Gamification of Learning

- Welcome to this course on gamification of learning and instruction. I'm Karl Kapp, author of several books on games and gamification, a professor of instructional technology at Bloomsburg University, and a co-principal investigator on several National Science Foundation grants where we created video games for teaching science and engineering concepts. This course highlights the different types of gamification formats you might want to use in your design of engaging and exciting instruction.

Most of the formats will be familiar to anyone who has played games. But if you haven't, your first assignment is to go play some online games. I've provided a list and a worksheet to help you get started, and to help you thing about games from an instructional perspective. Also to be discussed are common game elements that can be incorporated both online, as well as in classroom instruction. These elements can be used separately or in combination to create a gamified learning event.

Above all, this course is designed to help you understand that gamification is more of a design sensibility than a technology tool. Certainly technology can play a large role in gamification, but you don't need technology to create a gamified learning experience. So let's get started.