Gamification: 2 Learning as Improving

Shedding a Traditional Approach to Assessments

It is the first day of class and students enter the course with a dread of failure.  Usually homework and learning opportunities offer only one chance to define their grade which will be more damning and permanent than Hester’s scarlet letter. 

This is often not a fault of faculty being lazy. They simply do not have the time to make the work better and afford students multiple attempts - effectively offering the students a chance to improve. Nevertheless, this results in students dreading assignments and fearing failure.

As an alternative, we should view failure as an opportunity for students to assess the situation and progress. One is reminded of John Stuart Mill’s line in chapter one of his autobiography:

‘A pupil from whom nothing is ever demanded which he cannot do,
never does all he can.’

Learning should be thought of as a way to improve and one does this through multiple attempts.  If you do not succeed at first, you try again – often using different strategies to learn how to solve a problem.

Discouraging students from trying new solutions, even though some may fail, is doing them, and ourselves, a great disservice. If we adopt the mindset that students should have the opportunity to experiment and explore solutions, we may not only find that they will be more open to try harder problems but that we are fostering creative problem solvers.  This requires that we consider creating learning activities that allow for multiple attempts.  These attempts will offer opportunities to assess and improve.

This is one of the keys to the success of the gaming industry.  Gamers recognize that they will fail in their attempts.  They also know that if they keep focused, try multiple times, and often have to think innovatively, they can overcome the challenge. The ability to save progress or use a reset button is not a coincidence. It allows for multiple attempts to test various strategies.

By allowing students to participate in learning activities multiple times so that they can improve their skills, we are fostering a non-defeatist mentality that will benefit our students. Students can explore options, review feed back and see how the lessons they choose to adopt directly affects their success.

We are also mirroring actual learning environments where people must experiment with strategies to determine which will succeed and to learning from their mistake. 

Another important feature of viewing Learning as improving, is that we are encouraging a sense of agency in the students.  Their decisions matter and what learning strategies they employ will directly affect their success.  This will contribute to their success both as a student and as a person.

So when designing your learning activities and assessments, consider offer more time and allowing multiple attempts.  The results may surprise you.