Education Commons^™

A Resource Website For Game-Based Learning, Gerald Phillips

Master of Education in Instructional Design and Technology Plan II Graduate Projects

Motivation is a huge factor in the success of students at all ages, especially in this fast paced technological world we live in. So - what motivates people to learn? Better yet, what, plain and simply, motivates people? Digital and non-digital games have a strong grasp on the attention of people across the world. They provide competition and mental stimulation that many people just cannot find in reality. Games engage players in unique problem solving situations, let them explore and satisfy curiosity, and connect players around the world who otherwise would never meet. Every achievement offers a reward and increase …

Integrating Games To Teach A First Programming Course, Soumia Ichoua

Soumia Ichoua

In the past few years, there has been an increased interest in game-based learning as a powerful tool to stimulate students’ interest and promote their engagement in the learning process. In this paper, we discuss our experience in integrating gaming to teach a first programming course. The course is restructured and redesigned to allow teaching the basics of programming through games. Students actively use fundamental programming concepts learned to modify and create two dimension games using C# and XNA with .Net framework. This is an on-going work. Surveys and worksheets are developed to be used in assessing the effectiveness of …

Incentivizing Your Class: The Engagement-Based Classroom Management Model, Lori Desautels

Scholarship and Professional Work – Education

When I think of our most struggling and distracted students, I see how social pain and rejection often hijack their ability to be academically focused and successful. Optimal school performance requires positive emotional connections with those students that we want to prosper while feeling capable and competent.

When students and teachers feel this connection, we are all responding from the higher cortical regions of the brain, and our dopamine reward centers are activated by these feelings, these positive emotions. Our interactions with students are intimately connected with our own feelings and agendas. When our efforts in the classroom meet with …