Katrin BeckerMount Royal University | MT Royal · Department of Computer Sciences & Information Systems
Katrin Becker
PhD in Educational Technology (Instructional Design)
About
146
Publications
146,674
Reads
How we measure 'reads'
A 'read' is counted each time someone views a publication summary (such as the title, abstract, and list of authors), clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the full-text. Learn more
1,365
Citations
Introduction
Katrin is an award winning, internationally known expert in the design and analysis of Serious Games. With over 30 years of teaching experience in Science, Engineering, Education, and Art, she has taught computer science, videogame design, digital game-based learning, and technical writing. She designs and develops eLearning in all sectors, and has consulted for various organizations on the use of digital games for instructional purposes.
Additional affiliations
August 2013 - present
September 2009 - April 2010
January 2009 - April 2009
Publications
Publications (146)
This segment is from an interview that was recorded for the The Game-Based Learning Virtual Summit, held on Nov. 1-3, 2023
hosted by Dr. Patrick Felicia
My Field: Applying game design principles to teaching and learning (= Gameful Learning)
Question: What are the core principles or philosophies that guide your work or approach to your field?
This segment is from an interview that was recorded for the The Game-Based Learning Virtual Summit, held on Nov. 1-3, 2023
hosted by Dr. Patrick Felicia
My Field: Applying game design principles to teaching and learning (= Gameful Learning)
Question 4: What do you believe are the most pressing or intriguing challenges or trends in your field at t...
This segment is from an interview that was recorded for the The Game-Based Learning Virtual Summit, held on Nov. 1-3, 2023
hosted by Dr. Patrick Felicia
My Field: Applying game design principles to teaching and learning (= Gameful Learning)
Question: Tell us about your journey. How did you get started in your field, and what pivotal moments led y...
This segment is from an interview that was recorded for the The Game-Based Learning Virtual Summit, held on Nov. 1-3, 2023
hosted by Dr. Patrick Felicia
My Field: Applying game design principles to teaching and learning (= Gameful Learning)
Question: Tell us about your journey. How did you get started in your field, and what pivotal moments led y...
This segment is from an interview that was recorded for the The Game-Based Learning Virtual Summit, held on Nov. 1-3, 2023
hosted by Dr. Patrick Felicia
My Field: Applying game design principles to teaching and learning (= Gameful Learning)
Question 3: Can you share some insights into your current projects or areas of focus? What's keeping you ex...
Can you share some insights into your current projects or areas of focus? What's keeping you excited and motivated right now?
This segment is from an interview that was recorded for the The Game-Based Learning Virtual Summit, held on Nov. 1-3, 2023
hosted by Dr. Patrick Felicia
My Field: Applying game design principles to teaching and learning (= Gameful Learning)
Question 3: Can you share some insights into your current projects or areas of focus? What's keeping you ex...
This chapter describes my magic bullet model for analyzing the learning in a game. It diagrams the learning balance and with it we can conceptualize how the balance of the various parts can affect the game’s potential for use in a learning context. I first outline the ideal, and then go on to explain how to assess a game that deviates from the idea...
This chapter looks at game-based pedagogy from the design perspective. It begins by considering who our learners are and who digital natives really are. Then there is a second look at the teacher’s roles in DGP and what it means to enter the magic circle. Further, there is a look at the wicked problem of creating lessons that use games and create a...
This chapter takes readers through a step-by-step process for analyzing games that will highlight the key issues associated with the use of games in the classroom.
This chapter on game-based learning and the next on game-based pedagogy form the foundation on which the remainder of the book is built.
This book examines what games are, how they work, and how to use them in educational settings. It has shown how to create lessons, units, and entire courses, and has provided a wide variety of practical ideas for how to use them in our classrooms, along with some examples. It is silly to imply that this is all you need do to ensure the games you ch...
This chapter takes what we’ve learned up to this point and builds a template for lesson plans that make use of games. It starts with a fairly standard lesson plan template, adapts it for use with a game, and develops several lesson and unit plans using that template.
Entire volumes have been written that are devoted to exploring what games are and yet we still have no definitive statement on the meaning of the word “game.” You will find almost as many definitions of “game” as there are authors writing about it. There are some common elements though, and this chapter uses those to define what we mean by “game.”...
