Abstract
Teachers have come to rely on a variety of approaches in order to elicit and sustain student interest in the classroom. One particular approach, known as gamification, seeks to improve student engagement by transforming the traditional classroom experience into a competitive multiplayer game. Initial attempts at classroom gamification relied on the teacher manually tracking student progress. At the US Air Force Academy, we wanted to experiment with a software gamification tool. Our client/server suite, dubbed Classroom Live, streamlines the gamification process for the teacher by simplifying common tasks. Simultaneously, the tool provides students with an esthetically pleasing user interface that offers in game rewards in exchange for their participation. Classroom Live is still in development, but our initial experience using the tool has been extremely positive and confirms our belief that students respond positively to gamification, even at the undergraduate level.
Acknowledgments
Many of the icons and sprites used in Classroom Live were either inspired by or directly obtained from the following websites: http://www.vxresource.wordpress.com, http://www.famitsu.com/freegame/tool/chibi/index1.html. In the event that these images are infringing upon any copyright rights, please contact us and we will ensure that the offending art assets are removed.