Incorporating Gameful Pedagogy in Cultural Entrepreneurship Courses
Dr. Aparna Katre
COVID has forced me to rethink pedagogy and embrace technology and the learning management system (LMS) as an integral component in the delivery of my teaching and learning. Although most universities have seen greater adoption of LMS during the pandemic, we cannot ignore the fact that most LMSs lack interactive capabilities. As a result, student engagement is significantly affected. Although augmented and virtual reality, video games, and technology simulations can increase student engagement, rarely do they seamlessly integrate with LMSs. Additionally, learner equity and accessibility to such technologies are challenging.
Working with colleagues from Academic Technology Services and Media Hub at the University of Minnesota Duluth, we provide an integrated but creative hack, with a step-by-step implementation guide to overcome these challenges while aiming to increase learners’ mastery of the subject and increase their intrinsic motivation and engagement with the materials. We conceive the learning to be project-based broken into quests, to which gameful pedagogy principles are applied. Using technologies such as Thing Link, we create an immersive environment and a pathway to guide the learners through the project, transforming their experience with the LMS and the materials.Â
The creative hack consists of three components:
- gamifying the curriculum
- developing an immersive environment, and
- setting up the LMSÂ
The approach can be easily applied to a wide variety of disciplines including the humanities and social sciences that are often left out of project-based learning. We believe that the gains from the combined methods can be exponential.
Watch the introductory videos below. Download the Guidebook for step-by-step instructions on how to apply the creative hack to your curriculum.