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Meeting Minutes 3-26-24

March 27, 2024 / Leave a comment

Game Based Learning (GBL) Faculty Interest Group (FIG) – Notes from Meeting One

Tuesday March 26th, 2024 at 12:00PM

Grace Axler-DiPerte, Facilitator

Location: Zoom

Participants: Grace Axler-DiPerte (KCC BIO), Carrie Jedlicka (KCC LIB), Thomas Lavazzi (KCC ENG), Annice Paolino (KCC BUS), Mary Ortiz (KCC BIO), Christina Colon (KCC BIO), Mercedes Wilby (KCC HIS), Lilija Nielsen (KCC BIO)

This meeting was online.

  1. Introductions: Each participant shared name, department and how they are currently/would like to use games in their classrooms.
    1. Participants mentioned a wide range of experience with and needs for GBL.
    2. This semester will focus on developing and strategizing games for different modalities both online and in-person.
  2. Discussed and played the New York Times Connections daily puzzle: https://www.nytimes.com/games/connections
    1. Introduced a design-your-own Connections puzzle web-tool: https://connections.swellgarfo.com/
    2. Played a “GBL” version of the game, designed by Grace: https://bit.ly/gamemechanics1
    3. Discussed how Connections-like games could be used in classes”
      1. Make vocabulary and concept linking exercises (advertisements, concept values, bones, historical figures, etc).
      2. Have students share connections puzzles they make via discussion board, and allow students to solve them.
    4. Discussed how to gamify discussion boards using riddles and puzzles that students make, and their classmates solve.
      1. Will have examples next meeting.
    5. Talked about “Reacting to the Past” as a longer gaming experience in the classroom. https://reactingconsortium.org
    6. KCTL now has several copies of the book: The Educator’s Guide to Designing Games and Creative Active-Learning Exercises: The Allure of Play, by Joe Bisz and Victoria L. Mondelli. Please contact KCTL for more information.
    7. Discussed use of Kahoot! games synchronously and asynchronously.
    8. Next meeting we will show examples of the games and activities discussed during this meeting.
    9. Our next meeting will by at noon via Zoom on 5/7/24 (Tuesday).

Meeting Minutes 11-27-2023

December 13, 2023 / Leave a comment

Game Based Learning (GBL) Faculty Interest Group (FIG) – Notes from Meeting Two

Monday November 27th, 2023, at 1PM

Grace Axler-DiPerte, Facilitator

Location: KCTL Conference Room

Participants: Grace Axler-DiPerte (KCC BIO), Carrie Jedlicka (KCC LIB), Thomas Lavazzi (KCC ENG), Annice Paolino (KCC BUS) and Mary Ortiz (KCC BIO)

This meeting was online.

  1. We recapped the previous meeting, which was in-person, where Carrie and Mary shared their games.
  2. We discussed the CUNY Games Conference, which will take place 1/22 (online) and 1/23 (in person demos and play-testing). More information can be found here: https://games.commons.gc.cuny.edu/.
  3. The due date for abstract submissions is 12/15, you can read more about it here: https://games.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2023/11/16/cuny-games-conference-10-0-call-for-abstracts-and-registration/
  4. Thomas discussed his goal of incorporating the games he developed into his course, and restructuring his course around those games.
  5. He demonstrated his TaleBlazer game “Let a Sentence be Your Guide”, an interactive tour of Savannah, GA. He also published on the performance here: https://doi.org/10.1080/13528165.2022.2224207
  6. Thomas also demonstrated a flippity randomizer for advertisement, and an escape room on tourism advertising.
  7. We discussed Jamboard, which will be discontinued in Dec 2024. It is useful for making manipulative games online. However, flippity.net may be a more complex replacement.

Meeting Two Minutes 10-30-2023

November 3, 2023 / Leave a comment

Game Based Learning (GBL) Faculty Interest Group (FIG) – Notes from Meeting Two

Monday October 30th, 2023, at 12PM

Grace Axler-DiPerte, Facilitator

Location: KCTL Conference Room

Participants: Grace Axler-DiPerte (KCC BIO), Carrie Jedlicka (KCC LIB), Mark Eaton (KCC LIB), and Mary Ortiz (KCC BIO)

We had an in-person meeting to demonstrate and discuss faculty generated games.  We had time to demonstrate two games as follows:

  1. Mary demonstrated her card game that explored the criteria for the binomial distribution. We played a round and then discussed possible modifications that could extend the game, such as treating it like “Poker” or “Go Fish”.
  2. Mark and Carrie demonstrated their augmented reality tour of the KCC Library. We then discussed “false positives” and how they could be resolved, as well as other applications for library lessons through a scavenger hunt mechanic.

