Monday, February 22, 2010

How to Level Up in Class

So my husband sent me this link today from work. He thought I would be particularly interested in the portion that discusses one teacher who works his classroom on an XP (eXperience Points) system and how the students respond so well to that system.

My response: "But... that's just how grading works." And it's true. For those of us who use a numerical system to do our grading, we're - in essence - giving our students XP. Class is a game.

Here's the gist:
- the student earns XP for every assignment, class, comment, etc.
- the student "levels-up" throughout the semester from zero (F) to whatever grade they earn at the end of the course
- as they pass each "level," they can choose to stop earning XP, or to keep going (the only possible downside to this is that many classes cannot be passed until the final assignment, so a teacher may need to start with level "Z" and work up to show progress)
- the class is designed to outfit the student for the next game chapter: a 300-level course instead of a 100-level, the second semester in a sequence, or even that most terrifying of boss battles, "real life"
- students with the most XP are the best equipped to handle future game chapters - they have the weapons of knowledge, grammar, communication skills, organization, practical skills, etc.
- when students are being chosen for teams (jobs, grad schools, law schools), they are evaluated as desirable if they have more XP - and therefore better weapons and skill-sets - than other players

And the game doesn't end with the first job. Every aspect of our lives revolves around XP - you get hired based on your experience with a particular type of problem; you have training missions designed to give you a tiny bit of XP so that you can handle the next level; once you've done the lower-level jobs, you have enough XP to move up in the job-levels of a business. You can even choose to do something games don't let you (yet, though XBOX's gamer-points are coming close), and take that XP to another game!

The key thing is - we don't think about our "lives" that way.

In the twenty-first century, the world is no longer a stage - it's a console, and all the men and women are merely players.

5 comments:

R.Groves said...

I had a comment on facebook at one point, about gaining a relationship level after having helped Hector refinish his kitchen floor with Linoleum Tiles.

My brother responded by reminding me that while gaining a level is great, each level requires successively more XP.

Unknown said...

Which is generally also how grading works - the same amount of effort will leave you lower on the progress bar of the assignment.

Now to convince my students that their class is really a game...

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