes the topic or does not understand.

In some cases there are very different Pilgrimages in the same theme on a path, and you may want to read more than one Pilgrimage on a path for that reason, as well.

How to Choose a Pilgrimage? Keep in mind the idea behind “zero-based” grading typical for game-based learning. Because the articles are short, the main idea is usually pretty obvious. You make XP not merely by identifying the main idea, but by pointing out the sub-points that support or develop that main idea. Also, you make points by bringing your personal perspectives and experiences that interact with the points in the Pilgrimage. You need to convince Dr. Holt and me that you have read/watched the WHOLE Pilgrimage and that you understand it well enough to correctly relate it to your own experience.

Often students choose the 10 XP Pilgrimages thinking they will get more points. Often that does not work. It stands to reason that a 10 XP reply should be TWICE as long as a 5 XP reply. Another way of looking at it is that generally it takes a paragraph to develop a point. So, a 5 XP article will require 5 paragraphs, while a 10 XP article would require 10 paragraphs. Usually it is easier and better to write 2 shorter replies than it is to write one longer one.

Tips on Choosing Specific Pilgrimages I hope this helps you understand Pilgrimages. If you still have difficulty understanding, though, please let me know.
 * 1) There are 5 theme paths (other than the Beginner’s Craft path). You should sample each. These are the 5 fundamental areas for understanding game-based learning. Game-based learning fundamentals are the overall theme of the Tournament Faire.
 * 2) PowerUp #1 gives a list of specific Pilgrimages one should pursue at http://cped5401.wikispaces.com/Power+Ups . There are 7 recommendations. Obviously some paths will provide 2 Pilgrimages. By the end of the 4 weeks of Tournament Faire you will need 60-80 XP in Pilgrimages. I think there are only about 40 Pilgrimage XP here, so you will need to choose other Pilgrimages to do as well. However, these Pilgrimages at least introduce all of the fundamentals for game-based learning. If you choose to do all of these by January 29, you will get the PowerUp worth 4 XP additional. By the way, if I told you exactly where each of these is, that would take away part of the fun of the game. Also, as you read the story lines in the game you will find advice on how to understand and interpret the Pilgrimages, similar to if I was commenting on them in a lecture in a regular classroom.

Followup on Pilgrimages One question about Pilgrimages has arisen that I forgot to address below.

In the past, students have suggested they would just wait until some later date (like the last week of the course) an invest several intense days to complete “all” their Pilgrimages at once. There are two problems with that idea: Therefore, there is a provision that one student may submit NO MORE THAN 50 XP of Pilgrimages in one calendar week (ten 5XP Pilgrimages or five 10XP Pilgrimages or any combination totaling 50 XP). This leaves room for those who are behind, choose not to do a Craft, Journal, or Surveillance, yet provides a cap that can work if not too many students try it. Since the number of usable Quest XP are tied to Pilgrimage XP in a 2:3 ratio, there is an effective implied maximum of 30 XP for Quests in any one week.
 * 1) Although student think they can do good work in tense situations, many professors’ experience with students who have tried that amply demonstrate that almost never works. What a student thinks looks good in that situation, looks pretty bad to the professor who must grade it. Learning soaks in slowly like a gentle rain. Trying to rain a thunderstorm of work all at once can cause damage and erosion, but little nurture and growing.
 * 2) If very many students try that a professor simply is not able to review so much work all at once. It is an unworkable situation.

=Quests= What are Quests? Quests are smaller activities that apply content acquisition. In former online classes this portion of the class has been called TAPE (CPED 5205) and ACTS (CPED 5111 and 5301). In general, Quests in this course often are games or web sites to explore, usually for 5 XP. Many of these activities are fairly quick and to attain a good grasp of the concept behind the activity one is asked to play short 2 games or more to make comparisons. In Tournament Faire most of the Quests pair a game with some reading about the game to help you understand how to understand or critique a game. When a reading or a video are paired with a game, often that Quest is 10 XP. Keep in mind that “zero-based” review is in place here as well as though out this course. To get the full XP count almost always will require your comments coupled with your personal experience in addition to merely describing how the game works and whether you like it. How you like it will require specific references to the game and its play.

There are relatively few Quests in Tournament Faire. You will find many more in The Festival Clearing, when it opens. Originally each path had a Quest, but Creating an Avatar was the Quest in one path. I decided that Quest needed to take a more primary role in the course so that I would have your avatars to use on the Leader Boards. Also, converting that Quest to a Craft allows you to do more Quests – and there are many more to do than was the case in previous years. They are just in the later sections of the course.

Limit on Quest XP! Most students really like Quests. If one just does Quests, though, one does not have enough content acquisition to understand how to use the games in teaching. To keep Pilgrimages from being ignored in favor of Quests, there is a rule that when Pilgrimage and Quest XP are added together, at least 60% of the XP count must be Pilgrimages. Another way to explain it is that if XP counts that would be more than 40% of the total for Pilgrimages and Quests, will not be counted. This is not going to be a problem in Tournament Faire, but it could be in the later sections of the class where there are many more really fun Quests. Paying attention to Surveillance and the Quests others are doing will help you choose good Quests to do for yourself.