Our final meeting of the semester will be online via Zoom in mid- or late November.  Please email Grace for details.  We will demonstrate the games we did not get to during this session, as well as recap these games in more detail.

Meeting Minutes 9/19/23

October 6, 2023 / Leave a comment

Game Based Learning (GBL) Faculty Interest Group (FIG) – Notes from Meeting One

Tuesday, September 19th, at 12PM

Grace Axler-DiPerte, Facilitator

Participants: Grace Axler-DiPerte (KCC BIO), Carrie Jedlicka (KCC LIB), Victoria Somogyi (LaGuardia ELA), Christina Colon (KCC BIO), Mary Ortiz (KCC BIO), and Kathy Giaimo (KCC Advancement)

  • Mary is teaching Comparative Anatomy and would like ideas to develop new activities.
    • She also shared her Binomial Distribution card game, where students receive scenarios and decide if they meet the criteria for a binomial distribution.
    • Student perform the task multiple times with different scenarios.
    • One suggestion was to shuffle or exchange cards after rounds.
  • Kathy shared that the office of Institutional Advancement can help find grants and funding for GBL research and development and reminded us about PSC-CUNY grants.
  • Christina discussed the use of SimBio in her BIO100 class.
    • It is an accessible, do at your own pace, gamified scientific process
    • She also uses personalization in playful discussion/essay prompts such as having students discuss their favorite fruit.
  • Victoria shared some activities using a deck of “getting to know you” cards to have students write about themselves as a way to discourage the use of Chat GPT and other Artificial Intelligence in their writing.
  • We discussed progressive stories, where one student begins a narrative, and then another takes over, and so on.
  • Carrie shared that Mark Eaton has developed a Library Orientation using Javascript and augmented reality to send students around the library to fill a checklist of important sites.
    • The game uses QR codes and icon scanning throughout the library.
    • Students receive a prize of Rice Krispies treats upon completion.
    • Getting students to try the game was difficult.
  • Grace shared that TaleBlazer is having some issues with live maps, and was told that it is no longer being supported by the developers.
  • We also discussed in-person activities like IF-AT cards and in-person manipulatives.
  • We discussed making a “fact checking” or writing activity by having students correct or improve upon Artificial Intelligence generated text.
  • A riddle game was brought up by over-using a thesaurus and having students determine the intended text or meaning.
  • Our next meeting date is not yet set, but may be an in-person “Game Demonstration/ Play test” on the KBCC campus. Email Grace for more information.

Meeting Minutes 5/19/23

May 26, 2023 / Leave a comment

Game Based Learning (GBL) Faculty Interest Group (FIG) – Notes from Meeting Three

Friday April 21, 2023 at 1PM

Grace Axler-DiPerte, Facilitator

Participants: Grace Axler-DiPerte (KCC BIO), Lilja Nielsen (KCC BIO), Victoria Somoygi (LaGuardia ELA), Jeffery Delgado (KCC LIB), Annice Paolino (KCC BUS), Amy Haas (KCC BUS)

  • We began with Jeffery discussing his grant to further develop his information literacy tabletop RPG.
    • He is navigating the IRB to be able to do research using his game.
    • Explores the six pillars of Information Literacy, students get points for identifying aspects during the players’ gaming experiences. This is an excellent way to ensure learning and review of concepts during the game.
    • The game was shortened to be played in a single 90-minute session. We discussed how shortening games to a single meeting can help make the game more accessible and useful for teaching and review, as opposed to a multi-meeting investment.
  • Amy shared an escape room she created for her online students currently using team-based learning.
    • Her escape room is Google Slides-based and uses letters as keys to unscramble the final lock.
    • The topic is “Recording Transactions”.
    • Students complete the escape room during a Zoom meeting where the rotating team leader shares their screen. The course is a hybrid course.
    • The locks are simple and point to where students need to find clues.
    • An example escape room made by Grace can be found here: https://tinyurl.com/ye2yymhm (How to make an Escape Room).
    • We discussed how the role playing aspect of the escape rooms facilitates interactions among students
  • Lilja discussed her use of Jeopardy-style games, and role playing as parts of a muscle contraction in her in-person classes, but is teaching online and wants to move some playful activities there.
  • Jeffery mentioned Kahoot! as a possibility. We discussed ways to use Kahoot! asynchronously and motivating students to achieve a particular score by winning against the professor.  Students can submit proof of completion by screenshotting their final score screen.
  • Amy shared Crossword Labs (com/ ) as a way to create team crossword puzzles online. Discussed ways to use TBL in hybrid classes.
  • Spoke about moving in-person games online using Discussion Boards
    • Can have students make riddles and clues based on the topic, which their classmates can solve and present text-evidence that led them to their answer.
    • Add a constraint to make it more challenging like Up-Goer 5 or only use one-syllable words, or introduce “forbidden words” that can not be used.
  • Annice discussed her use of Kahoot! as a pre-test during in-person classes. She also uses randomization during role play by having students pull charades type prompts out of a hat.  Online she uses assignment choice to facilitate Universal Design.
  • Victoria uses a win-against the professor competition in her classes, challenging students to write a shorter paragraph than her in her ELA classes to teach concise writing.
  • A doodle poll will be sent out in late August to set meeting times for Fall 2023.
  • Have a great summer!

