Social Media and Gamification

Hi guys,

It's been a busy few weeks here within the EduPLAYtion team, designing and delivering Faculty Learning communities and submitting research proposals - but we are back!

It's been great to see the blog getting some traffic from both national and international areas and we welcome your comments, feedback and suggestions for further blog posts or explorations!

For this blog post, we wanted to share this fantastic talk by Associate Professor Marco Antonio de Carvalho Filho from the University of Campinhas-Brazil / University of Groningen-The Netherlands. Here, Professor de Carvalho Filho shares the innovative creation of a gamified community of practice for students and teachers undertaken at his institution. The results with regards to engagement and student satisfaction are truly striking and admirably demonstrate that employment of simple game mechanics and a sense of community can form a hugely positive adjunct to education, if employed properly.  

Of interest is how the incorporation of social media and a 'community' is truly valued by students, which aligns with information we have been gathering in our EduPLAYtion project, from both staff and students. 

Some highlights and further thoughts from the talk:

• The digitally native student has a significant presence both in real world and the online world - but where is it that the real student comes into play? The answer may be in the virtual field.

• Utilisation of avatars in online learning may improve a students feeling of identity, belonging, responsibility and community. There is plenty of research supporting this theory, and continuing discussion surrounding effective use of avatars in educational game settings 

• Streamlining of access to uploaded virtual learning content may increase access and engagement by learners.

• Simple reminders of online content available via e-mail or Facebook acts to increase engagement 

• Incorporating social media into education may be morally and ethically difficult - but in our current world should be explored as an option to widen participation

How might we further the creation and co-creation of teacher and student communities through social media and gamification? We'd love to hear from you or to hear any projects current out there!