Webinar | Level Up: Gamifying an Asynchronous Course on Designing Games for Learning through Modeling, Authenticity, and Learner Autonomy

While the success of digital games in education continues to validate the improvement to motivation, engagement and social influence (Groening & Binnewies, 2019; Lopez & Tucker, 2019), the impact for asynchronous adult education remains ambiguous. In a substantial course redesign, we attempted to address notable aspects of gamification within a course that teaches how to design games for learning through higher-order skills. The course incorporates aspects of Knowles Theory of Andragogy to help drive our use of modeling, authenticity, and autonomy.

As befits a course that focuses on the design of games for learning, we used a number of instructional design techniques unique to gamification. Learners role-played as trainees in a unique training opportunity named Why So Serious Games Academy led by a team of gaming guides — the instructor(s) — and the facilitator, Arch McGee. Arch McGee, a pedagogical agent, presents as a dynamic character within the course to guide learners through the content asynchronously. As with any game, each Level contains a custom progress bar for the various activities built within each module. These progress bars help communicate the goals. The course strives to enable learners to feel present within the abstract concepts of game design as they engage with higher-order learning objectives