Meeting Minutes 4/21/23

April 21, 2023 / Leave a comment

Game Based Learning (GBL) Faculty Interest Group (FIG) – Notes from Meeting One

Friday April 21, 2023 at 1PM

Grace Axler-DiPerte, Facilitator

Participants: Grace Axler-DiPerte (KCC BIO), Lilja Nielsen (KCC BIO), Tom Lavazzi (KCC English), Victoria Somoygi (LaGuardia ELA), Caroline Jedlicka (KCC Library), Mary Ortiz (KCC BIO), Annice Paolino (KCC BUS), Amy Haas (KCC BUS)

  • We began with Introductions and what participants have been working on/ are interested in.
  • Participant interests include:
    • Annice mentioned using activities and Kahoot! in class.
    • Amy spoke about using games already developed in the GBL FIG.
    • Lilja discussed translating small games/activities used in-person to an online environment or developing new games.
    • Mary mentioned a game where she has statistics students determine if a scenario meets the criteria for a binomial distribution.
      • A modification was suggested where students try to come up with additional scenarios for their classmates to solve.
    • Carrie and Tom are working on using augmented reality to introduce campus resources and also to meet learning goals.
    • Victoria spoke about her game where ESL students write one true paragraph and one false one. Classmates then determine which is true, and the students get practice writing paragraphs.  Recognition is given for “bests” among the students.
  • The CUNY Games Network and Conference were discussed.
    • Annual conference is usually held in the winter. For the past few years it has been online with a possibility of future events in-person.
    • First Friday discussions have not started up again yet for 2023.
    • For more information and past/current events visit: https://games.commons.gc.cuny.edu/
  • We demoed and discussed Tale Blazer.
    • Tom shared his progress with the Tale Blazer (taleblazer.org) tutorial and modifying a demo game.
    • Grace showed the Tale Blazer software from the programming and from a perspective.
      • How to move the location of a game.
      • Enabling “Tap to Visit”
      • Seeing how the block coding language translates to in-game views and actions
      • Introducing choices and scoring into your game
    • Tom shared his modification in creating a new character into an existing game.
    • Amy shared an online tool to make crossword puzzles. https://crosswordlabs.com/
  • Victoria shared a game she uses to teach punctuation. Students write a sentence without punctuation and then their classmates figure out the appropriate use of periods, commas, etc.
  • Annice shared that she uses a similar activity.
  • We went through a quick overview of Flippity.net tools, and will demo and discuss additional uses of the tools on flippity.
  • Our next meeting will be on May 19th at 1PM.

Meeting Minutes 3-24-23

April 16, 2023 / Leave a comment

Game Based Learning (GBL) Faculty Interest Group (FIG) – Notes from Meeting One

Friday March 24, 2023 at 1PM

Grace Axler-DiPerte, Facilitator

Participants: Grace Axler-DiPerte (KCC BIO), Lilja Nielsen (KCC BIO), Tom Lavazzi (KCC English), Victoria Somoygi (LaGuardia ELA), Irina Newman (KCC English), Caroline Jedlicka (KCC Library), Monica Joseph (KCC Allied Health), Kathryn Giamo (KCC College Advancement)

