Category: general
A behind-the-scenes look at ‘gamified’ courses at Brown
While some students trek to the Salomon Center for large lecture-based courses or gather in a Page-Robinson Hall classroom for seminars, others turn on their computers and enter the world of gamified courses. Currently, Brown offers a variety of gamified courses across the Departments of English, East Asian Studies and Portuguese and Brazilian Studies.There, the goal is not to pass exams or finish a final project, but to complete a story and become immersed in a fictional world. Assignments may come in the form of quests and levels, which involve the same general work as a traditional course, but with a related storyline and characters.The Herald spoke with Brown faculty who design and teach gamified courses.Gamification entails the use of game elements and game-design techniques in non-game contexts, said Naomi Pariseault, a senior learning designer at the Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning who specializes in digital learning and design.But gamifying courses is not the same as “creating a game,” she said. Pariseault works with faculty to create “a course that has game elements in it,” with assignments that are completely “story-based.”All elements of gamified courses are online and asynchronous.This is more “efficient pedagogically to achieve the (course’s) goals,” said English Professor James Egan, who teaches several gamified courses at Brown. He added that through gamification, students “become better writers and critical thinkers.”The first gamified course at Brown began nearly a decade ago after Egan read about gamification in pedagogical journals. He developed the class as an alternative to the larger lecture courses he was teaching at the time. After Egan applied to a University-sponsored program that provided funding for online-only courses, he was matched with Pariseault.The two had a common goal: create Brown’s first gamified course. Before designing the course, they were both certified with Sententia Gamification, a company that introduces educators to tools for game-based learning strategies. After the training, the two became “gamification master craftsmen.”The two then set out to build the course – using Canvas as the game’s interface – and bringing aboard Matt Rockman, a Brooklyn-based graphic designer who created both avatars and settings to be used in the courses. From there, the two designed a story that complemented the learning goals.After months of preparation, Brown offered its first gamified course in spring 2017 – ENGL 0511C: “Fantastic Places, Unhuman Humans.” The course’s narrative follows a girl named Leila, who comes from the planet Io. Students help Leila determine whether she’s human.Egan said the process of designing a gamified course can take anywhere from six to nine months. When designing the course, Pariseault said she considers the interesting and challenging aspects of the course, alongside how to introduce elements of gamification.To progress through the story of ENGL 0511C, students – who each create their own avatar – read literary texts, respond to discussion posts and perform writing exercises. Students especially enjoy the opportunity to do alternate assignments, such as diagrams and drawings, Egan said.In one of these assignments, students were given the opportunity to recreate Tarzan’s yell and explain how their rendition related to the yell in the novel – an option every student chose this semester.This fall, around 10 students are enrolled in ENGL 1190Y: “Editing as Revision,” a gamified course that introduces students to the fundamentals of editing. It took Teaching Professor of English Emily Hipchen almost 18 months to develop her course, a process that involved writing a narrative that’s “in the neighborhood of 37,000 words.”The class uses three levels – apprentice, journeyman and master – and divides students into competing historical writing guilds to teach students copy editing, proof editing and content, respectively.The course was designed in collaboration with Pariseault, and features two talking lions, Carl and Terry, which are based off of the lions in front of the New York Public Library. Their contrasting personalities – Carl as the serious, strict lion, and Terry as the flexible and playful one – represent the two sides of editing, Pariseault said.Hipchen finds that the most useful parts of gamified courses are “skills practice and skills production.” After around five exercises, students go from having little experience in a specific type of editing to being “pretty adept” at it, she said.Student feedback is a big part of how gamified courses are developed. At the end of each gamified course, there is a “focused survey” that allows students to provide feedback on the game mechanics of class, Perisault said.The course “attracts a broad range of students,” Egan said. Even though the class is entirely asynchronous, students “got to know the professor better than (they’ve) ever gotten to know another professor,” he added. Egan even voice acts as an avatar in ENGL 0511C.As Pariseault designs gamified courses, she specifically considers the interests of Brown students, who she said value “a lot of autonomy.””My hope is that students find joy in learning about the subject matter, and it’s something really different that they’ve never experienced before,” she added.
