Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Making My Class Into A Game - Part 1

This is the third semester that I have been incorporating elements of game design into my algebra classes. I was inspired by my son (who is about to begin his college career as a game design major) to try to find a way to make my class fun for students, while at the same time increasing student learning.

The hardest part was coming up with a grading system that was not just a traditional grading system hidden under a cloak of gaming terminology. I didn't see any difference between saying you needed 90% of all the points this semester to earn an A and saying you need to earn 90% of the available XP to earn an A.

I came up with a gaming point system that incorporates elements of mastery learning, and I am quite happy with it. I have 6 tests and 1 final exam review in my course, as well as a final exam.
Points earned from tests depends on whether a student has satisfactory homework/quiz scores or not. (I define satisfactory as 90% or better on each homework assignment and 70% or better on each quiz.) I give a homework assignment for each section I cover, and 2 quizzes for each chapter.

Students with satisfactory scores earn 3 points in their test score is 80% or higher and 2 points if their test score is in the 70's. If a student with satisfactory scores fails the test, they are eligible to retake the exam the following week for 1 point.

Students with unsatisfactory scores (even if that means they missed by 1% on 1 assignment) earn 1 point for passing the test (70-100%) and 0 points if they fail the test. These students are not eligible for retests.

Since there are 6 tests, students can earn up to 18 points during the semester. I double one test (the hardest one) if students have satisfactory scores, providing a potential of 3 more points. Finally, there are 4 points available for a final exam review, making a total of 25 points available before the final. The final exam is worth 100 points, meaning that the highest possible total is 125 points for the semester.

Students need 76 points for a C, 88 points for a B, and 100 points for an A. The reason I chose 76 points for passing the class is for the student who feels he or she does not need to do the homework as long as they pass the tests. (Good luck with that, by the way!) 6 points from the 6 exams plus 70 points from the final makes 76 points.

That's it for part 1. I'll continue to explain the set up in my next post.

-George

If you have questions/comments, you can either leave a comment here or you can reach me through the contact page on my web site: http://georgewoodbury.com .

Tuesday, September 4, 2012