Gamifying a Course to Teach Games and Simulations for Learning

Abstract

This design case includes the challenges, considerations, and decisions associated with the design, development, and delivery of a master’s level educational technology course on teaching and learning with games and simulations. A master’s level course, Digital Games and Simulations in the Classroom, faced redesign in order to add a gamification component to be modeled through 3D GameLab and Shivtr. The design decisions made and resulting issues are detailed in this paper. This paper aims to reveal benefits in two key areas: (a) helping a population of primarily non-gamer educational technology graduate students see games and simulations as viable resources for improving learning and (b) modeling gamification as a means to help instructors use gamification as their own instructional strategy