Gamifying Your Online Course

I have always liked the idea of gamifying my online course. I don't mean adding one or two fun activities, but gamifying the entire course. If you're not familiar with this idea, you'll want to check out the rest of this blog post to learn how you can gamify your online course.

I remember reading an article in Faculty Focus from Magna Publications by Lisa Forbes called Fostering Fun: Engaging Students with Asynchronous Online Learning. In this article, Lisa shares some simple ways you can engage students through fun, games and play. Two things that stood out to me were the section on renaming Modules to something like "Missions" and using digital escape rooms in order to exit a Module. It opened up my eyes to the possibility of turning my entire class into a game from start to finish, but it sounded like such a huge undertaking that I never made any efforts toward putting this ideas into action.

My pique was raised further a few weeks ago I attended the Professors at Play Conference, entitled "Playposium" where I attended a session on Gamifying your Online Course by Andrew Davies. He shared an amazing process that he uses for gamifying his online classes and it really gave me the motivation to consider gamifying my online course.

I made an attempt to begin this process in the Fall 2020 semester, but I became overwhelmed and decided not to pursue it at the moment. This time, I've made a commitment to at least include some elements of gamification. Andrew Davies breaks the process into 3 sections-

1. Setup- where you prepare and put all the ideas together,
2. Production- where you actually piece all the elements together, and
3. Administration- which is the process of actually conducting the game.

This process helps you to take each step one section at a time so that you don't become overwhelmed. So during this Winter Intercession, I will have worked on the Set-up Phase gamifying my course. Wish me luck!

What about you? Will you be trying to gamify you're online course in some way for the upcoming semester? I'd LOVE to hear your ideas and if you can see yourself using this process. Share your thoughts, experiences and ideas in The Online Educator Facebook Group by clicking the link HERE. Also, as a treat don’t forget to GRAB YOUR FREE GUIDE to the 3 Secrets to Teaching Online Successfully.

I'm also proud to share that Andrew Davies will be sharing an amazing overview of this gamification process in the Online Educator Membership in 2021. Join the wait-list to be notified when the membership will be open for new members.