TL;DR: Once students reach a mystery level they fill out a quick form, give to teacher, and receive an email with the reward. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
How do students find out what the mystery achievement is once they've earn it? This is a follow up to the article, Reel In Student Interest With Mystery Rewards. In that post I mentioned how to motivate students by adding a sense of mystery to the rewards sheet. After establishing that motivation I was soon faced with a new problem: How do I reveal the mystery rewards to students once they earn them?
TL;DR: A leaderboard keeps track of all the statistics in a gamified classroom and motivates students to push themselves to appear superior to others. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Why is a leaderboard essential in a gamified classroom? Reason #1: Show students they are progressing and winning Each time a student completes an assignment, challenge, or achievement, they earn experience points (XP). These are recorded by the teacher and are automatically updated on the leaderboard revealing the 'Rank', 'Total XP', and 'Level'. Since students can never lose XP they are constantly getting a better and better score which in turn improves motivation.
Reason #2: Align with XP Reward Sheet
As described in a previous
TL;DR: Adding mystery to a rewards sheet drives students to earn that unknown. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
How do I add mystery to my XP rewards sheet and why it pushes gamers to do more? In a previous post, "Engaging XP Rewards Sheet", I mentioned how adding three categories of rewards engage learners. Those are rewards which are anticipated. However, adding a little bit of mystery can push students to level up as fast as possible just to see the unknown.
M. S. Christa, again. Log entry two. Alright, Technicians.
Unexpected problems happen all the time, here at NASA. If you want to hang
around mission control, you need to learn how to solve any kind of problem that
hits you in the face. Over and out.
This is log entry
one. My name is M S Christa. That stands for mission specialist. Yes. Doesn’t
that sound like an important term? Really, I’m just a fresh out of college nerd
that loves rocks and soil. Geology is my field of expertise. For some reason NASA
thinks it’s important to shoot me out to the lovely desiccated, deserted, rust
field we call Mars. Oh yes. By the way, I’m so glad you all could make it. As
you may already know, it took over one million people working together to send
two people to the moon. Now since President Obama’s initiative to send people
to Mars we will need even more help. A crew of astronauts has already been
training for the past few years. Here is where you come in. You need to know
about all the instruments, technologies, and protocols that go on with this
mission. By know about, I mean, inside and out, outside and in, front to back,
the master of all. Got it?
Oh yes, your official title is. Technician. Being the lowest
on the totem pole is not the worst. Well, actually, it is, but you can only go
up from there. Right?
I will keep you updated from time to time. Good luck, work
hard. And Cheers!
