Game On! by Kevin Bell (Pro Vice-Chancellor (Digital Futures), Western Sydney University)

The changing student body in American higher education demands a new approach to teaching, one that moves toward inclusive, hyperpersonalized learning environments that have much in common with games and social media. Kevin Bell's Game On! presents dynamic case studies of gamer educators and game-derived techniques to help instructors creatively formulate their own teaching strategies. Breaking gamefully designed classes into their component parts, Bell analyzes what these classes are actually doing and explains why they work. He offers faculty a rubric to assess their own courses for their propensity to engage students, particularly those from low socioeconomic and high-risk populations. Bell explores how game design, pedagogy, and intrinsic motivators can level the playing field to produce rigorous learning environments that are as addictive to all participants as the latest apps and social media systems. He also discusses best practices, lays out the broader context of computer-mediated teaching and learning, and considers the challenges and opportunities that gamification presents. Instructors would do well to consider the key tenets of successful games if they are to engage and graduate the coming generations of learners. Bell's careful analysis of the theories behind gamification, cognitive science, and instructional design will help them to do just that.

Helping teachers take advantage of game design principles and intrinsic motivators to build more effective courses.

About the Author
Kevin Bell is the pro-vice chancellor of digital futures at Western Sydney University in Australia.

Reviews
Instructors would do well to consider the key tenets of successful games if they are to engage and graduate the coming generations of learners. Bell's careful analysis of the theories behind gamification, cognitive science, and instructional design will help them to do just that.
-University of British Columbia Library Bloggers
The intention of the book is to enable practitioners to gamify, explaining in concise but authoritative detail the nature of gamification concepts, and how they function in practice with established principles of pedagogy. However, this does not mean that Game On! is solely applicable to the 'inclass' practitioner. With quantitative elements as well, a focus on students' experiences, and bullet point summaries, gamification is viewed with the kind of practical big-picture thinking crucial to university and academic leadership when considering the risks and rewards of innovation and large-scale implementation.
-Errol Rivera, Ology: Review in Applied Sciences



Book Information
ISBN 9781421423968
Author Kevin Bell
Format Hardback
Page Count 216
Imprint Johns Hopkins University Press
Publisher Johns Hopkins University Press
Series Tech.edu: A Hopkins Series on Education and Technology
Weight(grams) 431g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm * 21mm