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.