The Storm Report, a newsletter produced by Nathanael Gough, Phil Tietjen and Dori Lloyd
November 18, 2021 | Issue 10
Table of Contents:

  • Gamifying to Promote Student Engagement

  • Center for Teaching and Learning

  • L&D Quick Takes

  • Spirited Away: International Education Week Finale

  • Brie Elking Globalizes Biology Courses

  • Share your Thoughts

  • Do You Have a Story to Share?

  • Teaching, Learning, and Global Engagement Program Offerings
Gamifying to Promote Student Engagement
Many educators have found “Gamification” to be an effective method for promoting student engagement and motivation. Gamification essentially incorporates elements of a game into a learning context. Stott & Neustaedter (2013) identified four characteristics for enhancing the success of gamification in learning environments: (1) freedom to fail, (2) rapid feedback, (3) progression and (4) storytelling

Freedom to fail - educational researchers such as Carol Dweck have emphasized the value of building resilience and persistence in the classroom as students face various obstacles in their learning journeys. Gamification can be used in low-stakes assessments in order to give students the freedom to fail and recognize that failure is a regular feature of the learning process. Similarly, in game settings, players persevere through failure points because they see it as an ongoing challenge rather than a final end-point.

Rapid feedback - feedback is central to learning because it provides the student with means for assessing their own work and then using that to make decisions about where changes need to be made. In a gamified context, feedback can take the form of advancing to higher levels (e.g., "leveling up"), earning badges and unlocking achievements. These gamified forms of feedback can motivate students to continue engaging with one or more learning challenges.

Progression - well-designed games often engage players by presenting a series of progressively difficult challenges and providing visualizations for them to see their progress. In a classroom setting, learners can engage with a series of increasingly progressive challenges within their zone of proximal development (Vygotsky)

Storytelling - underlying many good games is a compelling storyline that draws in the player and motivates them to "play on." This can be as simple as a hypothetical case scenario where students figure out the best response. For example, websites like iCivics.org (link) offer engaging story scenarios related to learning about voting and constitutional rights where players assume different roles 

One option for adding gamification to your course is to present a series of increasingly complex challenges where the student achieves a certain level for each challenge they successfully solve (e.g., "How you would respond to the following scenario"). Another option is to use the H5P tool in Moodle to create game-like challenges such as "Find the Hotspot"


Stott, A. & Neustaedter, C. (2013). Analysis of Gamification in Education, Technical Report. Connections Lab. Surrey, BC, Canada: Simon Fraser University. Retrieved from http://clab.iat.sfu.ca/pubs/Stott-Gamification.pdf

Image credit: Unsplash, Andrey Metelev https://unsplash.com/photos/DEuansgqjns
Center for Teaching and Learning
Greetings, Colleagues!
Here are some updates and reminders from the CTL.

The CTL and Learning Design are teaming up to facilitate a faculty learning community built around learning to write and use SLOs that support student learning. The FLC will have four meetings during an 8-week session (Spring I or Spring II). 
  
  • Meeting One: Learn how an actual working course designed around learning outcomes was designed and view the data.
  • Meeting Two: Assess the SLOs and design assessments for a short, hypothetical course.
  • Meetings Three and Four: Apply what you have learned in meetings one and two to a course you will be teaching. You will be working in a supportive environment where you can collaborate with colleagues going through the same process and have time dedicated to the work.

If you are interested in joining an SLO Faculty Learning Community during Spring 2022, please complete the interest form by December 10th.  

The CTL would also like to remind everyone that we have funding to distribute for individual and small group professional learning. The submission deadline for applications is December 2nd. 


Happy teaching and learning,
Gloria.
2021-2022 CTL Advisory Board

At Large: Michael Liu (FT), Arts, Science, Business, and Technology: Grant Jolliff (FT), and Aaron Prillaman (PT), Davie: Dee Edwards (FT), and Katrena Wells (PT), Health Sciences: Datra Delk-Patrick (FT), Teaching, Learning, and Global Engagement: Nathanael Gough (FT), Faculty Chair: Gloria Johnson (FT)
L&D Quick Takes!

Greetings from the office of Learning Design! Here are a few quick takes for the week:

  • PLD Workshop: Last week Julie Dillon facilitated a workshop on the Personalized Learning Designer tool in Moodle. If you didn’t have a chance to make it, here is the link to the video recording INSERT and tutorial document. INSERT
  • OER & Health Sciences: Have you checked out the free, Open Educational Resource called openNCCC (link) ?! Do you teach in the Health Sciences? They have recently added a “STAT!Ref” collection which can be found under the TDS Health provider. (Click Discover > Providers).
Spirited Away: International Education Week Finale
A flyer advertising the movie Spirited Away.
The finale for a successful International Education week will be the showing of the movie Spirited Away.. It will be shown on Friday, November 19th, at 2:00 PM in the Mary Rittling Conference Center, 110. You can look at the trailer for the movie to see what you are in for.
The movie is free, and the International Club will be selling snacks for your enjoyment. Please come and join us as we cap off this incredible week.
Brie Elking Globalizes Biology Courses
Brie Elking
Why Globalize Courses?

