Project Leads:
- Maike Weber (Ruhr University Bochum)
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. - Dominik Lux (Ruhr University Bochum)
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Training is a key activity in ELIXIR, with numerous courses, tutorials, and workshops provided for diverse user groups.
However, sustaining learner engagement and spark curiosity for out of field topics remains a challenge. Recently the term gamification has gained more popularity, as it aims to transfer knowledge in an approachable, entertainable and gamified way. These can range from interactive notebooks, virtual labs up to escape rooms and fully programmed games. The success factors seem to be structures of progress like leveling, getting into the next room, gaining points, feedback loops, story progression or competition via points or timed elements. Gamification has found its way into some bioinformatics trainings with games like Foldit and Bioblox, yet its full potential has not yet been explored and could be a great supplement for further trainings.
Therefore, in this hackathon/gameathon we would like to investigate how gamification can be effectively integrated into existing training resources and platforms such as the ELIXIR Training Platform. Questions around pedagogical design, technical feasibility, and alignment with training principles are still open.
This project will explore, test, and document methods for integrating gamification elements into bioinformatics training materials and delivery platforms. Rather than building a full-scale game, we aim to define best practices and prototypes that can be integrated into future trainings.
Key goals:
- Review existing gamification strategies and locate factors that improve engagement with material
- Define a scope of strategies that are useable for bioinformatics (e.g. escape rooms, quizzes, story building, …)
- Developand explore possibilities for prototypes for small-scale gamified components (with Twine, ThingLink, H5P, Classcraft and Swirl or Gamification Plugins that work with Moodle)
- Evaluate results and draft a guidance document for service centers to adopt gamification in their own training materials
What you should bring:
Interest and a little bit of experience in games and the will to make teaching fun