Autonomous Gamified Learning

Interaction and communication

Interactivity has always been a priority in the Academic Writing Course, but with autonomous gamification students receive more opportunities for interaction. Firstly, we opted for a flipped classroom approach with task-based learning for the synchronous elements. This entails that students study before class, and they do collaborative tasks in class. Such tasks may involve, among others, research on specialist topics; planning, drafting, reviewing and revising texts; and conducting expert interviews. Students work in small groups, dividing the work, assuming different roles, and managing the process. They share responsibility for the outcome of their work because they receive points for completed projects as a group. This means that students are invested to motivate each other to actively participate. Secondly, we strongly incentivize students (via the Level up! plugin) to interact on Moodle. Although we also encourage peer teaching and coaching via chat, the use of forums was the students’ preferred way to interact with each other. Despite the popularity of the forums, their effectiveness was slightly compromised by the reward system (see the interview for details). In future iterations of the course, forums will have clearer guidelines to foster meaningful exchanges. Besides forums, students also interacted with each other in student quizzes, albeit to a lesser extent. Finally, to interact with the teacher outside of class, students can use the forums, the Moodle chat, or email. During distant learning, the lecturer experienced an increased volume of written communication from students outside of class.

Feedback

The recommended learning flow (Figure 1) is structured the following way. Students first study the flipped classroom input and do exercises on Moodle, after which they attend class, where they collaboratively plan, draft, review, and revise texts. They receive feedback on their work both from peers and the lecturer. After class, students can choose to produce a text and elicit (and offer) peer feedback. Finally, they can submit texts for review by the lecturer. We use an external platform, Edword, for the feedback process because Edword helps teachers improve the effectiveness and uptake of comments by offering feedback in a structured manner. Afterwards, students are encouraged to revise their text once more in response to the feedback received. This iterative process (online input, in-class practice, and after-class practice) aims to maximize students’ uptake of the new material. However, this learning flow is only recommended: students can opt in or out at any stage. The only requirement is that students interact with the flipped classroom elements if they come to class. Otherwise, they are welcome to do online preparation and then immediately submit a text for review, or end the learning flow with classroom work.

Assessment

The course runs on a point-based system: if students reach a threshold number of points, they receive a passing grade. Both synchronous and asynchronous learning is tracked, and students earn points for the effort they invest in their learning. On Moodle, we use the Level up! plugin, which allows not only the automatic tracking of points but also manual additions. Hence, the lecturer adds points for successfully completed in-class projects and various achievements. The emphasis of the new course design on autonomy, interaction, gamefulness, and solving real-life problems fosters several key competencies, including communication, teamwork and collaboration, critical thinking, self-direction and self-management, and analytical competency.