Abstract
This chapter describes a case study of the gamification of an educational technology graduate course at the University of Hawaii. The chapter will provide some background literature about chat apps, chat apps in education, and gamification. Next, the chapter will discuss how gamification design elements, framed by the curricula, were implemented in the Discord chat app server using roles, bots, and participation-based experience points. Finally, the chapter will discuss the benefits, challenges, and lessons from incorporating gamification in the Discord server for a graduate online asynchronous course. Recommendations will be provided for instructors who are considering gamifying their college courses.
TopIntroduction
Originally created to facilitate communication between casual game players online, Discord has become a popular platform for remote groups to connect with 13.5 million active servers per week (About Discord, n.d.). With features similar to chat platforms like Slack and Teams, some educators are already using Discord to host student discussions (Kruglyk et al., 2020; Tom & Joakim, 2017). Less common, however, is the use of Discord’s integrations and automations to ease and speed the use of gamification mechanics such as cooperative communication, leveling, experience points, leaderboards, polling and team quests for online learning.
This chapter describes a case study of the gamification of an educational technology graduate course using the Discord chat app. The chapter will provide some background about the development of chat apps, a brief literature review of essential concepts related to gamification and a discussion of chat apps in education and gamification. Next, the chapter will discuss how gamification design elements, framed by the curricula, were implemented in Discord chat app server through the use of roles, bots and participation-based experience points. Finally, the chapter will discuss the benefits, challenges and lessons learned of incorporating gamification in Discord server for a graduate online asynchronous course. Recommendations will be provided for instructors who are considering gamifying their college courses.
Gamification is a strategy that resonates with many, but not all students who participate. Discord’s integration of gamification with communications components allows for students to benefit from just-in-time communication with their classmates and instructors, even if they choose not to fully participate in the course’s gamified elements. For those students who are interested and willing to immerse themselves in the narrative of a course, gamification through Discord can provide a rich and collaborative environment to learn.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Collaborative Features: Affordances offered by digital platforms designed to promote the exchange of information among teams.
Leader Board: A ranked display of teams or individuals within teams, specifically in the context of a competitive event.
Remote Learning: Instruction conducted with the learner and instructor in separate locations, usually outside of a traditional classroom. It can be offered synchronously, asynchronously or as a hybrid of the two.
Chat App: Digital application or platform that facilitates synchronous and asynchronous communication between individuals and groups using text, digital files, images, or voice.
Gamification: The addition of strategic, competitive, or ranked interactions to facilitate engagement in educational content.
Experience Points (XP): A unit of measurement for a scaled reward or bonus system in games, usually based on duration or intensity of interaction.