Game Development Reference
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information we learned. These quests vary from a board game I made about
women
s history to making protest posters and chants related to class material.
Some quests were created by me, and some were created by students as one of
the menu of assignments from which they could choose. Students have
commented to me over and over that the quests both help them remember
the material and are fun.
Each student also has an avatar. It is a cut-out paper body that they drew on to
represent themselves. This was our
'
“
get-to-know-you
�
activity on the first day of
class
students introduced their avatar after drawing on them. At the end of
each quest, I hand out something for them to
—
on their avatar that
represents the era we worked on (buckled shoes for the Colonial era, magnifying
glasses for archival history, etc.). These are paper items I copy and cut out, and
they stick on with double-sided tape. When students lead the quest, they provide
the items for the avatar. At the end of the class, they get to keep the avatars as a
visual representation of everything they learned.
“
stick
�
In addition to all of this, I kept the idea of a menu of assignments from which
students could choose. By using both the
and the assign-
ments, students can level up to a better grade. The students like it, and I like the
fact that it makes every student feel that they are capable of getting to the top
level, which will ultimately be reflected as a course grade of an A. If they bomb
something, they can always do more, and doing more equals learning more. By
using menus and leveling up, my students stayed motivated, and learning ceased
to be about grades and returned to what it should be about, engaging and
advancing what you know.
“
achievement points
�
After my first run at the redesigned class, there were things that I needed to
change, based on student comments and my experiences. I needed a better
tracking system for all the points my students earned, for example. The tracking
system could easily be done online through Blackboard. I also needed to refine
my
system and make it a bit simpler. Upon reflection, my
menu of assignments should have been expanded to include more variety in
length and type.
“
achievement points
�
Designing my class with gaming in mind has been one of the most positive
things I have ever done. It is lots of work and every week, I carry Ziplock bags
for each student that contain their poker chips, avatars, and weird plastic objects
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