GAMIFICATION: A GUIDELINE FOR INTEGRATING AND ALIGNING DIGITAL GAME ELEMENTS INTO A CURRICULUM Matthew Mieure A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF EDUCATION August 2012 Committee: Dr. Terry Herman, Advisor Dr. Larry Hatch Dr. Paul Cesarini ii ABSTRACT Dr. Terry Herman, Advisor Motivating students to learn is one primary goal of education. The same students that are unmotivated in school are highly motivated to play digital games. However, educational games have not enjoyed the same success as commercial games. An alternative approach to transforming education is to apply the aspect of popular game design into the more traditional existing best practice within the schools. Gamification is the process of integrating digital game attributes into an academic curriculum utilizing things such as levels, challenges and rewards with the goal of increasing student engagement. Thus, designing educational curriculum in the same way that successful games are designed may lead to more effective teaching and learning. This study used a review of literature and experts to create a set of guidelines of digital game attributes and design that can be applied to a more traditional curriculum. One purpose of this guideline was to provide educators with an alternative method of curriculum design and content delivery. The second purpose of this guideline was to provide suggestions for how teachers as to how they might implement digital game elements into an academic setting. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank all of the faculty and staff at Bowling Green State University for their guidance and support. I want to thank Dr. Terry Herman for her instrumental role in my success. I would also like to thank the members of my committee and my expert panel for providing me with a wealth of expertise during my research. Finally, I would like to thank my entire family including my parents Don and Judy Mieure who encouraged me to go back to school, my wife Teresa Mieure, and children Andrew Mieure, Samantha Mieure, and Gabriel Mieure who encouraged and supported me every step of the way. Thank you. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 1 Context of the Problem ........................................................................................................ 1 Statement of the Problem ..................................................................................................... 2 Objectives ............................................................................................................................ 2 Significance of the Study ..................................................................................................... 3 Definition of Terms ............................................................................................................. 4 CHAPTER II: REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE ......................................................................... 5 Today's Learners .................................................................................................................. 6 Engagement and Collaboration ........................................................................................... 8 Motivation ......................................................................................................................... 11 Cognitive Elements ........................................................................................................... 13 Pure Games ........................................................................................................................ 15 Serious Games ................................................................................................................... 17 Video Games and Learning ............................................................................................... 18 Video Game Design .......................................................................................................... 20 Case Studies ....................................................................................................................... 28 Gamification of the Curriculum ........................................................................................ 31 Blending the Research ....................................................................................................... 34 Section Summary ............................................................................................................... 36 CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY ............................................................................................... 39 Statement of the Problem .................................................................................................. 39 Audience ............................................................................................................................ 40 v Objectives .......................................................................................................................... 40 Research Design ................................................................................................................ 40 Description of the Guidelines ............................................................................................ 41 Expert Panel ....................................................................................................................... 42 Educational Research and Development ........................................................................... 42 Model Content ................................................................................................................... 42 Data Collection .................................................................................................................. 44 Timeline for Study ............................................................................................................. 44 Budget ................................................................................................................................ 44 CHAPTER IV: FINDINGS ........................................................................................................... 45 Alpha Review .................................................................................................................... 45 Alpha Review Revisions .................................................................................................... 47 Beta Review ....................................................................................................................... 47 Beta Review Revisions ...................................................................................................... 49 Final Model ........................................................................................................................ 49 CHAPTER V: SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS ........................ 51 Summary ............................................................................................................................ 51 Objectives of the Study ...................................................................................................... 53 Conclusions ........................................................................................................................ 55 Recommendations ............................................................................................................. 56 REFERENCES .............................................................................................................................. 58 APPENDIX A: APLHA MODEL ................................................................................................ .62 APPENDIX B: BETA MODEL .................................................................................................... 78 vi APPENDIX C: FINAL MODEL ................................................................................................... 99 APPENDIX D: EXPERT PANEL INVITATION ...................................................................... 120 1 CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION Context of the Problem Today's educational system is largely based in Industrial Age theories. The factory and model school and college replaced the one room schoolhouse of the Agrarian age during the Industrial Age (Draves & Coates, 2011). These theories stress the ideas that education should have a hierarchy in which the instructor dictates the teaching of the learners. Also prevalent in these theories are the idea that one should learn from written text by means of absorbing information and then regurgitating the learned information. Currently the factory school is being transformed into a new pedagogical model for the 21st century (Draves & Coates, 2011). Even with enormous technological advances in recent decades that have changed the way humans live, the educational system still remains primarily the same. There is no question that there have been changes, e-learning being an example; however, it still relies on content delivery systems that match or highly resemble those of the past. So what is the problem? The problem is that newer generations have grown up differently. Newer generations have grown up with technologies that have altered human socialization. They have had access to laptop computers, mobile phones, video game consoles,