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Kyle Chapman
Durham College
Abstract
After introducing the concept of a token economy for gamified learning, several categories of methods of tracking student participation in a token economy for gamified education are created, described and differentiated. The categories include physical tokens, public available token records, manual electronic tracking, automated electronic tracking, and gamification-specific software. Each of these methods are reviewed in terms of cost, learning curve, ease of use, privacy, security and impact on student engagement and learning. Based on literature reviewed, it is found that in terms of cost, learning curve and ease of use, methods that do not involve customized software are cheaper and simpler than the methods that do. In terms of student engagement and learning, all of these categories reported mixed to positive effects with the exception of automated electronic tracking. The impact of a token economy on motivation and the “fit” of the tracking method within the curriculum-specific implementation of gamification are also discussed. Further research into tracking methods is recommended, including differentiating the tracking method with other factors controlled.
Keywords: gameful, gamification, learning analytics, learning management system, motivation, participation, token economy, virtual currency
Introduction
As the concept of gamification has emerged and become a trend in education, educators have needed to find means to track “scores” for students based on the criteria that is desired to be reinforced. Generically, if these points are utilized toward some kind of reward, this is referred to as a “token economy” (Boniecki & Moore, 2003), or sometimes “virtual currency” (Dicheva, Dichev, Agre, & Angelova, 2015), where “points” or other in-class currency is used for some kind of benefit. As this has popularized, educators have utilized different means to track student progress in a token economy, and these means vary in ways that affect their usability and effectiveness from both educators’ and students’ points-of-view.
Rather than focusing on explanations and justifications for the idea of gamified learning, this chapter will examine different methods that can be used for tracking student participation in a token economy, weighing the benefits and drawbacks of these different approaches, finally discussing how the tracking method used also relates to the curriculum.
Background Information
Though the term “gamification” was coined in 2008 (Walz & Deterding, 2015), many of the ideas associated with gamification are considerably older; offering a child some form of privilege for a job well done is not new. The term “token economy” originates from Ayllon and Azrin in the 1960s where it was used to reinforce positive behaviors in psychiatric hospitals (Atthowe & Krasner, 1968).
The most common game-related elements in gamified courses are points, badges, and leaderboards where some other elements commonly co