Gamification

As lecturers, we aim to find innovative ways to help students achieve their learning outcomes in a world with many distractions. Gamifying parts of the curriculum and introducing serious games can promote engagement and motivation, complement theoretical teaching activities, and facilitate collaborative and problem-solving skills. In addition, game-based learning can accommodate active learning styles, and can give students a place at the 'steering wheel'. In this group, we aim to map not only lecturers at the RUG currently using this teaching methodology but also translate academic findings in this growing field into practical guidelines for day-to-day teaching. 

With this Community of Practice (CoP) we want to bring together enthusiastic lecturers who implement gamification and serious gaming in their teaching, and lecturers interested in doing so in the future. Based on the growing interest in game-based pedagogy in and outside the RUG, we want to learn from (and with) each other and assist with getting into the topic of gamification in education and developing ideas for our programmes first, and, in the next step, for a broader audience. We do this both by showing examples of what we do in our teaching and by making insights from the academic literature accessible. 

To achieve these goals we aim to:

• Create a space where lecturers present, and get inspired on, how they apply gamification and game-based learning in their teaching.

• Provide an overview of the different strands of gamification in the academic literature.

• Assist colleagues in developing initiatives to apply gamification in their courses.

• Draft practical guidelines for day-to-day teaching. 

As a new CoP, we invite anyone interested in the topic to contact Daniel Vullings ( d.vullings rug.nl ) if you want to join or have insights you want to share with us.