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!

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 19^th at 1PM.

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.

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

Friday, May 6th, 2022, 1:50pm via Zoom

Grace Axler-DiPerte, Facilitator

Participants: Grace Axler-DiPerte (KCC BIO), Lilja Neilsen (KCC BIO), Mary Ortiz (KCC BIO), Tom Lavazzi (KCC ENG), Amy Haas (KCC Business)

Meeting began at 1:50pm.

1. The CUNY Games Network hosted a second, “First Fridays” Idea Exchange event immediately prior to this meeting.
   1. The next event is on June 3^rd, 2022 at noon. You can get information by joining the CUNY Games Network mailing list.  More information can be found here: https://games.commons.gc.cuny.edu/  and here: https://commons.gc.cuny.edu/groups/games-teaching-and-learning/ .
2. We continued to work on our collaborative escape room in our privately shared google drive.
3. The discussion focused on the settings for branched decision making and giving targeted feedback to a player, based on their response using a Google Form.
4. Amy shared an Escape Room she created for her accounting class, and we worked on troubleshooting the settings so students would be sent to a particular section, or back to the main room when needed.
5. Discussion of topics for next semester include:
   1. Continuing with Escape Room Design
   2. Working on ideas for Student-Generated games for formative or summative assessments.
6. Post semester surveys were sent via email.
7. An example of an escape room generated using Google Forms and Slides can be found here: https://tinyurl.com/y5ry2zdy
8. Meetings will resume in the Fall of 2022. Please contact Grace for more information.

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

Friday, April 8th, 2022, 1:50pm via Zoom

Grace Axler-DiPerte, Facilitator

Participants: Grace Axler-DiPerte (KCC BIO), Lilja Neilsen (KCC BIO), Christina Colon (KCC BIO), Tom Lavazzi (KCC ENG), Amy Haas (KCC Business)

Meeting began at 1:50pm.

• We began with a review of how the semester is going:
  • The James Goetz Memorial Photo Essay Contest is now open for entries.
  • Amy mentioned she found a good online tool for making crossword puzzles, that students can do entirely online.
    • https://crosswordlabs.com/
    • Is free, and very simple to make a crossword
    • Students can submit a screenshot of their work for credit
    • Has response validation so students know when they have the correct answer
    • Fun review of vocabulary
    • Can also collect clues from students to make a student generated crossword, or have students make a crossword for their classmates to solve.

• • Tom mentioned that he is working on a new tool to help students become immersed in sentence diagramming.

• We worked on how to set up Groups in Blackboard for a more collaborative environment.
• We continued our work on Escape Rooms, working on the folder in Google Drive (contact Grace for the link).
  • Discussed using Escape Rooms in teams. We think it might best work synchronously, rather than asynchronously when working as a group.
  • Went through set up of the “room” or Google Slide to include links to “locks” or Google Forms, as well as instructions for players of your “room”
  • Instructions can be made as a Google Doc, another slide, or even a fun video that goes with your theme or lesson.
  • Not all clues/locks need to be Google forms.
    • Ciphers, webpages or videos can also contain information or clues to unlock your room.
    • You can make fake text messages, newspaper articles, or even receipts using tools available on the internet, and these can serve as clues or devices to add drama and interest to your room.
  • We went through an example of a branched choice with feedback in Google Forms.
  • Some effective escape rooms may be entirely in Google Forms without a slide “room”
    • A great example is this wizarding themed escape room from the Peters Township Public Library https://sites.google.com/view/ptpl-virtual-escape-rooms (there is also a Hunger Games themed room)
    • A tutorial on how this room was made can be found here: https://youtu.be/xLzbPGF4TzY
  • For our next meeting, each participant has been asked to try and make a “lock” in the Google Slide, or Google Forms. It need not be elaborate, and at our next meeting on May 6^th, 2022, we will put the locks together to make our final “door” to escape the room.
• Meeting ended at 2:50PM

Game Based Learning (GBL) Faculty Interest Group (FIG)

Friday, Mar 18, 2022, 1:50pm via Zoom

Grace Axler-DiPerte, Facilitator

Participants: Grace Axler-DiPerte (KCC BIO), Lilja Neilsen (KCC BIO), Mary Ortiz (KCC BIO), Christina Colon (KCC BIO) Victoria Somogyi (LGA; ENG), Olga Kagan (SPS), Tamika Twiggs-Jennings (KCC Continuing Education)

Meeting began at 1:50pm.

1. Recap of the CUNY Games Conference 8.0 which occurred on 1/27 and 1/28/2022, via Zoom. The program can be viewed here: https://games.commons.gc.cuny.edu/cgc2022/
   1. Highlights included a rapid version of “What’s Your Game Plan?” designed by Joe Bisz, Designing for HyFlex, and Universal Design in Gaming. There were also idea exchanges surrounding virtual escape rooms, and mini-games.
   2. The CUNY Games Network will be hosting “First Friday” Idea Exchange events. The theme will be “Bring What’s Broken” on April 1^st, 2022.  Bring your “broken” classroom activities and discuss with others on how to “fix” them using game mechanics. Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUqdu-grzwsHtFriR56YgdvoFGvJYiqznn5
2. Tamika shared ways she uses games like Minecraft to teach elementary students sustainability. Playing in create mode to design, with unlimited access to resources, followed by survival mode can help determine if the design was sustainable, and also encourage community and collaboration among players.
3. Victoria shared about her experience using mini-games to develop story writing in her students.
4. Discussion about the use of cooperative games like Forbidden Island, Angry Dragons and Fish (https://fishgame.cloudinstitute.org/).
   1. Some games do not translate the same to online gaming, as people sometimes behave differently in person than they do online. Certain lessons and nuances of the games may be different depending on modality.
5. This semester the FIG will explore online escape rooms. How to make, and how to assess whether students do, and learn from them.
   1. Today we went through the basic structure of a simple escape room we will work on together this semester in the Google suite of applications.
   2. Discussed how to gauge participation and collect responses.
6. Meeting ended at 2:50PM