Student grading, in the form it’s in today, has some serious issues. The source of these issues, and how to combat them in the classroom, has been the subject of multiple debates and movements. Some school districts have switched to standard-based grading designed to ensure that the grades on classwork reflect student performance on assessments, while article after article has been written about score inflation and the problem of figuring out just what certain grades say about a student’s intelligence. These are valid issues, and need exploring and repair…

However.

Merely changing the format the grades are presented in doesn’t seem to eliminate one of the most outstanding problems of grading: the psychological impact on the student. A recent study conducted by the University of Indiana, as well as an article by celebrated education advocate Alfie Kohn, indicates that many grading systems, including the traditional ‘pass/fail’, GPA, and A-B-C-D-F systems, can intimidate students. The possibility of receiving anything but the best grade can trigger self-esteem issues, increase student stress and even discourage kids from tackling difficult topics for fear of a bad grade. (If you’ve ever had a student not even try to complete the homework because they ‘were going to fail it anyway’, you know what I’m talking about.)

If you’ve been following this blog so far, and if you’ve read the title, now is the point where you’ve already guessed that gamification might be a possible solution to this grading dilemma. As a reward, I’d like to present you with an example of a grading tool that you may want to consider:

The Gamified Gradebook. 

Instead of the normal, percentage-based grading system, teachers can structure gradebooks as an ‘experience point’ system, like the one above. At the beginning of the year, each student starts at level 1 with zero experience, but can earn experience and level up through ‘quests’ like homework or assessments. If a student doesn’t get all the points, they can opt to re-do a ‘quest’ for more experience and display their mastery. However, even incomplete or half-incorrect ‘quests’ will amount to at least a little experience and push them towards the next level.  Items with more importance, such as end-of-unit tests, could be seen as ‘boss level quests’—harder to beat, but with more experience points to earn when you’ve mastered the material.  Letter grades would then be given at the end of the grading period based on what level they reached by that point.

Under this system, students see that “A” grade as something that can and must be earned, rather than their automatic starting grade that they then eventually lose. As a result, they see themselves as always moving towards a good grade, rather than just trying not to move away from it.

In addition, a well-constructed, gamified grading system will show students exactly what they can do in order to reach that “A”. In this mindset, each assignment becomes an opportunity, rather than a risk. Students can set realistic goals based on levels, and take agency in their own education by knowing that it’s just within reach and that the actions they take can only get them another step closer to their goal. They’re always in the running, as long as they make the effort.

So how do we create these kinds of gradebooks? Well, one solution would be to create one out of an Excel template, like the one in the link above. By adding techniques like Formulas and Conditional Formatting, you can create a gradebook that helps you easily calculate your student scores throughout the year.  (For those of you subscribed to our Online PD platform, we have a wonderful session in our Archives that can help you master those techniques here.)

You can also use multiple web-based gradebooks in order to create this kind of system. Thinkwave is a free grading platform that lets you customize how scores on assignments are shown.

   Many teachers are also flocking to Moodle for their gradebook needs, due to its large amount of usable content for the purpose of gamification. Within the platform, teachers can create custom badges for student achievements, set up leaderboards,  update students with progress bars and unlockables, and many other elements that turn the platform itself into a full-fledged game for your students.  There’s a few useful how-tos on using these elements within Moodle, but I’ve posted one I found particularly useful below:

There are some points that you should be clear on, however, before transitioning to a gamified gradebook:

1. Your students need to know that being at a ‘low level’ at the beginning of the year is not failing.  Make clear to your kids (and their parents) that their actual letter grade is not posted until the end of the marking period and all the ‘quests’ have been issued, so that low total in the first few weeks of the class doesn’t indicate that they’re not doing well. However, they should also know that the longer they remain at a low level (translation: the fewer assignments they complete satisfactorily), the harder it will be to ‘win’ (translation: pass the course).

To help, you can create ‘save points’ in your version of the gradebook that indicate whether they are on track to pass the course, based just on the assignments that have been given up to that point. For example, if a student is halfway through Level Four a third of the way through the grading period, they’re progressing well!

You can also provide other, tangible benefits to levels to keep kids motivated. For example, while the first few levels on our Excel example may not shoot students up immediately to an A grade, those lower levels may provide them some other bonus, like a homework pass or a quiz extension. We’ve discussed the benefits of such positive acknowledgement in our previous installment, and the same principle applies here. While your kids haven’t achieved the ultimate goal–an A–just yet, those rewards serve as both encouragement and an additional tool that the students can use to push forward, rather than just a reminder that ‘they still haven’t passed the class yet’.

2. Using this gradebook works best when you’ve planned out your full curriculum before the year starts. As the facilitator of the gradebook, you need to know what the maximum amount of possible experience points is, how those points correspond to both leveling up and grade levels, and how many opportunities there are for students to gain experience. As a result, you should ideally have an approximate map of all the ‘quests’  that will be placed in the gradebook ahead of time. Tools like the EngagyNY modules for Math and ELA can help any teacher gather the materials they need quickly and make this map when they need it.

3. Add opportunities for competition or collaboration! Creating a leaderboard for the class and showing student scores in relation to each other will both give them a strong idea of their own potential, and encourage students to compete to rise higher in the class ranks. A modified use of the Great Behavior Game can help digitize this leaderboard–and make it easy to update with little more than a touch.

In addition, providing whole-class rewards if enough students manage a certain achievement (ex. A class party if 15 students reach Level 8) can encourage students to collaborate, with higher-level students helping their classmates ‘grind’ and improve their own mastery. This eliminates the potential problem of having your class segregate itself into high-level and low-level students—the motivated and the not-motivated.

If you’d like a summary or an expansion on some of these concepts, there’s a handy little movie you might be interested in. The Extra Credits team is a group of gamers, game designers and game analysts that discuss elements of popular games on their website. Back in 2012, they released a video on their YouTube channel on applying their knowledge to modern education. After a few playthroughs, I’m honestly surprised doesn’t have more views on YouTube than it does, especially from teachers.

While none of the members of the team are explicitly educators, they do have a strong understanding of the psychology of incentives that video games–and gamified education plans–depend on. This video, and many of their others, cover more than just the grading process and how it affects student agency, so I’d recommend you bookmark their channel. Hopefully we’ll come back to this video later.

We hope you’ll continue joining us throughout this series on the applications of gamification in the classroom. We’d also like to share a special thanks to the Extra Credits team for allowing us to use their video as a reference. For anyone interested in the minutiae of game theory and design, it’s a great resource!  As we go through the parts listed below, please provide your own ideas and experiences with games and gamification in the comments. After all, education is a community!

Part 1: Introduction
Part 2: Pavlov and Classroom Management
Part 3: Rethinking the Grading Process
Part 4: Class Systems in the Classroom
Part 5: Games and Curriculum
Part 6: Conclusion and Resource List