This week, my group finished making final edits and revisions. Throughout the term, and over the course of this project, we learned a lot about gamification and it’s impacts on learners. During the completion of this inquiry project, we discovered the benefits, downfaults, real-world examples, key-elements, and related theories related to gamification in online learning.
Reflecting on this, I realized how relevant gamification in learning is in online education. Recognizing that gamification can support pedagogy (when used correctly) was really interesting, especially since it can heavily support student learning outcomes.
My group worked really well together to complete this assignment, and I think we were all really pleased with the outcome. I was so glad to have a group that was all on the same page regarding our progression.
Overall, I had a great time learning about distributed and open learning throughout the term. This project was really engaging, and I learned a lot about a topic that I didn’t know much about prior to researching it more heavily. I look forward to seeing our final feedback!
The main concept discussed within Bower’s (2019) article is that technology remains a mediator for learning. Specifically, it acts as a bridge between educators and students, making education and knowledge more accessible and personalized to the learner. Technology has proven to have significant benefits regarding educational assessment, but only if it is utilized in accordance with pedagogical practices that enhance learning.
Bower addresses this by discussing that technology is only helpful in assessment when it is used correctly to support learning outcomes. Briefly touching on the Constructivist Learning Theory, it entails that learners must generate or “construct” knowledge through firsthand experience or physical engagement. Technology can support this endeavor through virtual learning, communication, gamification, and more. This only remains in effect when tech is used in “designing [programs, platforms, etc.] for learning” which encapsulates the idea that digital technology can be a tool to reach learning outcomes, rather than the source of learning.
Another concept that I found relevant was how the use of technological affordances can impact student learning experiences. As discussed by Bower’s (2019) the choice of technology or the “fundamental properties of how the thing could be used” can greatly impact how students learn and interact with the presented knowledge. For instance, the delivery of class lectures on virtual platforms (asynchronous or synchronous; for example, prerecorded lectures or zoom lectures) may have differed outcomes of participation, retention, and attention, resulting in varied outcomes. Understanding the goals and objectives of how educators would like students to interact with media is something to consider.
Furthermore, I thought that the concept of feedback in digital learning environments was really interesting. Feedback provides students with an instant identification of educational gaps and builds confidence through virtual teaching presences. This can assist students in identifying learning strengths and weaknesses, mapping where they can improve.
On the other hand, some challenges exist within technology-based educational assessment. With the rise of AI and LLMs, academic integrity and prevention of cheating remain a challenge for educators. Additionally, physical access to technology or limited digital literacy may be a limiting factor. Educators relying on students to gain access to online resources and systems may be problematic for those who cannot afford devices or live in rural areas without internet access.
To summarize, Bower’s technology-mediated learning theory critically analyzes the usage of technology in the classroom. His findings conclude that technology does have the potential to become an extremely powerful tool in relation to educational assessment. If educators ensure that technology supports students and their comprehension (making sure learning outcomes are being met), this will continue to be an impactful method.
I think that this conversation is directly related to learning outcomes #4 and 7. Reading and understanding literature that relates to concepts and theories in open education is crucial for evaluation of tools, methods, and outcomes connected to student success.
This week, I watched Dr. Irvine’s video lecture regarding modality in University settings. I was really interested in how the delivery of classes impacts students and their ability to learn. To my surprise, Valerie discussed how education and online learning has a variety of formats.
Some of the following include:
Face-to-face
Hybrid
Blended
Self paced
Multi-access
Online
Prior to watching the lecture, I thought that modality in higher ed only included offline and online courses. In other words, based on what I have observed through course registration at the University of Victoria, I have only ever seen courses labelled as online or in-person (this is just my experience, although I know now that other formats are available!).
One thing that Dr. Irvine mentioned is that no one format is better than the other. Oftentimes, people think that offline is better than online, or the other way around. Ultimately, each format of learning supports students differently, based on their learning needs and preferences. Throughout her lecture, she mentioned how different groups tend to have specific preferences benefitting their scenario.