  • We began with Introductions and what participants have been working on/ are interested in.
  • Participant interests include:
    • Working with Tale Blazer to create augmented reality games/ tours for classes and orientations
    • Using Kahoot! to create collaborative experiences by having students work in pairs.
    • Creating small games and activities for online classes
    • Getting ideas for games that aren’t “technology heavy” and will be accessible to students who may not be comfortable with computer programs or have access to wifi or other technology resources.
  • Kathy introduced herself to let everyone know that there may be grants available to develop games at KCC and for GBL research. Please reach out to her for resources and ideas.
  • We spoke a bit about augmented reality games and the Tale Blazer (taleblazer.org) app.
    • The block coding language is new and can be difficult to master.
    • Augmented reality games can have challenges with multi-floor indoor spaces, since X, Y coordinates are used, the Z-axis can be difficult to distinguish.
    • Tom suggested that perhaps having a different mini-game for each floor could help.
    • Caroline mentioned that Meta is has augmented reality and virtual reality software that could be helpful for her interests and non-programmers.
    • Kathy mentioned in the chat that wayfinding issues on campuses might be helped by augmented reality technology.
  • We discussed net tools especially manipulatives.
    • Manipulatives can be used particularly with concepts that involve categories.
      • Classes of microbes
      • Types of tissues
      • Building a menu or treatment plan
      • Organizing an essay or part of speech
    • Flippity tools have an advantage that no coding or html is necessary, and they are free to create and use
    • Each time a student clicks the link to the flippity activity a “fresh” version is shown, which can make asynchronous collaboration and saving of their work difficult.
      • Students can upload screen captures to share their work
      • Possibly post on a class discussion board or show in an in-person class
      • Other flippity tools can be collaborated on at the spreadsheet level. For example having students contribute to a Mad Libs story or flashcard set by editing the source Google sheet together.
    • We also discovered that by putting an image url in the flippity manipulatives Google sheets space, the manipulative “card” can be a picture.
    • Grace demonstrated how manipulatives can also be made using Google Jamboard and “sticky notes”.
  • Discussed the use of simple mechanics like role playing to make a lesson more game-like.
  • We went around the “room” to discuss our “why” and “how” for using/creating games for our classrooms. Responses included:
    • Reinforce lessons in a fun way
    • Teaching a lesson with a game, followed by an assessment activity/game
    • Want students to be able to experiment with different styles/solutions to a prompt or problem
      • Randomizers can be helpful for this
    • Low stakes exercises
    • Keep students awake/engaged with each other in new ways
  • Victoria shared an activity she made for her ESL classes with flippity manipulatives using sentence structure.
  • We found you could include images in flippity manipulatives.
  • Lilja shared her use of Jeopardy! Style trivia games.
  • Irina shared card games website.

Meeting Minutes 11/30/2022

December 5, 2022 / Leave a comment

Game Based Learning (GBL) Faculty Interest Group (FIG) – Notes from Meeting Three

Wednesday, November 30th, 2022 at 12PM

Grace Axler-DiPerte, Facilitator

Participants: Grace Axler-DiPerte (KCC BIO), Mary Ortiz (KCC BIO), Thomas Lavazzi (KCC ENG), Jeffery Delgado (KCC LIBRARY)

Meeting began at 12:00PM.

  1. Announcements:
  2. Mary shared she is going to try and encourage students to think abstractly by completing a math problem for prizes at the beginning of her next lab session. She will use a timing mechanic (first group finished), and introduce levels (once an easy problem is finished, students are challenged with a more difficult one).
  3. Jeffrey shared an information literacy game he is developing, which is a tabletop RPG.
    • We discussed character and story development, student choice, and scavenger hunts as a game mechanic in role playing.
  4. Jeffery also shared that the KCC Library offers classes in Information Literacy to supplement existing courses at KCC. There is a link on the Library website to sign up.  The modules can be done in-person or online (synchronously or asynchronously).
  5. Tom shared that he is continuing to develop his randomizer and Word Cloud activities using flippity.net tools, and will test his templates for students to use to develop their own activities based on coursework.
  6. We finished the meeting by introducing TaleBlazer (taleblazer.org), a product of the MIT Scheller Teacher Education Program.
    • This is a free to use and play, cloud-based software that can be used to develop location based augmented reality games.
    • Next semester we will explore this tool in more detail and continue discussing existing ideas and development.
  7. A doodle poll will be sent out sometime in February of 2023 to schedule the Spring meetings.
    • A doodle poll will be sent to the KCC Faculty list, and the current FIG mailing list. Contact Grace if you would like to join our mailing list for future meetings. Contact information is on the homepage or through KCTL.

Meeting Minutes 10/26/22

November 1, 2022 / Leave a comment

Game Based Learning (GBL) Faculty Interest Group (FIG) – Notes from Meeting Two

Wednesday, October 26th, 2022 at 12PM

Grace Axler-DiPerte, Facilitator

Participants: Grace Axler-DiPerte (KCC BIO), Mary Ortiz (KCC BIO), Thomas Lavazzi (KCC ENG), Victoria Somogyi (LGA ESL and ELA), Lilja Neilsen (KCC BIO)

Meeting began at 12:00PM.

