{"id":2666,"date":"2012-04-23T04:32:13","date_gmt":"2012-04-23T11:32:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.learnlets.com\/?p=2666"},"modified":"2012-04-22T07:25:12","modified_gmt":"2012-04-22T14:25:12","slug":"kapps-gamification-for-learning-and-instruction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.learnlets.com\/2012\/04\/kapps-gamification-for-learning-and-instruction\/","title":{"rendered":"Kapp’s Gamification for Learning and Instruction"},"content":{"rendered":"

Karl Kapp’s written another book, this time on gamification<\/a>, \u00a0and I certainly liked his previous book<\/a> with Tony O’Driscoll on Virtual Worlds. \u00a0This one’s got some great stuff in it too, and some other ideas that raise some hackles.<\/p>\n

Let me get one of the quibbles out of the way at the start: I \u00a0hate<\/em> \u00a0the title “The Gamification of Learning and Instruction” (to the point I previously wrote a post arguing instead for ‘engagification<\/a>‘). \u00a0Karl \u00a0makes it clear that he’s not on the trivial notion of gamification: “Gamification is not \u00a0Badges, Points, and Rewards”. \u00a0My problem is that by just having the title, folks who don’t read the book will still point to it to justify \u00a0doing<\/em> \u00a0the trivial stuff. I’d much rather he’d titled it something like “Beyond Gamification” or “Engagification” or “Serious Gamification” or something. \u00a0He can’t be blamed for people misusing the term, and even his book, but I still fret about the possible consequences.<\/p>\n

With that caveat, I think there is a lot to like here. \u00a0Karl’s got the right perspective: “Serious games and gamification are both trying to \u00a0solve a problem, motivate people, and promote learning using \u00a0game-based \u00a0thinking and techniques.” \u00a0He does a good job of laying out the core ideas, such as:<\/p>\n

“Games based on this complex subject matter work, not \u00a0because they include all the complexities, but precisely \u00a0because they reduce \u00a0the complexity and use broad generalizations to represent reality. The player \u00a0is involved in \u00a0an abstraction of events, ideas, and reality.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I liked his chapter 2, as it does a good job of exploring the elements of games (though it’s not quite as categorical as I’d like ;). \u00a0He’s got pragmatic advices there, and lots of examples to help illustrate the possibilities. \u00a0He goes beyond serious games in a number of ways, talking about adding motivation factors for other things than making good decisions. I worry somewhat that folks might (and do) use the same things to get people to do things that they might not otherwise believe are good to do, and the ethical issues aren’t addressed too much, but again that’s not Karl’s point, as his many examples clearly show.<\/p>\n

Chapters 7-9 are, to me, the most valuable from my point of view; how do you \u00a0do<\/em> \u00a0game design (the focus of \u00a0Engaging Learning<\/a>)<\/em>. Chapter 7 \u00a0talks about Applying Gamification to Problem Solving and helps explain how serious games provide deep practice. Chapter 8 maps gamification on to different learning domains such as declarative, procedural, affective, and more. There are valuable hints and tips here for other areas as well as the ones I think are most important. \u00a0And Chapter 9 provides valuable guidance about the design process itself.<\/p>\n

I wish there was more discussion of how meaningful challenges for problem-solving will \u00a0make<\/em> \u00a0fact based learning more relevant, rather than just gamifying it, but that’s not necessarily the role of this book. \u00a0I very much like this statement, however: “The gamification of learning cannot be a random afterthought. It needs \u00a0to be carefully planned, well designed, and \u00a0undertaken with a careful balance of game, pedagogy, and simulation.” \u00a0Exactly! \u00a0You can’t just put instructional designers and game designers in the room together and expect good things to happen (look at all the bad examples<\/a> of edutainment out there); you have to understand the alignment<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There are some interesting additional chapters. \u00a0Guest authors come in and write on motivations and achievements (Blair), the gamer perspective (presumably son Kapp), a case study of a serious initiative in gaming (Sanchez), and alternate reality games (Olbrish). \u00a0These provide valuable depth in a variety of ways; certainly Alicia Sanchez is walking the walk, and the alternate reality games that Koreen Olbrish are talking about have struck me as a really compelling opportunity.<\/p>\n

There are flaws. I can’t comprehend how he can go from talking about objectives straight to talking about content. \u00a0Games are not about content, they’re about context; putting the player into a place where they have to make the decision that they need to be able to make as an outcome. \u00a0This statement really strikes me as wrong: “The goal of \u00a0gamification is to take content that is typically presented as a lecture or an \u00a0e-learning course and add \u00a0game-based elements…”. Given my focus on ability<\/a>, not content, this predictably irks me.<\/p>\n

Karl also misses what I would consider are some important folks who probably should be referenced. \u00a0While he did get Raph Koster and Jane McGonigal, he hasn’t cited Aldrich, Gee, Shaffer, Barab, Jenkins, Squire, Steinkuehler, or even Quinn (ok, I had to say it). \u00a0It seems a bit narrow-focused to miss at least \u00a0(the ‘other’ Clark) \u00a0Aldrich, who’s written now 4 books on the topic. \u00a0I mean, being an academic and all…. :)<\/p>\n

Overall, I know he’s fighting for the right things, and think there’s some very broad and useful information in here. If you’re looking to make your learning designs more effective, this book will show you a lot of examples, give you some valuable frameworks, and provide many hints and tips.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Karl Kapp’s written another book, this time on gamification, \u00a0and I certainly liked his previous book with Tony O’Driscoll on Virtual Worlds. \u00a0This one’s got some great stuff in it too, and some other ideas that raise some hackles. Let me get one of the quibbles out of the way at the start: I \u00a0hate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-design","category-games","entry"],"yoast_head":"\nKapp's Gamification for Learning and Instruction - Learnlets<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.learnlets.com\/2012\/04\/kapps-gamification-for-learning-and-instruction\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Kapp's Gamification for Learning and Instruction - Learnlets\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Karl Kapp’s written another book, this time on gamification, \u00a0and I certainly liked his previous book with Tony O’Driscoll on Virtual Worlds. \u00a0This one’s got some great stuff in it too, and some other ideas that raise some hackles. 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