Mapping Out the Year

When I made the decision to move forward with gamifying my entire course for the 2018-2019 school year, I knew I had one very BIG question to answer...

How would my students confidently move through my game on their own?

Now before we go any further let me answer your question...no, I do not plan on having my students play the game on their own with no help from me, their teacher.  However, I do want to set up my course game to allow for students to feel confident enough to explore and learn the content on their own as they get more comfortable.  I see one of the game's main functions as providing enrichment and review opportunities to my students on a daily basis. There are so many activities I would like to do with my students throughout the year and so many topics that I would like to cover, but the reality is there is not enough time.  I am hoping that by gamifying my classroom, I will be able to provide my students with new learning opportunities that my daily instruction does not offer.  AND...I hope it will infuse A LOT of FUN along the way 😃

Canvas or Not?

Now back to the question...how will my students confidently move through the game on their own?  This led to another question - Should I use Canvas, my school's learning management system (LMS), to provide the game structure?  I LOVE Canvas and I am very proud of the course I have created for my students.  Obviously, this was the most logical place to locate my game, right?  

When I stepped back and really thought about it, I realized that I want my game to stand alone and provide students a true game experience.  I want them to feel like they were actually opening up a board game or opening up a game app to play. This is why I decided to create a website that would be completely independent from my classroom Canvas course. 

Insert - Google Sites!  

I wanted something that I was somewhat familiar with.  That I could update easily.  And that I didn't need a lot of time to actually create.  Google Sites seemed like the perfect fit.  

I had never worked with Google Sites before, but I had seen other teacher's work and thought that it was something that I was capable of tackling.  I started by making an outline of what pages I wanted to include on the website.  I then spent one day searching the internet for graphics and pictures that worked with my steampunk time-travel theme...it was a total time suck, but definitely worth the time.  It gave me lots of ideas!  

However, when I actually sat down to start dropping images into the Google Sites template, I quickly noticed there was a disconnect between the graphics I was using.  I'm sure it was only noticeable by me...but I still noticed it.  I ended up using Canva to create my own graphics and I am SOOOO happy that I did!  I just 💗 the way it turned out!  Check it out below...

The home page includes the backstory and the game trailer that will be the first impressions the students will get of the game.  (You can read more about these on my last post - First Impressions.in Gaming).  I do not see this page changing much as the year/game evolves. The buttons that appear on this page will take students to the parts of the game they will be interacting with regularly.  These pages will change as needed.

My site is a work in progress and not complete, as I will be working on it this summer.  However, if you would like to see it, you can use this link --> The Time Quest Website. 

Website Pages

I have organized my site into six sections:  

• the Handbook - a resource guide for the game and my class.
• the Map Room - the game/curriculum map students will use.
• Leaderboard - a scoreboard of the top players in the game.
• XP & Badges - the points and badges available to players in the game.
• the Supply Closet - a collection of the items the game will provide.
• Visitors - a summarized version of the game for "non-travelers" aka: parents :)

As you can see, I have a plan for what I want each page to look like and below is a description of what I would like my students to encounter on each page.

This will be the first page that students will click on when they visit the website for the first time.  The Handbook page will contain everything I want students to know about my class: expectations, learning goals, and the basic functions of the game.  I would also like it to contain game mechanics: rules and vocabulary.  This page might also contain How-To Videos for certain technology that students will run into throughout the game...maybe.  I like the idea of this page being like an employee handbook.  Since the narrative of my game has students playing the roles of time-travel agents employed by the Husky Corporation, I thought the website should provide a space for students to reference when they get stuck on the basics...just like an employee handbook would have.

The Map Room will be one of the most important parts of website and game.  It will guide students through the actual content they will be learning in my class.  Think of the old school video game maps that you would see in Super Mario or Zelda, each level is displayed and unlocked as the player moves through the game.  This map is what I want to create on this page AND I want to connect it to a similar map that will be displayed on a wall in my classroom.  The classroom map will be mostly for decoration and motivation, but the website version will display each level's goals and the side quests that are available to students.  I do not plan on having all the details of each level displayed when I launch my game, but that is okay because I know I will have to adjust things as the game and the year progresses.