  1. We focused some more on the tools at net.
    • Tom has a wheel to randomize prompts to create narratives around advertising using the randomizer wheel templates for things like, place and situation. Then students develop a narrative based on the randomized prompt.
    • Word clouds can be used to structure a brainstorm for an essay assignment
  2. We discussed how to make a flippity template shareable with a class, so that they can make their own tools for an assignment (like the word cloud or flashcards)
    • Save the Flippity Google Spreadsheet as a copy in your Drive
    • Change the name to the assignment name
    • Share as : anyone with link can edit
    • You can make the link smaller using tiny url or bit.ly .
    • Develop the template as needed.
    • Share the link with students with direct instructions to make a copy of the spreadsheet to their Drive first.
    • Remember to give the publishing and link instructions, students can share the link to submit the assignment OR upload the finished work as an assignment in Blackboard.
  3. Victoria shared some techniques for an online synchronous and hybrid classes.
    • Breakout room drawings, like Pictionary
    • A commercially available game for use as a conversation starter.
      1. Students write stories to practice writing and grammar (ESL) and other students have to guess which story belongs to which student.
      2. Similar ideas could be “Two Truths and a Lie”, which can be modified for a variety of topics.
  1. Grace did a demo of the Flippity Mad Libs function to create “Stories” where students can modify word problems to make them more random.
  2. The previously discussed paper on student-designed Escape Rooms was mentioned.
  3. Next time we will continue to share resources, and wrap up the semester. We will also discuss the TaleBlazer game design tool.
  4. The meeting ended at 1:00 PM. Please contact Grace for Zoom information, if you are interested in joining a future meeting.
    • Wednesday, November 30th at 12PM

Meeting Minutes 9/28/22

September 29, 2022 / Leave a comment

Game Based Learning (GBL) Faculty Interest Group (FIG) – Notes from Meeting One

Wednesday, September 28th, 2022 at 12PM

Grace Axler-DiPerte, Facilitator

Participants: Grace Axler-DiPerte (KCC BIO), Mary Ortiz (KCC BIO), Thomas Lavazzi (KCC ENG), Marta Cabral (CSI Curriculum and Instruction), Victoria Somogyi (LGA ESL and ELA), Felix Yusupov (KCC Flex Math)

Meeting began at 12:00PM.

  1. Participants introduced themselves briefly.
  2. We discussed how participants have used games in their classes, and what they would like to discuss in the FIG this semester.
    • Mary spoke about a game in her statistics class, where she gives students a scenario and they work as a team to determine if it meets the conditions for a binomial distribution.
    • Victoria spoke about how she uses progressive stories (where one student adds on to another’s work) to practice grammar. Each different, classes are very engaged in the game, but each class is different.  Games she uses work well in both online, hybrid and in person.
    • Marta spoke about how she organized her class into a semester long narrative “adventure”, based on a presentation by C. Stallard at a previous CUNY games conference. Her students seem motivated by competition and the narrative, which resembles a quest involving developing a curriculum in early childhood education.
    • Felix introduced us to KCC Flex and the immersion program, with math remediation no longer being a separate course. He is looking to use online games and tools to supplement his course and help students practice math skills.
  3. We then discussed using a “big” vs. “small” approach in using games in a course.
    • The small approach uses a game to demonstrate or explore a single concept or group of set of learning goals.
    • Larger approaches might include introducing a multi-level quest, or gamification of the class by accumulating points or having earned certificates or badges to measure student progress.
  4. Victoria shared the use of “Mad Libs”- type activities in her course. These are also available as an online activity using tools at flippity.net.
    • Blanks and stories are easily altered to explore writing mechanics (verbs, adjectives, present tense, etc), or other subject matter by asking the players to contribute numbers (for a quantitative problem or scenario), or vocabulary words. You might then ask students to read the story back and decide if the story makes sense as written, and then “correct”, improve or “solve” the story.
  5. We discussed student-generated content, which can range from creating a Kahoot! or Nearpod game, or creating a portion or entire game to be played in person. Marta has used these strategies in her classes.
  6. The meeting ended at 1:05PM and we decided on the following future meeting dates (please contact Grace for Zoom information, if you are interested in joining a future meeting.
    • Wednesday, October 26th at 12PM
    • Wednesday, November 30th at 12PM

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