PowerUps PowerUps are the Game Masters’ way of emphasizing certain portions of the course to be sure students cover important areas. - Keep in mind that taking this class is to prepare you to do similar “gamification” (converting schoolwork using game principles) of coursework. - Since there are only 5 Quests in Tournament Faire and you know you need to sample each path, there really isn’t any need to do PowerUps for Quests in Tournament Faire. The main thing is to recognize that the Quest relates to the theme of the path. Most people understand that with Foursquare, ChoreWars, and SuperBetter, but sometimes don’t make the connection with PPT Games on the Beginner’s Craft path or Mancala on the History of Games path.

I am redesigning The Festival Clearing and The Castle sections of the course and have not re-set the PowerUps there. I doubt there will be PowerUps needed because the Quests are attractive without PowerUps.

Quests are the fun part of this course/game. I do not recall there being too much difficulty with Quests in the past. If there is something you do not understand, please let me know.

= Journal = What is the Journal? An important part of the education process is reflecting on what you are learning as a way to “internalize” what has been done and make it part of yourself – to really “own” it. In other online courses at Johnson this part has been called PEP. In the Journal, one records how one’s world may be intersected by various parts of the course. It is intended to be very personal, and not a repeat of what one has written elsewhere. Worth 3 XP per week it is hard to think that one can express any significant reflection in less than 3 sentences, and 3 paragraphs would be far better in the zero-based review process. Often, though, people write much more to help themselves process what they are learning.

Do I have to do the Journal? No, but these are easy XP to get. The Game Masters are likely to be very accepting of what is written as long as it is about course content, one’s teaching experience past / present / future, or what one is learning. As with Crafts, if one chooses not to do the Journal, or has to miss a week, then more Pilgrimages and Quests can be substituted.

Why Can One Get Credit Only for the Current Week (if one missed a week earlier)? The Journal is kind of a diary. One’s educational experience grows week by week. Sometimes someone will post two Journal entries in the same week to help something be remembered, without expecting more XP. However, in looking back, 2 Journal posts close together do not show the same kind of growth and development that one can see in more evenly spaced Journal posts. Short distanced Journal entries only for the purpose of a grade have less, if any, educational value, in most cases. Since there are other ways to gain extra XP, denying a “late” entry does no harm to anyone’s grade – it just causes them to do another Pilgrimage or Quest.

If you have any questions about Journal entries, please let me know.

=Surveillance= What is Surveillance? Although one can learn alone, learning within the fellowship of a class almost always is to be preferred. In class one also learns what others learn, providing an increment to what one can learn alone. Surveillance has been in the other Johnson online students in the MAET have taken. It was called CLASS (CPED 5205 and 5111) and NICE (CPED 5301). In this course, Surveillance (like Journal) is worth 3 XP per week.

Do I have to do Surveillance? No, but these are relatively easy XP to earn - and one gets far more than merely XP points as the sites are discussed that one has not yet had time to see as well as new perspectives are provided for sites one has seen and worked. To earn 3 XP one only has to discuss something specific about the work at least 2 other students have done and a personal, positive reflection, with specifics, on how that could influence one’s own thinking. (In other words, “I must do better” is neither specific or substantial without some object as to “what" must be better and how better might be seen.)

Why Can’t There Be Late Credit for Surveillance? Time moves on. What someone was doing last week, or the week before that, is history. People are talking about new things. Everyone needs to be fully invested in the present. One cannot participate in a class discussion in real life, so how is that helpful online. There is no penalty for missing a week of Surveillance, since one simply can get an equivalent number of XP with Pilgrimages and Quests.

If you have further questions about Surveillance, please let me know.

=BOSS Raid= The BOSS Raid is like a course Final in that it provides a review of the content (Pilgrimages) and activities (Quests) of a course. It is not like most Finals in these ways: If you have any questions about the BOSS Raid, or any other aspects of the course wiki site, please contact Dr. Krug.
 * 1) Since everyone is going on different Pilgrimages and Quests, each person’s BOSS Raid is unique to that person. Both the array of choices and number of choices affect the composition of the BOSS Raid. This is why the deadline for Pilgrimages and Quests to be included on the BOSS Raid is a week before the BOSS Raid week.
 * 2) Not everyone has to take the BOSS Raid. Last year more than half the class had enough XP for an A before the end of class and did not need the extra XP a BOSS Raid could have provided. The BOSS Raid really is just for those who have come to the end of the course and need a few more XP to achieve the grade they wanted.
 * 3) Because the scope of the BOSS Raid is so large, a whole week is set aside for one to review all the Pilgrimages and Quests in completing the BOSS Raid. If one is going on the BOSS Raid, all other work generally has to be completed the week before the week of the BOSS Raid. (Work completed that last week before the BOSS Raid will not be included on the BOSS Raid.)
 * 4) In zero-based grading we count the number of questions that are right, not how many are wrong, and that number is added to one’s XP total for determining a class grade (see Levels, http://cped5401.wikispaces.com/Levels ). That means there is no grade on the Final, just as there is no separate grade on Crafts, Pilgrimages, Quests, or anything else in the course/game. Everything simply is applied toward the cumulative grade for the course as it rises through the levels on the LeaderBoard pages.