Abstract:

This project has two main goals; the first is how turn a traditional subject structured education, (meaning 1 course per subject matter) into a cross-disciplinary courses based education. The second goal is to gamify individual processes in each course, and breaking down the subject matters into small manageable pieces and show through a series of games, how these are linked together. For this example we have based the project on a higher Ed. program focusing on computer game development. While goal one would need adjustment if used in other educational programs, goal two is non-program related. The design builds on research and development done at IgA (se below).

Only one cross-disciplinary course is taught at the time, and each course is structured over a 5-week period. Each following course will build on the content taught in the previous. The students start by developing mini-games and gradually increase the complexity. The first games they will develop will be platform game, which give the students a broad area to learn from, not only basic programming, but also math and physics.

All teaching will be based on practical game development, “learning by doing”, and the theoretical topics will be taught “just in time”; that is when they appear naturally in the game development process. The courses will be Problem Based (PBL) and divided into 6-10 cases, and the students will work in groups with teachers and higher-grade students as tutors. The assignments will be both individual and group based. Writing blogs will invite informal learning into the classroom and is therefor a key process in each course. Another key issue is to choose the right games with right blend of topics and level of challenges.

The gamification aspects will be maintained by making a competitive environment where students compete locally both individually and between groups. They will also compete on the Internet with other university classes and peers in game forums and online societies. These competitions will be supported by a system of points, badges and leaderboard, with larger rewards for the students, groups or classes that win. In this way informal learning will also be brought into the classroom; the students will be rewarded for using online peers in online forums and societies to comment on their projects.

In Interactivity, Games and Visual Arts (IgA) in Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences (INN) we have used game development in teaching for 10 years. INN has a complete game development tracks since 2003, and is now one of the biggest and most complete game educations in Scandinavia with 250 game students.

References:
[1] Nordby, A., Karlsen, S. (2014). Teaching ‘hardcore science’ to arts and design students: Reflections on the development of a basic programming course. InFormation - Nordic Journal of Art and Research 2014 ;Volum 3.(2) s. 129-142
[2] Nordby, A., Oygardslia, K., Sverdrup, H., Sverdrup, U., (2016). The art of gamification; Teaching Sustainability and System Thinking by Pervasive Game Development. E-journal of e-lerning (EJEL) Issue 3 2016, p152-168.

Keywords:

Learning, Game Development, Gamification, Games and Learning, Pervasive games, Digital Games, Concurrent Design.