The factor time in games and in teaching
Time has many dimensions in games. The most obvious is the motivation to be active. As soon as the timer appears, the stress level rises and game players are encouraged to become active. Now, exploring the environment no longer counts. Instead, players focus on what needs to be done. A timer thus forces the players to act under pressure.
Time can also be a resource that needs to be allocated. Players learn to think carefully about which activities should be prioritized. Finally, games allow time to be compressed. For example, a longer period of time (in a story, for example) can be condensed into a few seconds.
(freely translated and paraphrased from Karl Kapp, 32f.)
(freely translated and paraphrased from Karl Kapp, 32f.)
Inverted Classroom
In principle, most activities on a learning platform are suitable for supporting inverted classroom scenarios, in which learners engage with content prior to a synchronous session, which is then explored in greater depth during the shared time. Input is often provided upstream in this context. Inverted classroom scenarios increase learners' temporal flexibility by allowing them to determine the time and duration of engagement with content. While inverted classroom is not a gamification technique, in many gamified approaches the scenarios will evolve into an inverted classroom because learners will transfer much of their engagement time to flexibly designed work time. Accordingly, the benefits of an inverted classroom approach are also found in gamified learning environments.
Timing settings in tests
With the settings for controlling the test runs, various time-related aspects of playful design can be implemented. With the limitation of the processing time, a timer is displayed, which shows the remaining time. With this setting you can ensure that questions have to be answered within a certain time. The timer is very present and thus causes the time pressure mentioned above.
Time-limited tests are suitable for representing scenarios in which decisions have to be made quickly (emergency medicine) or in which no time is available for research (negotiation meeting).
By limiting the number of test runs, you can ensure that learners only start the tests if they believe they can pass the test or complete the task in the game. In this way, learners can reflect more intensively on their own learning progress.
The processing duration, which can be determined in the questions themselves, is only used for internal documentation. Based on the processing duration, you can quickly see in the question pool in which combination your questions can be answered within a certain time. The processing duration is not picked up by the test player (the object test).
Time availability
With the settings menu "Availability" ILIAS objects can be activated for specific time periods. This allows you to recreate scenarios where timing plays an important role. Examples are:
- the deadline of an editorial office
- a plant that can only be found at certain times of the year and included in the herbarium
- the accessibility of a politician (e.g. in a simulation game)
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