While there appears to be a growing acceptance of the use of games for learning (G4L), this acceptance is often focused on games designed specifically for learning, in other words, serious games where the educational purpose of the game is explicit and was likely part of the design goals right from the start. When it comes to using COTS games in th...
This section provides a detailed analysis of several games using the model described up to this point. For each game, I outline the more general analysis as described in Evaluating Games, and then proceed to a more detailed analysis of the learning potential using the Magic Bullet model.
This chapter adds the last few pieces of the puzzle by outlining various ways that games can be used in the classroom. Although we have largely focused on games as content when it comes to using them in the classroom, there are other ways to make use of games. This chapter outlines 15 of them. While there are a growing number of sources who talk ab...
This final chapter contains summaries of the major lists from the book. The learning theories, instructional theories, instructional design models, and the 15 ways to use games are summarized for easy reference. The 101 instructional strategies are presented in a table sorted alphabetically and crossreferenced by their section numbers in Ch. 9. Thi...
This book presents an in-depth overview of the uses of digital games in education, from K-12 up through post-secondary. Beginning with a look at the history of games in education and the context for digital games, this book guides readers through various methods of serious game implementation, including the Magic Bullet Model, which focuses on the...
The term “gamification” is relatively new, but its exact origins are not known. The first recorded use was
in the digital media industry in 2008 and it has become popular in the last couple of years (Deterding,
Dixon, Khaled, & Nacke, 2011). A search performed in October 2012 on Google Scholar using the term
“gamification” turned up over 1,000 publ...
Digital games are being used more and more often as teaching resources in the classroom (Habgood & Ainsworth, 2011). Some are games designed specifically for educational purposes, and others—commonly known as COTS (commercial off-the-shelf) games—are commercial games that were designed for entertainment, but have educational value as well. Some of...
A common notion in games for learning is that the player must win the game. But is it always necessary for the player to win in order to ‘get’ the message that the game is trying to portray? When we think back on our most memorable learning experiences, we find that these lessons are often things we learned through failure rather than success. Ther...
Videogames are interactive by nature — people proceed in games by doing things, and this experiential quality lies at the very core of game design. Without interaction, it isn't a game. Videogames are popular precisely because of the experience — games designed for learning can do no less. However, to be feasible for use in formal educational setti...
Wondering what this ‘Gamification’ thing is all about? Is it something you could implement in your courses? This tutorial will explain what gamification is, and isn't, and how one might integrate some of the best aspects of gamification into the design of learning. The presenter will outline a design that has been used both f2f and online and sugge...
Details practical ways to incorporate videogames in K-12 and post-secondary education.
Examines both educational games and Commercial Off-the-Shelf games (COTS) .
Provides templates for lesson plans involving game-based learning.
This book presents an in-depth overview of the uses of digital games in education, from K-12 up through post-secondar...
Design is an applied endeavor: to design something one must have extensive knowledge of the thing
being designed. Design is also a complex activity and while each design discipline shares some aspect
with most other design disciplines, each also has important distinctions. It is simply not possible to be
an expert designer in the general sense. Kno...
ViPER is a game developed to teach concepts in machine learning to middle school students. This is a challenging task, because machine learning involves a good deal of advanced mathematics and computer science. It was decided to have the students themselves go through the machine learning process in the way a computer would in order to demonstrate...
Videogames are interactive by nature - people proceed in games by doing things, and this experiential quality lies at the very core of game design. Without interaction, it isn’t a game. Videogames are popular precisely because of the experience - games designed for learning can do no less. However, to be feasible for use in formal educational setti...
TV Talk show discussing issues that matter to Calgarians. Join us live every Thursday at 7PM. Join the discussion by leaving a comment here.
Description
Some of the best conversations come from sitting around throwing out ideas, so let's get talking. We're wanting to shed light on issues that affect Calgarians and get conversations started amongst...
This paper outlines a simple and effective model that can be used to evaluate and design educational digital games. It also facilitates the formulation of strategies for using existing games in learning contexts. The model categorizes game goals and learning objectives into one or more of four possible categories. An overview of the model is provid...
