Break Into College

Join the Order of the Clocktower

Introduction

Loy Gross, Online Learning Specialist and Adjunct Technologies Instructor
Genesee Community College (GCC) is a small, rural community college in western NY (near Buffalo) and part of the State University of New York (SUNY) system.
My responsibilities include: creation and maintenance of GCC’s online student orientation: the Success Course for GCC Students
For online and college accreditation, our orientation must include:
- - Brightspace (LMS) training
  - Best practices of online students
The orientation is made generic enough for all LMS-using students, which means all students
- - It is in one Brightspace shell, with new sections rolled at the beginning of each major semester
  - All students are auto-enrolled in our orientation course via Intelligent Agent
  - Student demographics includes dual-enrolled high schoolers through senior auditors
  - Significant online populations include working parents, returning veterans, and international students

Course Learning Objectives

Identify and differentiate responsibilities expected of the student and the college.
Summarize key factors contributing to successful learning such as focus, motivation, and time management.
Classify GCC staff and academic support services according to need; locate communication channels, including email, chat, phone, and online appointment.
Demonstrate proficiency in using common Brightspace software components such as discussion boards, quizzes, and assignments.
Communicate professionally and efficiently with college faculty, staff, and fellow students.

Orientation Phases

The first phase was integrating student best practices with Brightspace activities. This incorporates standard text training as well as some pre-packaged D2L "how to" videos and internally-recorded "how to" videos. Students seem to have significantly less difficulty learning Brightspace elements when we give them something useful and meaningful to do with them.

The second and current phase is gamification. We are adding tracks, levels, and many more badges to create better markers of partial success in the hope of keeping students engaged through the end. We are also putting the challenges first and offering hints for students who need them. Students have the opportunity to "speedrun" the orientation or take their time and read all the available material.

The planned third phase will be microlearning, using intelligent agents to remind students of new, short, gamified, and immediately relevant activities they can do weekly. Example: "Hey students, it's week 3. I'll bet you have a paper due in one or more of your courses, so let's learn how the library works for online students."

Gamification Elements

Important Elements - Rearranged content for:

Progressive Difficulties, Levels, Points, Awards
Narrative, Storytelling
Infused Choices, Tutorials
Multimedia Elements: Sensory, Novelty
Human Propensities for Curiosity, Achievement
Goals, Puzzle-Solving

Why?

Increase Participation

Self-Selected Orientation Length

Enhance Goal-Setting Behaviors

Boost Resilience & Perseverance

Encourage Independent Problem Solving

It's worth noting that at least three of those goals - enhancing goal-setting behaviors, boosting resilience, and encouraging independent problem solving - are key indicators of online student success. Simply by gamifiying the orientation, we are facilitating positive student behaviors.

The Storyline

Our original concept is an inverted escape room. Instead of solving the puzzles to break out of the room, you're solving the puzzles to break in. We decided to change the title from "Break into College" to joining the "Order of the Clocktower," a secret society aimed at preparing students for academic success. It's less "damaging" and more "preparation."

Challenges are in line with tasks students will be expected to perform in classes, staff and faculty are introduced as "fellow agents" and "handlers" at "base." This keeps the students' minds firmly in the academic nature of what they're learning and builds confidence in their readiness for college itself. The lack of additional theme also keeps it simple and light for our more cynical students, many of whom are already reluctant to complete the orientation.

We spent quite a bit of time working on videos for this new gamified orientation. Videos from key personnel at the college - faculty, staff, and support services - feature prominently in the story. We introduce students to the real person they may meet or interact with later on in their journey. We want students to be less intimidated and more willing to view the college as a partner rather than as an authoritarian body.

By stepping away from the standard of creating a separate storyline and intentionally wrapped the "Break into College" motif in a spy theme, we give room for less-than-perfect videos from our harried undercover agents.

Orientation Trailer

Integrating Best Practices

I am a huge fan of experiential learning - so we make the students "do the thing." If I want them to post in a discussion board, I give them a challenge - post about support services at GCC or about how you view your online learning journey. Take a quiz about time management and learning strategies. Finally, submit a two-paragraph assignment about your educational goals. The only one of these items that is manually graded is the assignment (students receive their badge at the point of post / assignment upload, so that the beginning-of-semester backlog doesn't prevent them from moving on).

Our students often go over the required two paragraphs to tell us about their struggles and journey - our feedback to them is intended to be supportive and welcoming. Furthermore, we can refer some students to the Learning Center or Access/ Accommodations immediately if we see the need for writing help or if the student self- discloses any kind of learning difficulty.

Badging: Tracks and Levels

This is our "tracks and levels" setup at the current time. Bronze Badges are a basic readiness - we'd like students to complete those during the first week. Silver and Gold will be prompted later throughout the semester. Platinum badges are stretch or completionist goals - we don't expect most students to do those but it gives something extra for students who want to do more. There are also a couple of hidden badges for finding easter eggs in the course such as the college mascot.

Infiltrating the System is a track aimed at learning how colleges function. It teaches terms such as matriculation, major, and Pell grants. First generation students and those in our First Year Experience (FYE) or Career Educational Planning (CEP) courses can complete the entire track.

Agent's Playbook is a track aimed at teaching good learning strategies - best practices of online (but also in-person) students. Those at risk of falling below Satisfactory Academic Progress can work through that track to improve their learning strategies.

Building Your Network is a track aimed at learning about the resources and support services at GCC including the Library, Learning Center, Career Services, Advising Tools, Virtual Student Community, and even the Food Pantry. This section is aimed at students who need more support and encouragement, particularly those who are online.

Hacking the System is aimed at the technophobes who need more software help. Interestingly enough, many students will earn their Hacking badges while participating in activities for other tracks. For example, posting in the Discussion Board about your online learning motivational strategies is part of the Agent's Playbook Silver badge. Successfully posting in the Discussion Board is also part of the Hacking the System Silver badge.

interactive puzzles

More puzzles. Go ahead, call the number :)

Gamification Flow: D2L & H5P

Brightspace Tie-In Points

Tying in additional features outside of Brightspace is easy with "secret codes." Embedding secret codes in a social media page, an email, a phone message, or even a digital scavenger hunt is easy. You can use those codes as quiz passwords or as quiz answers to trigger unlocking the next item in a sequence.

I do try to be careful not to make the students complete an entire sequence if it's not necessary - put the main challenge up front and if the students can complete it without relying on hints or source material, then let them do so. They can "speedrun" certain areas of the orientation, making it faster and emphasizing the content they need help with.

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