Abstract
This chapter begins with a self-exploration of the evolution of the author from using one-shot games as a high school English teacher to designing synchronous game-based courses as an assistant professor to creating asynchronous course-based games as an associate professor. The pros and cons of each are discussed with a focus on examining the pedagogical theories that support game-based teaching. Then, readers take a deep dive into ways to create asynchronous course-based games while avoiding common pitfalls. The chapter concludes with an exploration of how asynchronous course-based games can help create equity by providing students with the flexibility to learn at their own pace and on their own time and the ability for students to determine their own grades through the revision cycle.
TopBackground
Game-based learning has become a buzzword in education. For some, game-based learning means that commercial games are used to teach. In some cases, these commercial games are not specifically designed for educational environments, but are co-opted by teachers for educational purposes, such as having students use Minecraft to build digital dioramas. In other cases, the games are designed to teach, but these educational games can vary from edutainment—tests and quizzes designed as games—to immersive gaming experiences where the content is embedded in the gameplay, such as Lure of the Labyrinth where players engage in various pre-algebra tasks like figuring out ratios of ingredients as part of their undercover identity as a worker in a petfood factory run by monsters with the ultimate goal of freeing stolen pets. Many teachers also create their own games but, again, this varies widely. Some teachers use competitive quiz platforms that test but do not teach, such as Kahoot. Some gamify their teaching by calling groups “guilds,” grades “experience points,” and stickers “badges.” Others create their own games from scratch that derive the gameplay from the content. Still others have their own students create content-based games. This book chapter focuses on teacher-created immersive games designed to teach.
The findings of several meta-analyses (Clark, et al., 2016; Connolly, et al., 2012; Sitzmann, 2011; Vogel, et al., 2006; Wouters, et al., 2013) show that game-based learning can increase student performance. However, because what is meant by game-based learning differs, what types of games are used differ, and what types of learning environments are studied differs, the individual studies analyzed show a wide-range of impact. While meta-analyses of game-based teaching cast a wide net, what is more instructive are the individual case studies that provide lessons learned for others to follow such as Shute, et al., (2021) who examined various iterations of physics game, Sheldon’s (2011) book of case studies, and others. The findings of Squire’s (2011) study of his own physics game serve as a good reminder to any teacher who creates their own curricular game:
Kids compared [Supercharged!— the educational video game Squire helped create] to ‘what they did at school’ rather than ‘the games they played at home’. We saw no evidence of kids rejecting Supercharged! Because it wasn’t Grand Theft Auto. There was not one complaint about the graphics or lack of violent content. We presented Supercharged! As a game, and students played it. (Squire, 2011, p. 96)
As each teaching situation differs, finding the best fit often involves constant calibration to best suit the learners, the content, the context, and the instructor. Modeling this transformation can provide entryways and guidance to those who embark upon this work.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Learning Management System (LMS): A software platform for instructors to teach students or trainers to train workers, it is a way to deliver online content and track student progress.
Leveling Up: Videogames are often constructed in such a way that players must demonstrate mastery of an easier skill before “leveling up” to a higher level that requires more skill or skills.
Boss: A boss battle is the final challenge in a video game where all skills learned throughout the video game are used to defeat the boss, who is a conglomeration of all the powers and skills of the mini-bosses encountered along the way.
Adaptive Release: Also known as selective release, this term refers to a way for instructors to control which students see what in a learning management system by setting rules to determine what conditions must be met in order to make something visible to individual students, groups of students, or the whole class.
Ongoing Classes: Classes with no set start or end date where students can join at any time, work at their own pace, and complete when they finish all the work in the class. Unlike traditional term-bound classes, if there are ongoing classes that are sequenced, they can then start the next ongoing class without having to wait for the next term to begin.
Asynchronous Classes: As opposed to synchronous classes where students meet at regularly scheduled times, asynchronous classes allow students to work at their own pace. Some asynchronous classes may involve meet-ups, but these are largely ad hoc as needed, for group work, or optional.
Non-Playable Characters (NPCs): Non-playable characters are characters in a game who are not being played by the game player. In video games, they are agents controlled by computer as opposed to avatars which are characters controlled by a human player.
Curricular Games: Curricular games are games designed to teach students through a game story where students play the protagonist with obstacles students must overcome to reach an end goal.
Iterative Design: The process of playtesting a product, gathering feedback, and making changes accordingly. This typically happens in stages with the first stage involving the developer(s) playtesting as a user (gray-box), the second stage with peers (alpha), and the third with end-users (beta). The earlier stages can continue to occur while later stages are happening.