What if you could make an ad that would keep people on your website for as much as an hour -and have them leave with a big smile on their faces? That's the main idea behind advergaming: the use of videogames to advertise your organization and products.
Many people struggle with the fundamental concepts underlying Mendelian genetics. As soon as we involve more than two traits things get complicated. The classic examples are fine, but additional resources can be helpful. Besides, playing with blood isn't all it's cracked up to be, and rabbits are cuter. Here's a visual way to learn the jargon and t...
‘Gamification’ - the use of game elements in non-game contexts - has rapidly become one of the current hottest trends. This presentation presents an overview of what gamification is and isn’t, and reports on the author’s experiences using this approach in a graduate level education class as well as the early results of a comparison between gamified...
SoTL research is often instigated and directed by the instructors or facilitators who are responsible for a given course, program, seminar, or workshop. The facilitators, or sometimes an outside person is the researcher, while the students are the subjects. Even in participatory action research, the learners are still primarily treated as subjects....
Typical research methodologies in SoTL include many of the traditional educational research methodologies, yet there are methodologies in other disciplines and industries that can provide fresh perspectives. One of these industries is the videogame industry. While there are fundamental differences such as the fact that one seeks primarily to entert...
This paper is about the collective experiences of a graduate level education course that had been partially gamified. A common model for graduate level Education courses uses a seminar approach where participants complete various readings and then respond to them in short editorials or blogs. This course gamified that component by requiring student...
Games use the same base technology and design strategy as do simulations, but add a few items to the mixture. Understanding this gives ‘new’ (read borrowed) tools for game creation and testing. The idea that simulations are implementations of a model, for instance, leads to a focus on the model rather than the code when designing a game. Similarly,...
Serious video game design is a strategic process anchored in basic design principles and social expectations (Mitgutsch, 2011). The hopeful, yet unproven effects of serious games have led game designers and researchers alike to ask ‘just what do we learn from playing serious games?’ The claims that “Gaming can make a better world” (McGonigal, 2011)...
"There are some things you learn best in calm, and some in storm." Willa Cather (1915)
In this community, the claim that all games are simulations, but not all simulations are games does not seem especially radical. When you look under the hood of a modern simulation or videogame, you see pretty much the same stuff. It hardly seems worth a second...
This presentation reports on the early results of a study of a novel card game used to teach concepts of Mendelian genetics and inheritance in a biology class. The card game being tested is currently in the prototype stage, and the current study seeks to determine if the design of the cards, game rules, and support material are appropriate to meet...
Digital simulations and games constitute a distinct category of learning intervention that calls for a tailor-made instructional design approach. This article will provide some background for that claim. A brief summary of several well-known I.D. models is presented as well as typical simulation and game design models. These are then combined to fo...
This paper outlines a simple and effective model that can be used as a tool to evaluate and design digital games for learning, and to help in the formulation of strategies for the use of pre-existing games in learning contexts. To get to the end of a videogame, players must always LEARN something: facts, skills, strategies, attitudes, etc., and tha...
Digital simulations and games constitute a distinct category of learning intervention that calls for a tailor-made instructional design approach. This article will provide some background for that claim. Design is a highly complex, specialized activity that not only requires design knowledge, but also an extensive understanding of the object to be...
In many educational circles, people have said that games and simulations are not the same. We disagree. This discussion paper will examine these claims in more detail and will look at the implications such positions have for the design, development, and use of simulations and games for learning.
Digital simulations and games constitute a distinct category of learning intervention that calls for a tailor-made instructional design approach. This article will provide some background for that claim. Design is a highly complex, specialized activity that not only requires design knowledge, but also an extensive understanding of the object to be...
Some years ago as part of the author’s doctoral work a survey with public school teachers <http://minkhollow.ca/becker/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=papers:digra-05-study-paper.pdf> was conducted to see if they were using games in school, and if not, why not. Some of the obvious and significant barriers were highlighted: lack of admin support, lack of re...
