Purpose of Cycle 3:
The purpose of my first Action Research cycle 3 is to finds ways of motivating students to contribute to the Edmodo community through the methods of gamification.
problem/Situation:
Cycle two involved using Pink's motivation theory to increase the rate at which students participate and the rate in which students constructively post to the Edmodo community. Pink's motivation theory worked really well and the class had a 24.46% increase in total posts/day and a 243.45% increase in constructive posts/day. This raised the rate of constructive posts from 18% to 51% of the overall posts.
An element of cycle two that left an impression with me is the content that best captured the attention of the online community. Students responded well to comments designed around the classroom curriculum currently be taught in the classroom. As a response to this situation, I will be focusing my cycle 3 around a week-long unit being taught in class and use this content as material for posting.
An element of cycle two that left an impression with me is the content that best captured the attention of the online community. Students responded well to comments designed around the classroom curriculum currently be taught in the classroom. As a response to this situation, I will be focusing my cycle 3 around a week-long unit being taught in class and use this content as material for posting.
BACKGROUND RESEARCH:
I will be drawing upon Burke's book, Gamify, as a framework to design my gamified solution. Burke is an expert in gamified design and provides the following seven design points to consider when gamifying a product:
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Research question for cycle 3:
Will the use of gamification increase the rate at which students constructively post as a part of the Edmodo community?
Action Cycle 3: Bandits and Gamification
My action-research Cycle 3 will extend the Bandits! week-long lesson being taught in the classroom. Bandits! is a unit designed to help students understand the California bandit culture in the gold rush era. The units is centered on students creating a wanted poster for a bandit of their imaginative creation.
My aim for cycle 3 is to have students assume the persona of their created bandit in class through role-play on Edmodo. All posting done by the teacher in this segment will challenge students to post in the guise of their outlaw through a two-step design: individual role-play and communal role-play.
My aim for cycle 3 is to have students assume the persona of their created bandit in class through role-play on Edmodo. All posting done by the teacher in this segment will challenge students to post in the guise of their outlaw through a two-step design: individual role-play and communal role-play.
individual role play
The first element of cycle three will challenge students in the Edmodo community to redefine their Edmodo identity. No longer with they be Student 1, student 2 or Student 3, but Pinkerton Polly or Sundance Sam. Students will be challenged to change their identity through the use of badges as motivation. Special badges will be given to students based off of their successful completion of "challenges".
The first post will ask students to update their picture and name to match their created outlaw in class. The second challenge will be to ask students to write a post about their back story of how they became an outlaw. A third post will ask students to describe why their outlaw is on the most wanted list. A specific badge will be given for the completion of each post and the outlaw with the most posts will have the opportunity of becoming the next sheriff.
The first post will ask students to update their picture and name to match their created outlaw in class. The second challenge will be to ask students to write a post about their back story of how they became an outlaw. A third post will ask students to describe why their outlaw is on the most wanted list. A specific badge will be given for the completion of each post and the outlaw with the most posts will have the opportunity of becoming the next sheriff.
collective role play
After students have the opportunity of creating their outlaw identity in Edmodo, they will be assigned to a posse. The class will have three posses that will act as small groups on the Edmodo site. Each posse will be a collection of 3-5 students who are all assigned a "hide-away" location in order to "lay low" after virtual heists.
The beginning posts will challenge members of the posse to elect a leader. Students who are interested in becoming the posse leader will have the time to post why their outlaw is the best leader and the posse will vote on who they want as their leader. After roles are assigned the leader will be responsible for creating a mantra for their bandit posse with their group. THis will act as their final project.
The bandit with the most badges at the conclusion of this two-stage cycle will have the honor of becoming the next sheriff on Edmodo.
The beginning posts will challenge members of the posse to elect a leader. Students who are interested in becoming the posse leader will have the time to post why their outlaw is the best leader and the posse will vote on who they want as their leader. After roles are assigned the leader will be responsible for creating a mantra for their bandit posse with their group. THis will act as their final project.
The bandit with the most badges at the conclusion of this two-stage cycle will have the honor of becoming the next sheriff on Edmodo.
Collected artifacts
For this action cycle I collected the following artifacts:
- data points for total posts, constructive posts, and conversation starters
- three sample posts
- name of badges
Evaluation:
I will be using percent change, constructive post percentage, and interviews to evaluate the success of cycle three.
I will use percent change to measure the change in total posts, constructive posts and conversations started between Cycle 3 and the previous two cycles. I believe that it may be interesting to see if students are posting at higher rates with the introduction of gamification.
I will use the constructive post percentage to evaluate the percentage of student' posting that is constructive to classroom conversation.
I will use the following questions when interviewing:
I will use percent change to measure the change in total posts, constructive posts and conversations started between Cycle 3 and the previous two cycles. I believe that it may be interesting to see if students are posting at higher rates with the introduction of gamification.
I will use the constructive post percentage to evaluate the percentage of student' posting that is constructive to classroom conversation.
I will use the following questions when interviewing:
- Who was your outlaw and what was his/her back story?
- Did you enjoy pretending that you were an outlaw on Edmodo?
- What made you want to post as your outlaw?
- Why do you usually use Edmodo?