The "Time Machine" gamification scenario

 By Antoine Isaac - English teacher, French team

A key to creating engaging gamification mechanics is to provide students with a solid scenario.

To justify the fact that my English sequences take my students to many different moments and places, I thought I would make it look natural, through the use of a Time Machine. This imaginary device lets you do just that: instant travel to any places or periods of time.

To spice things up a bit, I decided that the time machine was in fact faulty, so that the crew (understand, pupils) were not in command as to where and when we were going.

In so doing I could create an additional challenge: fix the time machine as the school year goes by!

Pupils are members of the crew. They are divided in 7 guilds, each one being a job class relevant to the operating of a time machine or the exploring of unknown periods of time or places. They include Pilots, Engineers, Mechanics, Spies, Explorers, Photographers, Soldiers, Doctors, Analysts, Naturalists, Instructors, Diplomats and Historians. As you can see there are more than 7 guild options to give pupils a choice.

Each guild can be staffed by up to 4 pupils. Each pupil creates an avatar and receives an XP counter. They start at level 1 and level up as they gain XP.

XP is materialised with poker chips. They're cheap, easy to handle and to stack and they don't break that easily. Students gets XP for any positive action, such as speaking, doing their homeworks, having their notebooks, helping a classmate, receiving a good grade, ...

At the end of each class students say how much XP they earned and the teacher or another student updates the score sheet with a golden pen.

When they level up, they take their scoresheet, which reveals the onefor the next level. They also get a bonus card that is stored on their guild panel.

Any pupils who want to use their bonus cards must ask to do so - "Can I use my bonus card?" and then read the said bonus. The teacher can refuse or postpone.

Pupils can also access "booster missions", i.e. autonomous worksheets. They get XP for each sheet they complete, all they have to do is leave them in a special box and I add XP  after the school day.

Students absolutely love the poker chips. They see them as an instant reward, as a little treasure they can keep for the class before trading them for XP. They also get very excited when they level up or when they're about to. Some bonuses are instant hits, such as Quizlet competitions or cartoon extracts with the condition that they repeat sentences from the cartoon.