Making With Ayala

This will be the last post in this series on Gamification in Education, which began with my experimentation of gamifying my universities LMS. When I was experimenting with the gamification of Deakin’s LMS I was frustrated with the limitations placed on me by the design of the university system. In my follow up posts I explored ways that educators have broken out of the limitations of a traditional classroom. Kathrin Knautz and their colleagues used storyboarding to restructure a university class into an interactive text adventure in “The Legend of Z” (Knautz, 2013). Aaron Pavao rethought his classroom exams and helped his worst test-takers start succeeding (Sheldon, 2020). In these examples I see an opportunity to not just add some game elements to our classrooms, but to approach failures in our educational system with game-based thinking (Robertson, 2010).

In Australia we have a major issue with secondary school graduation rates for rural students. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics reports for 2024, remote/very remote areas of Australia year 12 certification rates are on average 55.5%. What makes things worse is that despite many attempts to improve school retention rates, retention for students at government schools has gone down in the last six years (Polesel et al., 2021)(Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2024). We clearly need a new approach to increase student engagement and improve retention rates if we want young Australians to have the best opportunities going forward.

Imagi-Learning: a bold new solution

Above is an advertisement for “imagi-learning” a hypothetical digital platform for completing a year 12 certification. As with Deakin’s LMS avatars are a key element of imagi-learning. These avatars would develop along with students as they complete their year 12 certification and act as avatars for a (teacher moderated) social media platform hosted on Imagi-Learning. Many of the students in my gamification class, not to mention a great deal of the literature, have emphasised how important social interaction is to their educational engagement and to their gaming experiences (Sailer, 2013). For isolated teenagers living in highly rural areas this social interaction is particularly important, especially given the social media ban upcoming in Australia (UNICEF, 2025).

More than a just Digital Learning Platform

The most important difference between imagi-learning and other year 12 certification programs would be increasing teenagers level of control over their education. Polesel et al. (2021, pp. 567-568) argue that senior certificate programs are increasingly failing to prepare students with the skills they want and need to succeed in the workplace, focusing instead only on university preparedness. This leaves out students who are undecided about pursuing university. Students are being forced to choose life paths at 14 cutting off many students from future choices (Polesel, 2021)

“The existence of curriculum strongholds, providing access to the most desired university pathways, impenetrable to our most disadvantaged students … are evidence of the continuing inequality inherent in our senior certificates” (Polesel et al., 2021, p. 580).

Not Students but Heroes

Imagi-Learning would embrace a multi-track approach where students would be able to pursue multiple interests built around skill competencies, including incorporating vocational training. Imagi-learning would also use Aaron Pavao’s “boss battle” grading approach we where assessments are an opportunity for students to test and perfect their skills and understanding (Sheldon, 2020). The story of Imagi-Learning is vital here because it helps give students a reason to engage and start getting postive feedback. In the case studies I looked through in Lee Sheldons book (Sheldon, 2020), it was the most disengaged students that responded the most positively to the narrative elements introduced into the classwork. Even if students have a low level of confidence that schooling is going to serve their needs, the story will pull them in.

Imagi-Learning makes full use of the motivational triad of autonomy, confidence, and relatedness to engage students intrinsic motivation (Grabner-Hagen and Kingsley, 2023). Autonomy comes from the avatar designs and adaptable pacing and coursework. Confidence is built from the adapted grading scheme and low-consequence mini-games. Relatedness comes from the engaging narrative and social network. The main challenge to an idea like Imagi-Learning is it would require major funding to develop a platform of this complexity. I would argue however that without an approach that offers new ways pf engaging students we are not going to see a change in senior certificate rates, and Australia’s young people will suffer.

Citations

Polesel, J., Gillis, S., Suryani, A. et al. (2021). The Australian Senior Certificates: after 50 years of reforms. Aust. Educ. Res. 48, 565–584 https://doi.org/10.1007/s13384-020-00403-x

Sheldon, L. (2020). The multiplayer classroom : Designing coursework as a game. Taylor & Francis

Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2024). Schools. ABS. https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/education/schools/latest-release.

Sailer, M., Hense, J., Mandl, H., & Klevers, M. (2013). Psychological perspectives on motivation through gamification. Interaction Design and Architecture(s), (19), 28–37. https://doi.org/10.55612/s-5002-019-002

UNICEF Australia. (n.d.). Social Media Ban. UNICEF Australia. https://www.unicef.org.au/unicef-youth/staying-safe-online/social-media-ban-explainer?srsltid=AfmBOor2HqIR1-1MadgWOruv5I0zNeWxdOwvxEk3Im6LS3y8prNJfjKQ

Powers, F.E., & Moore, R.L. (2021). When failure is an option: A scoping review of failure states in game-based learning. Tech Trends. Advance online publication. DOI: 10.1007/s11528-021-00606-8

Grabner-Hagen, M. M., & Kingsley, T. (2023). From badges to boss challenges: Gamification through need-supporting scaffolded design to instruct and motivate elementary learners. Computers and Education Open, 4, 100131. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666557323000095