While globalizing courses is not an overnight process, I chose to do it to help students on the Davie campus. Since there are fewer classes on the Davie campus, it is important that as many courses are globalized as possible so that they have the opportunity to be Scholars of Global Distinction. Most students take a Biology course and so by globalizing my courses I am able to better help my students not only beef up their resume (by being Global Scholars), but also help to prepare them for the international world we live in today. Thus, I globalized General Biology for Majors (Bio 111 & 112) and Non-Majors (Bio 110) as well as Basic Anatomy and Physiology (Bio 163).

Bio 110 (Non-Majors)

Biology 110 was the easiest course for me to globalize as I had a base to work from thanks to prior globalization done by Paul Stevens. I used his globalized assignments as a basis and added a few more of my own to really bring my own spin to this globalized course.

Bio 111 (Majors Part 1)

Biology 111 was one of the harder classes to globalize as it is mainly about cells, chemicals, with a bit about evolution and biotechnology (things that are the same globally). Since this one was starting mostly from scratch, I had to figure out what SLO I wanted to achieve. Suzanne LaVenture, was a huge help by reminding me that these SLOs do not have to be broad and encompass the whole course, but can focus on a particular topic. I chose the SLO to be on global lactose tolerance since I have a case study that examines the prevalence worldwide. I was also able to use some videos and assignments from Bio 110 to do double duty (after all why reinvent the wheel?).

Bio 112 (Majors Part 2)

Biology 112 focuses on the classification of eukaryotes (Protists, Fungi, Plants, Animals) as well as a brief overview of the Body Systems. I chose an SLO for this course to be more broad because I wanted to ensure that the idea of globalization was woven throughout the course. Then I had to determine what assignments I needed to achieve that SLO. So I created a scavenger hunt (where are these plants located), a short research project on species unique to different countries and then a final project comparing how the US and other countries deal with endangered species.

Bio 163 (Basic Anatomy & Physiology)

Bio 163 was without a doubt the hardest one to globalize. This is because bodies are the same across the globe; a heart in Africa is the same as a heart in the US or Brazil. This made it harder to figure out a global portion that I could focus on. I finally decided to focus on disease, because while they may have the same effect on our bodies; different diseases are more prevalent in different groups/ regions than others. I also looked up current research on how our bodies have changed over time and found articles from various countries that I incorporated into the course.

Tips/ Reminders:

  1. It does not have to be done at once. I have been slowly working these assignments into my courses over a couple of years until I felt I had enough for them to be globalized.
  2. Make the students do the work. I have created a few ‘mini’ research projects where I ask students to choose an organism/ technique and see how it is done in other countries. You don’t have to do all of the leg work.
  3. Work with colleagues. You can complete it as a team, have one person fill out the application and then use the course/ assignments you designed together.
  4. Watching a video or reading an article that mentions a collaboration between the US and another country is globalization.
  5. Reading articles written in other countries or where studies were done in other countries is also globalization.
  6. You don’t have to start from scratch. Go back through your assignments, because I bet you already have an assignment, video, project, etc that already fits or could be easily modified.

Share Your Thoughts!
Do you regularly use discussion forums in your online classes?
Yes
No
From the Editors: Do You Have a Story to Share?
We are looking for faculty stories! We want to keep the focus of your newsletter on you, the faculty. Would you please help us find those stories? Here are the kinds of things we are looking for:

  1. Faculty who have globalized their courses.
  2. Faculty who are doing something creative in class
  3. Faculty who have received awards
  4. Faculty reporting out on what they got from their professional development (could be written, video, podcast, etc.)
  5. Faculty who have received a new degree
  6. Faculty who are retiring
  7. Faculty Division Chair / Program Director Bios
  8. Faculty sharing their experiences of teaching in an active learning classroom
  9. Faculty Senate initiatives
  10. Faculty who have led overseas trips with students

Please contact one of the editors (Nathanael Gough, Phil Tietjen or Dori Lloyd) if you have ideas or referrals for stories.
Teaching, Learning, and Global Engagement Program Offerings
Calendar
For November:

Teaching, Learning & Global Engagement