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Introduction
In this article, I would like to share how I use gamification in chemistry classes. The method was especially useful in digital education during the COVID lockdowns. It allowed me to mark the students’ work.
The essence of gamification is that students collect points, and at the end of a predetermined period, the points are converted into a grade. In addition, they can also earn badges and privileges, even just during video games. So, gamification does not mean that we play games in class.
With gamification, there are several methods and options for collecting points. I would like to present how my system worked in digital education. Obviously, the system can be adapted for attendance education as well, only some details need to be modified.
My system
1)
The students could fill out one online test per week via the socrative.com website.
- An English tutorial video is here:
- And a Hungarian version created by me is available here:
The test contained 10 questions related to the current curriculum. Before that, I explained the topic to the students in online meetings. They completed the test as many times as they wanted. After answering the questions, the system shows whether the answer was good and what would have been good, and at the end of the test it also shows the total score.
The page automatically shuffles the order of the questions and the answers, so it is not enough to recall the right letters. This site also offers the option of multiple-choice tests, so you can make the assignment more difficult. You can even give a task that requires your own answer, but the system can only correct this if the student enters exactly the same word that we gave as a good answer. A possible problem is when students make a typo or misspelling, but the system is also case sensitive. Although we can give several good answers, it still happens regularly that the student writes something good, but in a way that we had not even thought of. Therefore, if such a question is included in the test, the teacher must also check it.
According to my system two perfect solutions imply 1 point, so student could earn 5 points per week. Since they could solve the test as many times as they wanted, they weren’t interested in cheating because they could legally solve it multiple times.
2)
It was also an opportunity for students to earn points by creating such a test. A good 10-question test is worth 15 points.
3)
Students can also earn points by making a tutorial video of the actual lesson. 45 points are available for a good tutorial video of at least 5 minutes.
4)
They could earn points with solving calculation tasks, based on my tutorial video. The maximum limit of solved tasks was 5 per topic. The value of each tasks was 5 points.
Conversion of points into grades
Every month we exchanged points for tickets. I gave the best grade (in Hungary it is the 5) out of 15 points, then 4 out of 10 points, the 3 (medium grade in Hungary) out of 7 points and the 2 (sufficient in Hungary) out of 4 points. Points not used in one period can be carried over to the next period or collected and exchanged for 5 extra points (15 points are worth 5).
Conclusion
I found that they gladly completed the tests and practiced with it, since they had nothing to lose. As a teacher, I have always compiled the test in such a way that it includes the most important concepts of the given topic, so that everyone acquires the minimum knowledge when solving the tests. The students weren’t very open to more creative tasks, everyone got their points by solving the test, but they did it diligently, because I didn’t have to give a grade worse than four.
The system outlined above can be adapted to suit the needs of each individual; anything that is needed from the teacher’s or student’s side can be included. For example, in the online classes, points could have been given for online class activity, but I did not really need this as everyone participated properly and very actively in class.
After the first online training period, I used a questionnaire to assess the experience of one of my classes with this system: 17 out of 25 students filled in the questionnaire, in May 2020. This showed that 15 people were completely satisfied with this system, 2 students rather yes than no. The time spent studying (outside of class) was completely different: 3 students studied less than 10 minutes, 3 students studied 10-20 minutes, 6 students studied 20-40 minutes, 4 students studied 40-60 minutes and one student studied more than 60 minutes.
In conclusion, gamification is an exceptionally good method that was very useful in online education during COVID: practically the only method that could be used to assess students without the possibility of cheating. Of course, it also works very well in the classroom, where it has countless advantages over traditional forms of assessment. I would be very happy to share my experiences with you in my next blog post.
About the author
Anna Toth teaches mathematics and chemistry in a high school in Hungary. She is a Scientix Ambassador. She is interested in ICT tools, 21st century learning and AI in the classroom. Her blog (in Hungarian language) is this one.
Tags: assessment, COVID-19, gamification, grades, Online Learning, Online Teaching, points, questionnaire, questions, quiz, score, test
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