Ukraine faces ‘huge problems’ finding soldiers as men flee abroad, says Kyiv mayor
Ukraine is facing a worsening shortage of soldiers as record numbers of men flee to Europe, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko warned in an interview. “We have huge problems with soldiers with human resources,” Klitschko told the Axel Springer Global Reporters Network, of which POLITICO is a part, acknowledging the toll that nearly four years of war has taken on Ukraine’s capacity to replenish its ranks. He said Russian troops are advancing relentlessly, describing their assaults as “like a computer game they just keep coming, they don’t care about fallen soldiers.” Under current rules, Ukrainians can be mobilized from.
San Francisco’s (Partial) Comeback
The first direct action taken by an operative of the San Francisco 10X Project was the installation of an unauthorized tree swing on a grassy knoll in Bernal Heights. Mechanically, the operation was simple: scale the towering cypress, loop thick rope through one of the low-hanging branches, and tie up a plank. The wrinkle was […]
The Persian Qanat
Well shafts are sunk at regular intervals along the route of the tunnel to enable removal of spoil and allow ventilation. These appear as craters from above, following the line.
WWE officially confirms another departure
As the year 2025 draws to a close, WWE has officially confirmed another wrestler’s departure. Edris Enofé is no longer with the Stamford-based promotion.
eGain Corporation (EGAN) Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript
eGain Corporation (EGAN) Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript
Disney projected to lose $4.3M per day; YouTube TV 24% of subscribers
A dispute between Disney and YouTube TV costs Disney about $4. 3 million daily and could cause YouTube TV to lose a fourth of its subscribers.
South Korea’s top bank trials stablecoin VAT refunds
The post South Korea’s top bank trials stablecocom. One of the top five largest commercial banks in South Korea, NH NongHyup, has announced that it has initiated a proof of concept (PoC) to digitize its VAT refund service for foreign tourists using blockchain technology and test the concept of instant payments with stablecoins. For the experiment to be carried out successfully, sources close to the matter said that the proof-of-concept will be conducted in collaboration with Worldpay, Mastercard, Fireblocks, and Avalanche. While the process is ongoing, customer details or real money will not be required because the intended purpose of this PoC is to check whether the technology adopted functions properly and can be used effectively, according to the press release. Meanwhile, South Korea recently announced that it is close to finalizing its long-awaited stablecoin legislation, as the central bank and financial regulator jostle over who should regulate digital tokens pegged to the won. The Financial Services Commission (FSC) plans to submit a government-sponsored bill by the end of 2025. It will join five other competing stablecoin bills under review in the National Assembly, which individual lawmakers have submitted. NH NongHyup aims to lead in the digital transformation of Korea’s tourism economy In a statement, Choi Woon-jae, the executive vice president of NH NongHyup Bank, stated that the refund model based on stablecoins demonstrates how blockchain technology can actually enhance national competitiveness and boost customer experience. Therefore, with this ability in mind, Choi outlined their goal: to secure the top ranking in the digital transformation of Korea’s tourism economy by implementing strategies like enhancing cross-border payment and settlement efficiency. The PoC, on the other hand, focuses on attracting the booming tourist volume visiting South Korea by streamlining.
Sam Rockwell Fights A Sci-Fi Apocalypse In Gore Verbinski’s Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die Trailer
AI has become inescapable these days, with every app, search engine, and internet browser overloading us with pop-ups of why their new AI enhancement/assistant/plagiarism machine is something we just can’t live without. In reality, AI is being shoved down all of our throats because a bunch of billionaire weirdos invested an insane amount of money into it and desperately need to convince us that they didn’t bet on a lemon. The force-feeding of AI is an obnoxious intrusion at best, and giving people AI-induced psychosis at worst. Sam Rockwell plays Man From the Future, a man, well, claiming to be from the.
FAA says flight cuts will stay at 6% because more air traffic controllers are coming to work
FAA says flight cuts will stay at 6% because more air traffic controllers are coming to work
The New York Times
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