Teaching @ Berkeley interviews Professor Pestana on Gamification. Pestana, faculty member in CEE's GeoSystems program, chairs Berkeley Academic Senate's Committee on Teaching. He is also a recipient of Berkeley's Distinguished Teaching Award (2010).
Innovative educator LaVaque-Manty defined gaming in an academic environment as having these elements:
- “multiple paths to achievement (not everybody has to do the same assignments),
- safe failures (allowing students to practice the assignment instruments imposed on them before making them high stakes), and
- “leveling up” instead of “getting points taken off.”
Gamification strategies can be incorporated into a course without having programming expertise or needing to develop an elaborate game environment.
See What is Gamification? (Berkeley Center for Teaching and Learning)