Make no mistake, first impressions are important. They often establish imply innovation. But first impressions are not enough. To be effective, learning applications must also have depth and substance. The Decorative Media Principle involves the creation of a visually pleasing background and decorations for a worksheet, website, etc. that is themat...
A practical method for conducting the first stages of the design of a serious game is presented. The idea is to have two designers, and instructional designer and a game designer, prepare short overall designs using a two page document called a sketch. They then merge the two using a process that combines a storyboard and a walkthrough. The final r...
What's in a game? Often, a learning tool
What do simulations and games have in common? Surprisingly, just about everything. The methods used to create both are much the same; the underlying technology is identical.
But games are fun. That makes them an excellent learning tool. If you're a professional trainer, educator, development team leader, o...
Before researchers can perform studies using commercial games, they must choose which game or games to study. The manner in which that choice is made and justified is the focus of this paper. Ideally, research informs pedagogy and when looking at game education it is important to be able to justify and defend conclusions drawn from game studies so...
Video games are now being seen as a media form rather than mere toys and the body of research on their use as pedagogical tools is growing. However, the majority of studies on the use of games for teaching involve student perception. Studies that seek to measure actual learning are still uncommon. Part of the reason is the inherent difficulty in se...
New technology tools are appearing at dizzying rates. For example, OpenOffice was once the only alternative to proprietary office suites, but now numerous alternatives exist, and when you combine them with tools like social networking, instant messaging, and cloud computing, many new ways of working and learning online present themselves. This pres...
Collaborative activity has always been at the foundation of engineering activity and although group work has typically been recognized as important in engineering education, helping students learn how to work in groups has not always gone as smoothly as one might hope. Student claims of imbalance in workloads and conflicts among group members can b...
Serious games are digital games designed for purposes other than pure entertainment. This category includes educational games but it also includes a great deal more. A field that was unheard of until Ben Sawyer referred to it as Serious Games in late 2002 (Sawyer, 2003) has already grown so large that one can only hope to keep track of a very small...
We have always appropriated whatever technologies are available to us for use as technologies for instruction. This practice may well date back as far as human communication itself. The practice of “studying the masters” is also an old and respected one, and using this perspective we can take advantage of the opportunities afforded us in studying o...
This paper will outline a simple, yet effective model that can be used to help in the design of games for educational purposes, as well as in evaluating existing games for their learning potential. Further, this model can help educators formulate strategies for using an existing game within a learning context. The model will be presented along with...
This abstract is a report on a qualitative meta-analysis of the methods used in choosing games for study. Game Studies continues to develop as a discipline just as digital games continue to evolve. While there remains an interest in examinations of specific games for various purposes, as the number and sophistication of titles released in a given y...
This chapter provides an introduction to digital simulations for those interested in using or designing them for instructional purposes. There has been some disagreement in various circles about how to define simulations and digital games and this issue is addressed. The two primary categories of simulation (discrete and continuous) are also descri...
This chapter provides an introduction to digital simulations for those interested in using or designing them for instructional purposes. There has been some disagreement in various circles about how to define simulations and digital games and this issue is addressed. The two primary categories of simulation (discrete and continuous) are also descri...
We have always appropriated whatever technologies are available to us for use as technologies for instruction. This practice may well date back as far as human communication itself. The practice of "studying the masters" is also an old and respected one, and using this perspective we can take advantage of the opportunities afforded us in studying o...
Communication skills are often cited as among the most important skills for Computer Science (CS) professionals [1, 2], so it may seem somewhat incongruous that other than writing code and associated program documents, CS students are rarely given writing tasks in their CS courses. This paper will examine some possible reasons for why that might be...
There has been significant recent interest in computer games in University and College curricula as a way to teach early computer science, to attract more students into the program, to teach advanced concepts, and to help lend vocational weight to a curriculum. In this article we discuss several ways that games can contribute to an undergraduate CS...
In the spring of 2005, the author designed and taught a graduate-level course on digital game-based learning primarily for teachers. Teachers cannot be expected to embrace digital games as a tool for learning unless they have a sound understanding of the potential as well as the limitations, and are confident in their ability to use games effective...
