Digital Learning – Page 75 – Digital Learning Dispatches

It has been a busy week for our team as the DSTEP Winter School, organised as part of the ‘Developing Staff to Enhance Programmes’ (DSTEP) project, got off to a great start on Monday 22nd January with an open seminar on the use of gamification techniques for teaching Psychology.

The DSTEP project aims to provide continuous professional development for psychology educators with a specific focus on gamification, that is, the incorporation of game design elements in an educational context to enrich the learning environment. Gamification can be contrasted with game-based learning, as gamification does not imply the use of games necessarily, but rather using the principles and mechanics of games (e.g. incentives or points, immediate feedback, the freedom to make mistakes, freedom to choose pathways etc.) to offer an engaging teaching experience for learners. The image below – reproduced from a report published by the Observatory of Educational Innovation (2016) – shows how gamification can be distinguished from game-based learning and serious games:

For a comprehensive and accessible introduction to gamification, see this report published by Observatory of Educational Innovation (2016).

Monday’s seminar kicked off with a fascinating presentation from Dr Rebecca Sharp (Bangor University) on her experiences of gamifying the teaching of a Behavioural Psychology undergraduate module. Rebecca adopted a ‘dystopian future’ themed approach to gamifying the module, prompted by poor attendance and a lack of student engagement with a more traditional approach to the teaching of the module.

The short clip below summarises some of the gamification techniques used by Rebecca, including the framing of learning tasks as ‘missions’ for which ‘rewards’ could be won, the opportunity to ‘replay’ online learning tasks to achieve mastery of a subject and the provision of choices to learners such as the selection of their assignment topic and voting to reveal selected exam questions.

Analysis suggests that most (but not all) learners enjoyed the gamified approach to the module and it led to increased attendance and attainment when compared to more traditional approaches to the module. To watch Rebecca’s presentation in full, including a more complete analysis of the impact of the gamification on student learning and engagement, click here.

This keynote presentation by was followed by a panel discussion and Q&A featuring Dr Gearóid Ó Súilleabháin (Cork Institute of Technology), Dr Rebecca Sharp (Bangor University), Mr Gavin Henrick (Moodle) and Dr Lorraine Boran (Dublin City University). A lively discussion ensued which examined a range of issues relating to gamification including: the role of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in driving student learning; ethical concerns in relation to gamification and the risk that competition and ranking might prove harmful to learners; the importance of gamification being underscored by meaningful learning activities which support student learning; and the need for more research to inform the design and implementation of a gamified learning environment in Higher Education contexts.

The call for more research is echoed in the conclusions of a recent literature review on the topic of gamifying education, which was recently selected as one of the NIDL’s top 10 open access journal articles for 2017.

Monday’s seminar took place as the opening event of a Gamification Winter School, hosted by the Teaching Enhancement Unit to offer professional development for Psychology educators, focused particularly on the use of gamification approaches to enhancing learning, teaching and assessment. The two-year DSTEP project is externally funded by the National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education.

On Tuesday a large group of friends, colleagues and invited guests, including the Lord Mayor of Dublin and senior government officials, gathered at O’Connell House on Merrion Square in Dublin to celebrate the formal launch of “Irish 101“, Dublin City University’s (DCU) free online course on Irish language and culture. The event also formally launched the wider Fáilte ar Líne (Welcome online) project co-funded by the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht under the 20-Year Strategy for the Irish Language 2010-2030.

Speaking at the launch, Minister of State for the Irish Language, Gaeltacht and the Islands, and the Government’s Chief Whip, Joe McHugh TD, congratulated DCU on this important online lifelong learning initiative. He reported that “As Minister of State with responsibility for the Irish language, and in my previous role as Minister of State for the Diaspora, I have witnessed at first hand the incredible interest and passion that there is for our language and culture worldwide.”

Professor Mairead Nic Giolla Mhichíl, project lead, Head of the NIDL Ideas Lab, and a member of DCU’s Irish Language School, Fiontar agus Scoil na Gaeilge, noted in her speech that we want to give first, second and third generations of the Irish diaspora an opportunity to learn more about Irish language and culture. Mairead went on to say the initiative is:

An important step in enhancing the global, online presence of the Irish language; connecting with the Irish diaspora; and promoting opportunities to study in and to visit Ireland.

The “Irish 101” MOOC, which will start on the 29th of January, is being delivered in conjunction with FutureLearn. DCU will also offer a MOOC on “High Performance Computing in the Cloud” starting on the same day. The two MOOCs, which may appear at very different ends of the knowledge continuum, reflects both the diversity of courses and degree programmes available through DCU, and metaphorically speaking the contemporary face of Ireland where traditional culture and today’s modern hi-tech digital society co-exist.

Professor Mark Brown, Director of the National Institute for Digital Learning (NIDL), talked about the significance of DCU’s partnership with FutureLearn in the context of the new Higher Education System Performance Framework and the Government’s goal to lift Ireland’s current low level of participation in life-long learning. Ireland is currently well below the EU average. Mark also noted DCU’s strong commitment over many years to opening up access to higher education through DCU Connected, and the opportunity for Ireland to be a global leader in meeting growing demand worldwide for university-level education through new pathways and online learning solutions.

There have already been thousands of enrolments in “Irish 101” with so far people registering from over 110 countries. Irish 101.jpg A programme of research is also associated with this initiative which builds on the NIDL’s growing reputation in this burgeoning area, as evidenced by DCU being selected to host the 2019 ICDE World Conference on Online Learning. Further free short online courses are planned in the future along with a number of other exciting digital learning developments as DCU builds on its strategic partnership with FutureLearn.

Finally, we would like to acknowledge the University of Notre Dame for making O’Connell House available for this important event. We would also like to thank Mark Lecester, FutureLearn’s Director of Partnerships and DCU’s President, Professor Brian MacCraith for their support and contribution to the launch. And importantly we need to acknowledge the Ideas Lab and NIDL team centrally involved in the project, as this week’s launch would not have been possible without the many creative hours they have devoted to “Irish 101” and the wider mission of promoting Irish language and culture.