This page is pretty self-explanatory...it will be the home of my classroom leaderboard.  Students will be able to return to this page as often as they like to compare their progress in the game with their fellow classmates.  I'm a bit apprehensive about this page because in the past I've rarely made student progress public.  However, I do plan to keep "the game" separate from student grades and this will be clearly stated.  I do hope that the constant presence of competition motivates some students to engage more in the game...I hope 😅

This is another page that says it all; it will be dedicated to delivering information about experience points (XP) and badges that students can earn in the game.  This sounds pretty simple, but it is the page I might struggle with the most in my planning process.  At this time, I know I want to include badges, but I'm not exactly sure how.  I like the idea of using two types of badges: mini badges, which students will earn for displaying soft skills like focus, teamwork, empathy, perseverance, and creativity; and larger badges, which will be tied into side quests and showing mastery of certain content skills taught throughout the year.  

I've wanted to try badging ever since I attended a STEM conference at Purdue University and I saw how a science professor was using it to show student mastery with lab equipment.  I walked away thinking the idea was brilliant and if she could get college students to buy into this concept, then I could certainly do the same with 6th graders.  I want my students to display their badges on the front of their interactive notebooks, which are used daily.  Not only will this allow students to show off a bit, but I hope it will help foster student collaboration.  For example, if a student was having trouble measuring with a metric ruler, they could then look around at their classmates' notebooks and find someone who had earned their metric ruler badge and discretely ask for help.  In theory, I think this is such an awesome idea...I just hope the kids engage in this aspect of the game.

I don't know how many badges I will allow kids to earn and I don't know all the details of how they will earn the badges, but that is what I have the summer to figure out...fingers crossed!

The Supply Closet will be the page that explains and displays all the items that students can collect throughout the year.  I plan on handing these out in a trading card format; just like I've seen so many other teachers use in gamified classrooms.  I really love the idea that students will collect and trade these cards throughout the year.  The items will be rewards and privileges that students can use in class, as well as Power Ups that will help them to earn more XP points along the way.  

My original plan was to allow students to collect as many cards as they liked at anytime; however, I have since changed my mind.  Again, after viewing a lot of #XPLAP teachers' websites and looking through past Twitter chats, I decided to only allow them to keep 9 cards at a time.  I think this will encourage students to use their items regularly in class and to be very decisive about the types of items they hold on to.  The Supply Closet will ultimately be a store for the kids to view items that are available.

This page was a not originally planned.  When I was adding the page buttons to the website, I started with five main buttons and it really looked uneven; so I added another.  I saw Michael Matera's (@MrMatera) game website, Realm of Nobles, and the first thing I clicked on was the Visitor's button.  This was when I first started reading his book, Explore Like A Pirate, and I found this page to be particularly helpful.  If offered a brief but detailed overview of gamification and how students would utilize the game website throughout the school year.  At the time, I wasn't even planning my own game website, but when I was looking for another page to even out the buttons...I knew this would be the perfect addition to my own game site. Thanks Michael 👍

To Be Continued...

The overall creation of the website shell took about two full days of working.  The majority of my time was creating the graphics and then trying to get them uploaded onto the Google Site template correctly.  A HUGE thank you to Alice Keeler (@alicekeeler) and her blog Teacher Tech.  I was struggling with the banners on my website looking right and after a quick Google search a very helpful post popped up...it was a HUGE time saver.  I highly recommend her site if you get stuck!

My website is far from finished, but my goal was to get it started in the first couple weeks of summer break and that is exactly what I did.  I am looking forward to finishing it up!  I know that the overall process of completing the website will take time, but it will provide the structure needed for my yearlong game.  Ultimately...it is the map my students and I will use along the gamification journey we are on together.