• Description

This course is a journey where participants will learn what gamification is and how to utilize it in their classrooms successfully. With each challenge the course provides ideas, tools and, most importantly confidence to introduce gamification in a curriculum. This subject is gamified so that participants will experience gamification first-hand. 

The following skills are covered:

• Understand classroom gamification
• Recognize the importance of teamwork when creating a gamified proposal
• Recognize the importance of motivational physchologies in gamification
• Design a gamified proposal based based on a real teaching context

• The subject within the syllabus as a whole

This is an elective course in the Master's program in Technology-Mediated Language Teaching and Learning. Specifically, this is a course in the block of elective courses: Tools and resources for language learning.

This course can deal with topics that also appear in other courses of the program given their relevance within the degree and the need to work on them from different perspectives.

• Professional fields to which it applies

This is a course designed for professionals in the field of technology-mediated language teaching and learning in face-to-face contexts, online, or hybrid environments. This includes teachers, instructional designers, editors, materials writers, and consultants for online language learning platforms.

• Prior knowledge

In order to register for this course, no previous courses from the Master's program in Technology-Mediated Language Teaching and Learning are required.

• Information prior to enrolment

Students need to have a level of English (language of instruction) equal to B2, or higher, according to the Common European Frame of Reference in order to ensure that students have the necessary fluency to communicate and to understand the contents of the course without problems.

Information and communication technology (ICT) skills at user level are recommended.

• Learning objectives and results

This course will contribute to develop the following competencies:

Basic competences

• Being able to integrate skills and to face the complexity of making judgments based on information that is limited or incomplete and reflecting on social and ethical responsibilities related to the application of those skills and judgments.

General competences

• Working in teams collaboratively in a virtual environment.

Transversal competences

• Using and applying ICT efficiently developing a flexible and creative approach towards them.

Specific competences

• Analyzing and assessing critically the potential of current technologies and resources and being able to justify their use to learn a second language in hybrid or online contexts.
• Identifying the role and functions of instructors who teach a second language through technology and assessing and reflecting on one's own teaching and learning experience.

 These competencies are linked to learning outcomes that students will achieve through a series of tasks and for which they will be assessed:

• Identify the current learning and teaching skills and show how gamification is linked to them.
• Analyse a gamification example taking into account the characteristics of gamification.
• Use a presentation tool to prepare an infographic summarizing key information from an article.
  
• Complete a gamification example with the help of accumulated theoretical knowledge.
  
• Choose and justify the choice of the most relevant tools for the analyzed gamified proposal.
  
• Describe and reflect on the collaborative pair work process and the contributions towards the completion of the gamified proposal.
  
• Describe and reflect on the process of collaborative group work in the design of a collaborative gamified proposal.
• Use reflective and critical thinking to relate the role of the teacher in a gamified proposal to one's own teaching practice.
• Design a gamification proposal following the ADDIE instructional design model. 

• Content

The  4Cs and gamification

How does classroom gamification support the current teaching and learning skills?
This resource will help you review the 4Cs of learning and teaching and serve you as a guide toward linking those skills to gamification.

Unpacking gamification in the classroom

This resource will allow you to dive deeper into the concept of gamification, from its definitions and links to psychological and game design theories all the way to examples of practical usage in the foreign language classroom.

Organizing and planning your classroom gamification

This resource should help you learn more about how to structure and organize a gamification proposal and the key components in each of the organization stages.

The ADDIE model

ADDIE is an acronym for the five stages of a development process: Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation and Evaluation. This resource will give you a general idea of the model's conceptualization and some advice on how to apply it in gamification.

• View the UOC learning resources used in the subject

• Additional information on support tools and learning resources

The materials for this course ,which are available in the virtual classroom, include the following:

• Self-learning materials in web format: various units that gradually build up the contents of the course, with charts, summaries, and examples.
• Interactive infographic
• A bibliography in order to examine the topics of the course more in depth.

• Guidelines on assessment at the UOC

Assessment at the UOC is, in general, online, structured around the continuous assessment activities, the final assessment tests and exams, and the programme's final project.

Assessment activities and tests can be written texts and/or video recordings, use random questions, and synchronous or asynchronous oral tests, etc., as decided by each teaching team. The final project marks the end of the learning process and consists of an original and tutored piece of work to demonstrate that students have acquired the competencies worked on during the programme.

To verify students' identity and authorship in the assessment tests, the UOC reserves the right to use identity recognition and plagiarism detection systems. For these purposes, the UOC may make video recordings or use supervision methods or techniques while students carry out any of their academic activities.

The UOC may also require students to use electronic devices (microphones, webcams or other tools) or specific software during assessments. It is the student's responsibility to ensure that these devices work properly.

The assessment process is based on students' individual efforts, and the assumption that the student is the author of the work submitted for academic activities and that this work is original. The UOC's website on academic integrity and plagiarism has more information on this.

Submitting work that is not one's own or not original for assessment tests; copying or plagiarism; impersonation; accepting or obtaining any assignments, whether for compensation or otherwise; collaboration, cover-up or encouragement to copy; and using materials, software or devices not authorized in the course plan or instructions for the activity, including artificial intelligence and machine translation, among others, are examples of misconduct in assessments that may have serious academic and disciplinary consequences.

If students are found to be engaging in any such misconduct, they may receive a Fail (D/0) for the graded activities in the course plan (including final tests) or for the final grade for the course. This could be because they have used unauthorized materials, software or devices (such as artificial intelligence when it is not permitted, social media or internet search engines) during the tests; copied fragments of text from an external source (the internet, notes, books, articles, other students' work or tests, etc.) without the corresponding citation; purchased or sold assignments, or undertaken any other form of misconduct.

Likewise and in accordance with the UOC's academic regulations, misconduct during assessment may also be grounds for disciplinary proceedings and, where appropriate, the corresponding disciplinary measures, as established in the regulations governing the UOC community (Normativa de convivència).

In its assessment process, the UOC reserves the right to:

• Ask students to provide proof of their identity as established in the UOC's academic regulations.
• Ask students to prove the authorship of their work throughout the assessment process, in both continuous and final assessments, through a synchronous oral interview, of which a video recording or any other type of recording established by the UOC may be made. These methods seek to ensure verification of the student's identity, and their knowledge and competencies. If it is not possible to ensure the student's authorship, they may receive a D grade in the case of continuous assessment or a Fail grade in the case of the final assessment.

Artificial intelligence in assessments

The UOC understands the value and potential of artificial intelligence (AI) in education, but it also understands the risks involved if it is not used ethically, critically and responsibly. So, in each assessment activity, students will be told which AI tools and resources can be used and under what conditions. In turn, students must agree to follow the guidelines set by the UOC when it comes to completing the assessment activities and citing the tools used. Specifically, they must identify any texts or images generated by AI systems and they must not present them as their own work.

In terms of using AI, or not, to complete an activity, the instructions for assessment activities indicate the restrictions on the use of these tools. Bear in mind that using them inappropriately, such as using them in activities where they are not allowed or not citing them in activities where they are, may be considered misconduct. If in doubt, we recommend getting in touch with the course instructor and asking them before you submit your work.

• View the assessment model