Accessibility in education was a key theme that addressed the reasoning for this. Although it is easy to assume that one form of modality is best for overall learning, this is simply not the case. When we look into each student’s circumstances, specifically things like their schedule, health status, responsibilities, career, etc., we see that there is not “one method that fits all”. This brings up the conversation regarding equality vs equity.
For some learners, they may need one modality format in order to be successful. Ensuring that post-secondary institutions offer a range of course delivery formats is crucial to not only each learner, but the student body as a whole. Flexibility in allows for different people with different goals to be successful.
This made me think about offering classes in a multi-access or online format could be beneficial to those with longer commute times. A course offered in a multi-access format still allows for in-person connection during class, but also provides access online. For a student who struggles to get to campus in a short amount of time, this could be a successful option, giving them the choice of two formats each class.
Different modalities also support pedagogy and participation. For instance, with someone that has social anxiety, participating in a face-to-face setting and speaking in front of the class may not be within their comfort zone. For this individual, an online setting could be a more successful modality for them; maybe they feel more comfortable sharing on a Zoom call where it doesn’t feel as intimidating. Supporting modality encourages learners to engage with content and resources in a diverse range of ways. Delivery formats and activities that make one student feel interested and content may be a dread for another.
Education and Modality: How students are engaging with course material vs the course delivery format
I think that the future of education will continue to prioritize modality. Supporting flexibility and accessibility through a wide range of formats will support students in a variety of different circumstances. Ultimately, having a range of modes of modality will lower restrictions students are facing in educational environments, making it more inclusive and better suited to individuals.
As for course learning outcomes, I think that this topic relates mainly to learning outcomes 5 and 6. Understanding how modality can support a variety of learners with different abilities is at the core of this discussion.
This week, my learning pod met up to work on our free inquiry project. Our goal was to compile all of our research and notes to form the basis of our infographic. After splitting up the work, I finished my targeted aspects of the assignment, and added them to our Canva infographic.
Collectively, we made sure all of our sub-sections flowed and worked well together. We worked together to organize our inquiry project findings within our infographic in a way that was visually appealing.
One challenge we discovered was that some of our sections had a lot of information, which was hard to read. We fixed this by adding color to the headers, and breaking up the sub section by smaller topics/paragraphs.
This was a portion of the infographic I was working on. I utilized the signaling principle (from theories of multimedia learning) to make the headings obvious, increasing readability and making the text more scannable (rather than being one giant block of text).
After receiving suggestions from Colin last week too, we discussed how we wanted to show how our work connected to EDCI 339 learning outcomes. We decided to explicitly write how our infographic content related to learning outcomes within our text, making it obvious for readers.
After playing around with layouts, themes, text organization, and image input, we plan on re-visiting our infographic next week to make any final changes and make edits to the text. This final review session will be beneficial, as it will allow us to revise and proofread the project with a fresh view.
Our hope is that we will have the final project finished and ready to submit after making these final changes!
This week, my group started to do some more in depth planning and research surrounding our free inquiry project. After meeting up to discuss logistics, we determined what subtopics we are going to explore that support our general inquiry question.
Furthermore, we chose an infographic template on Canva that reflects our learning accurately. We decided that the best way for our group to complete the research portion was to each take on a few sections to complete, so each of us become well-versed in that area. The only challenge I see arising here is that it may be difficult to remain cohesive throughout, although we could solve this problem by sharing our chosen parts with each other.
Once the bulk of the research is complete, we plan on meeting up to figure out the visual logistics of our infographic. Below is a photo of the mocked up version we created to start organizing our findings.
This is one page of our infographic. We plan on having about three pages to contain all of the elements and references used in the creation of our project. As you can see, this is a rough draft. Colours, images, sections, and shapes are bound to change as we continue with our inquiry project journey!
After finishing up some initial planning and starting the project, we decided that we wanted to talk to Colin after our Wednesday class to make sure we weren’t missing anything to ensure success.
After our group discussion, we learned that the one thing we needed to demonstrate explicitly was how we were meeting course objectives within our project.
