What type of coffee did you brew in your Keurig today? Hopefully something delicious!
Many people would agree that it seems interesting and fun to be a barista at a Starbucks or Caribou, but some individuals are discouraged by how intimidating it appears due to the fast-paced nature and complexity of certain drink orders.
However, let’s say that one person decides to apply as a barista and gets hired. What if their only form of training was to read articles about how to make each individual drink, instead of getting behind the counter themselves?
It would be very difficult without practice!
On the flipside, the best way to learn would be to brew that coffee and add those ingredients yourself, or even to do something as creative as finding an interactive game online that teaches you all the steps included while offering entertainment simultaneously.
This idea brings us to our buzzword: gamification.
Sure, everyone knows that we learn better by interaction, rewards, challenges and through fun experiences (which characterize games and simulations quite well), but that is much easier said than done.
Throw in Zoom to the mix, and creating games for students becomes almost as difficult as trying to beat Pac-Man.
Luckily there are already tons of resources that provide tools for incorporating this method into the classroom, especially in iLC’s very own renowned gamification course.
One idea for keeping students engaged and entertained (therefore priming them to absorb information) is to utilize Powerpoint (or Google Slides, both work equally well) to create an educational Choose Your Own Adventure story.
Using this format, you can share your screen on Zoom (or send the link to the presentation to students for homework) and have them tell you which option to choose on each slide.
For example, in the image below we see that there are three avatar choices that students can vote on for you to select, giving them a voice and encouraging participation.
The cool feature about Powerpoint and Google Slides is that you can right click on an image and link it to another slide, allowing you to click on the image and have it direct you immediately to the profile of the avatar that the class chooses.
Avatar Profiles
From here, the possibilities are endless.
You could create a storyline of a character who is a geologist trying to identify different types of rocks in order to find the location of a hidden treasure.
You could have the class solving different math problems in order to choose which numbered door their character should go through.
Everyone loves choices and being able to go their own way, and what better way to center the learning on the student than by allowing them to choose which ways through the story they go to learn?
Thanks for sharing your lunch break with us today, and we hope you enjoyed this Coffee Break Chat! Check out our online development course for more gamification resources.
