After having developed a Compendium of Methods on the use of gamification in lessons within the GDL project, as well as a Toolbox with examples of platforms that can be accessed to create or use gamification, it is time to design the structure of a free online course for teachers, trainers and educators, especially for pre-university education, in order to develop their digital skills, to raise awareness of the need and advantages of using digital resources to integrate gamification (such as tools, apps and platforms), to provide guidance and examples to increase teachers’ motivation to integrate gamification into their lessons, to enhance the quality of inclusive education, thus stimulating students’ engagement and participation in learning activities.
Why should we use Gamification?
- because it can be a prominent key to success in different aspects of life;
- because it can combine work with fun, making the lesson more attractive and more engaging for students. Any non-game context can become more engaging by applying Gamification.
In simple words, “Gamification” means integrating the existing environment with game mechanics. Basically, gamification adopts the key elements of games, such the design, action or activity, fun and competition, then applies them through game mechanics, such as points, badges and rankings.
The course, structured in 4 modules, 11 theoretical and practical lessons, provides the participants 15 pedagogical sequences with an applicative content, and examples of lesson plans using gamification tools for online learning (synchronous and asynchronous), 30 explanatory tool sheets to share specific knowledge and all the necessary information to apply gamification techniques, so that users can practice the learning experience..
The course will also include guides on how to create your own pedagogical tools, recommendations on how to integrate them into different formats, tools and platforms for gamification that have already been collected in the Toolbox, and finally, the course will provide more information regarding the inclusion and use of gamification tools in learning and will train the digital skills of teachers to implement or create their own content using gamification in online and face-to-face classes.
This course will have a broad IMPACT among teachers, who will improve their digital skills (storyboarding, online graphics) in a practical context; It will enhance their ability to use and create their own lessons using gamification.
Also, the online course provides TRANSFERABILITY -The course content will be translated into 5 languages, a clear video/tutorial will be made available, with support for subtitles. All content will be up-to-date and relevant to all European educators and teachers.
In addition, to ensure SUSTAINABILITY, the course will remain online as free, open-source digital material, accessible to all, even after the end of the project.
In this way, teachers can progress in their teaching activity, achieve better results with students, integrate students with special needs into their own training, and provide education to European standards that meets present and future training needs.
Bibliography:
- “Gamificarea: o cheie proeminentă pentru succes în diferite aspecte ale vieții” https://ro.myservername.com/how-make-agile-estimation-process-easy-with-planning-poker
- Adriana Șurcă “Despre gamificare” https://www.elearning.ro/despre-gamificare
- Adriana Șurcă “Integrarea în educație a strategiilor de „Gamification” și „Game-Based Learning” – Între trend și exigență” https://www.elearning.ro/integrarea-in-educatie-a-strategiilor-de-gamification-si-game-based-learning-intre-trend-si-exigenta