The process of instructional design has parallels in other design disciplines. Software design is one that has experienced intense attention in the last 30 or so years, and many lessons learned there can be applied to ID. Using software design as a springboard, this concept paper seeks to propose a new approach to ID. It suggests that instructional...
The effective application and use of games and game technology for education requires examinations of existing artifacts, both in and out of formal educational settings, as well as the development of new theories and models for how to design games intended primarily to educate rather than entertain. One way to facilitate an understanding of how a m...
It is well-known that problems in interdisciplinary communication between knowledge communities can seriously hinder innovation [1, 7, 8, 10]. The games studies community is a highly interdisciplinary community, and there are, not surprisingly, regular terminology debates that question the definitions of some of our most fundamental terms such as '...
Books, film, television, and indeed every other medium that came before them have been used and sometimes studied as media for the delivery of instruction. Outstanding examples of each medium have been applied to educative purposes with enduring results. Digital games are now also receiving attention in this context. A first step to gaining an unde...
The purpose of the tutorial is to provide a hands-on introduction to Elluminate [www.elluminate.com]
One way to understand how a particular medium can be used effectively in education is to study its outstanding examples, regardless of their original purpose. The argument can be made that many of the most successful commercial games already embody sound pedagogy in their designs even if that incorporation was not deliberate. The following paper wi...
Questions
Questions (7)
With any luck at all, this book will save you countless hours heading down rabbit holes.
While you might find something wonderful in those rabbit holes, this book will get you started on your path to understanding gamification and ways to avoid some of the pitfalls that might ensnare you.
We often talk about the value of inquiry-based teaching in Education, but how often do we, as educators, apply the same ideas to us and our own work? How often do we actually “walk the talk”?
I’ve been teaching for 40 years now. In that time, I both fell into and willingly headed down a great many rabbit holes.
I suppose that many people begin to take a longer view of their work once they’ve been doing it for as long as I have, and I’m no different. Some years back, in parallel with my going all in with my gamified approach, I began to ask some fairly fundamental “What If” questions. Such as, “What would happen if I DIDN’T have deadlines for the work in my classes?
Some of the answers I found surprised even me.
This book outlines some of the rabbits holes I've been down and what I discovered there. https://minkhollow.ca/Gamification/doku.php?id=book1-toc
It would be nice if we could download the citations for papers we find here. I always end up having to go elsewhere to get them, or copy and paste them field by field, which is a waste of time.
Is there any way to download citations to shared papers into our citation managers?
I asked a question here the other day, but it was taken down by the administrators.
I have expertise in gamification and have been doing active research in the area. The gamification methods of this academic paper-sharing site have intrigued me from the start (I can't name it, or I will be censored again). We are told that our score is related to how others interact with our stuff, but we are not told how.
I am conducting some experiments to see if I can figure it out, but in the mean time, I am interested in finding out how you view the reputation scores on this site. Are they important to you? Do they influence you in way? What way is that?
Feel free to contact me off-line.
I often hear that the reason for the use of strict deadlines for coursework is that people need to learn to meet deadlines. Fair enough. But.......What about the opposite? Don't our students also need to learn to work in the absence of deadlines too? Don't students need to learn how to set their own deadlines and goals? Do we short-change our students by insisting that everything done in class be done according to an externally imposed schedule and deadline?
I'd also be interested in knowing how much they're worth, and what kind of exams they are.
After teaching for 30 years I have become more and more convinced that exams are a very poor indicator of a student's performance, and that they are not indicative of their mastery of the material or their ultimate ability in that field.
I've been seeing more talk about "signature pedagogies" recently. There are some that seem to make a lot of sense, and others, well, not so much. (http://minkhollow.ca/beckerblog/2013/11/26/signature-pedagogies-in-education/)
I'd love to get an idea of what the signature pedagogies are in various disciplines and what the justifications are for identifying them as such.
Signature Pedagogies in the Profession Lee S. Shulman (2005)
Shulman talks about signature pedagogies, the types of teaching that organize the fundamental ways in which future practitioners are educated for their new professions. In these signature pedagogies, the novices are instructed in critical aspects of the three fundamental dimensions of professional work - to think, to perform, and to act with integrity. But these three dimensions do not receive equal attention across the professions.