Learning Outcomes for EDCI 339 (Summer 2026)
This will be a component that we will have to incorporate, and as a group will likely have to communicate regarding how we want to demonstrate this.
I think that for the most part, we are on track to complete this project on time and be successful in our delivery. We plan to meet later this week to put together most of the infographic, and re-assess our progress.
For our free inquiry project, my group decided to research the impacts of game-based learning. Specifically, we want to know if the use of gamification improves knowledge retention in online courses. We want to know how whether the use of gamification elements, such as badges, milestones, and leaderboards, actually boost user engagement and retention in online learning.
Another possible perspective we may look into is if gamification is beneficial, how do we ensure that it aligns with learning outcomes?
This is a diagram I found to demonstrate how gamification is justified as a helpful tool in learning. These techniques may make learning more exciting for students, and may even generate better retention.
Myself, Jayla, and Sydney (our learning pod) completed our proposal to lay the groundwork for the completion of our project. Since then, we have called/texted to determine specifics regarding our topic. This included the creation of a document via Google Docs to outline our research findings and notes.
After coming up with some subtopics and headings that we wanted to address, we brainstormed possible presentation methods. Ultimately, we decided on using Canva to create an infographic to display our findings. This way, we can use elements related to multimedia (such as the incorporation of images and diagrams alongside text) to enhance comprehension.
We plan on each researching a few components to optimize workflow and efficiency. Over the next week, our goal is to begin adding information to the document to kickstart deeper learning and research.
After that, we will look into choosing our infographic template, calling (or meeting in person) to work on the project, and communicating our plan with Colin to gain some feedback (to ensure we are on the right track).
I am looking forward to see where this project takes us to deeper our understanding of gamification in online learning!
This week in class we learned about FIPPA, privacy, and security. In relation to Health Information Science (my major), these topics are extremely relevant to the field, as the use of information in healthcare is incredibly sensitive, and must be protected. During class, we looked at a few sites that caused us to think about and reflect on how our information is available online.
The first site I visited was “clickclickclick.click” which is an interactive website that demonstrates how easy it is for users to be tracked online. Every movement or action I took while on the site and navigating to other sites was either narrated or documented through text. After playing around with this website for some time, I thought that it was quite creepy and incredibly surprising how much of our online behavior is tracked and recorded by websites. This leads me to think about how the input of personal or sensitive information on various sites may not be as secure as we believe it is.
The second site I interacted with was called “Since You Arrived” and similarly to the previous site, it displayed information such as my IP address, location, computer information, and various other statistics. This site represents that the supposed privacy that we encounter through the usage of digital applications and websites is merely an illusion. Most sites have a broad range of access to sensitive information in relation to our devices. One thing that I learned on this website was that when websites use cookies, they continue to have access to our digital activity and information even after you have left the site.
Furthermore, one topic we discussed was the proposed legislation of Bill C-22 in Canada. I thought that this event was incredibly important and interesting. The proposed legislation would allow law enforcement agencies in Canada to have access to private telecommunication data to solve crimes, exploitation, and more. Citizens have become extremely divided, and after researching both sides of the argument, I can understand why this remains controversial.
Overall, I think topics regarding privacy and security are crucial to learn, especially in a course like this. Specifically, this lecture related to the learning outcome regarding privacy; “Familiarity with ethical and legal frameworks around online and open education, including privacy legislation, copyright and Creative Commons licensing” Allowing students and educators to be more informed and empowered while using digital platforms ensures that safety and trust is built within technological environments.
Hi! My name is Brooklyn, and I was born and raised in Victoria, BC. I am currently going into my second year at UVic studying Health Information Science. I am really interested in how we can use technology to advance healthcare and make a difference. When I’m not studying, at school, or working, I love going to the beach, playing hockey, getting coffee, and spending time with friends!
I am really excited to incorporate concepts learned within this course into my education and career in Health Informatics, specifically in areas related to communication in health settings, data visualization, and designing user interfaces. My hope is that EDCI 339 can provide me with technological and creative skills that I can use in my academic and personal life!
