Syllabus


 * Welcome!** CPED 5401, Game-Based Learning

Classroom assignments parallel game structure in having a challenge with choices to be made, guidelines or rules in how the challenge can be accomplished, anticipated feedback, and often an element of competition. The wise teacher works to keep the flow of a student’s work challenging, to avoid boredom, but within the student’s skill set, to avoid undue frustration. How a teacher addresses victories (fiero) and failure for the student can make a huge difference in ongoing performance. The raw material of both schoolwork and games (challenges/choices, rules, feedback, competition, flow, fiero, and failure) are the same. Yet, game addiction is a problem at one end of a student’s life spectrum and avoidance of schoolwork is at the opposite extreme for many in today’s classrooms. The gamification of education is a new educational philosophy that invites innovative teaching methodologies and developing strategies that are yielding positive results for academic endeavors. 3 credits

"Game-Based Learning" is a course in the Master of Arts in Educational Technology curriculum at Johnson University, Knoxville TN 37998. The professor for the course is Dr. Tony Krug, tkrug@johnsonu.edu. Typically, the course is taught every spring semester.

Course Objectives
Students (who are generally teachers or school technology coordinators) who successfully complete the course will be able to
 * 1) Explain various dimensions of game-based learning as an alternative learning strategy to achieve appropriate educational outcomes as an issue of curriculum development and effective use of media based strategies.
 * 2) Demonstrate effective use of game-based learning strategies as a way computers can play a meaningful role in the classroom.
 * 3) Implement multi-media components to develop an alternative environment to better engage students to accomplish educational objectives, including multimedia products and services from various sources.
 * 4) Lead students to be able to build games that positively affect and effect learning
 * 5) Use game-based approaches to learning that are relevant to their own school-based positions.
 * 6) Deploy new strategies for student centered learning educational approaches.

Textbooks
Required: Kapp, Karl M. The Gamification of Learning and Instruction: Game-Based Methods and Strategies for Training and Education, Pfeiffer, 2012

Optional: McGonigal, Jane Reality Is Broken Penguin, 2011 Salen, Katie Quest to Learn MIT Press, 2011 (available as an ebook download at no charge from The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, [])

Methodology
This course will be conducted using game-based learning strategies. The course is organized to maximize student centered learning as it is loosely structured as a role playing game, generally following a medieval European theme (as is fairly typical of classic role playing games). Students are adventurers who are based in a Guild Hall and who venture out on various paths radiating from three different center points accessed from the Guild Hall. (Please see the Great Room in the Guild Hall - which may require scrolling down.) Each adventurer keeps a record of the pursuits along these paths in a personal Adventurer's Log (a wiki page linked to the Great Room in the Guild Hall) which has a Discussion Tab where one can find that Adventurer's Pilgrimage write ups, Quest discussions, Journal entries, and Surveillance reports. Adventurers will use their imaginations to... Look, there is the Guild Hall entrance now (click on doors above to enter the Guild Hall)!

Grades
Grades will be derived from experience points (XPs) generated by various activities achieved in the conquest of this course game. Students will be able to gain XPs from participating in pilgrimages (readings, sound, and video presentations of course content) and quests (activities) that are recorded in their adventurer logs. Crafts (projects) and at least one Raid (exam) allow student adventurers to gather larger "hauls" of experience points (XPs). Experience points (XPs) also can be gained through regular journal entries reflecting on one's personal learning experience and surveillance reports observing work others pursue in the class.

XPs are arranged into levels to help students experience their accomplishment in advancing through the game/course. Grade percentages are aligned with the Templar School of Education grading scale. Total XP goal = 526 XP. A 95% = Level 25, 500 XP A- 92% = 484 XP B+ 89% = 468 XP  B 86% = 452 XP B- 83% = 437 XP  C+ 80% = 421 XP  C 77% = 405 XP   C- 74% = 389 XP   D+ 71% = 373 XP D 68% = 358 XP   D- 65% = 342 XP  XP values will be noted at each site. Player and Game Master work together to build XPs when good points are noted in the content analysis of a Pilgrimage or Quest, combined with personal reflections on that item. Journals are overall student reflections on the week's work, while Surveillance is content analysis and reflection on others' work that week. Craft Activities are reflections on Crafting as crafts are constructed to be used to guide claims of Craft XPs. Typically, XPs are awarded for each point made, with some pilgrimages especially affording opportunity for more total XP earnings than others. A "good point" comes from statements of a sentence or more, not listings. Usually an XP requires a paragraph of three sentences, where the first sentence makes a claim that is supported by sentences that explain and give examples to support the claim.

Attendance Policy
Johnson University attendance policy for online courses requires students to be in class each week. An explanation is expected if a student is not in attendance for a given week. A student who misses 2 weeks of class may be administratively withdrawn from the course without further notice. (Note: It is essential that students maintain contact with the professor, even if a message must be relayed through another student. Relayed messages must be confirmed by the student in question as soon as possible.)

Special Services
Johnson University complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 by providing students with documented disabilities reasonable accommodations. If the Special Services Office has provided you with a Reasonable Accommodation Form, I want to discuss it with you to be sure it is carried out for your work in this course. Further, if you have a documented disability and believe accommodations would assist you in this course, please talk with me soon. After our meeting, I will direct you to the Special Services Office for appropriate assistance.

Disclaimer
This syllabus is a good faith effort to predict how this course will proceed. The professor reserves the right to make any changes as may be deemed necessary or desirable without advance notice.