Gameful Pedagogy: Towards a Students' Bill of Rights

Judith Pintar; Courtney Richardson; Alyssa Choi; Jessica Cruz-Taylor; David A. Hopping; Megi Mecolli; Omorewo Oshe

doi:10.60543/ijgsi.v2.n2.04

Judith Pintar School of Information Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0308-8637
Courtney Richardson University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign https://orcid.org/0009-0006-3674-7204
Alyssa Choi Fordham University https://orcid.org/0009-0003-0296-5850
Jessica Cruz-Taylor Duke University https://orcid.org/0009-0004-4948-5296
David A. Hopping University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign https://orcid.org/0009-0002-8769-7105
Megi Mecolli University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign https://orcid.org/0009-0001-1527-7665
Rewo Oshe Georgia State University

DOI: https://doi.org/10.60543/ijgsi.v2.n2.04

Keywords: Gameful Pedagogy, User Experience (UX), Game Design, Gamer’s Bill of Rights, Student Well-being

Abstract

Adopting the central premise of gameful pedagogy that the rules and mechanics of classrooms can be productively analyzed as if they were games, this paper summarizes the results of a study that adopts the concerns of player-centered user-experience to evaluate the effects of instructional design on students’ well-being. Taking inspiration from game designer Graham Nelson’s “Players’ Bill of Rights,” we conducted focus group sessions with undergraduates at the University of Illinois, asking them to connect specific elements of instructional design with their emotional experiences in the classroom. In crafting an analogous “Students’ Bill of Rights,” we reframed course development as a student-centered design process. Student well-being is often implicit within learning frameworks which promote inclusive course design, but there is a need to make the connection between instruction and wellness more explicit. This study provides empirical support for best practices in instructional design and recommends that instructional designers become more conscious of the effect of course design elements on the emotional well-being of students.

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Author Biographies

Judith Pintar, School of Information Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign

Judith Pintar (she/her) is a sociologist and narrative designer. She is currently the Director of Game Studies & Design, and Teaching Professor in the School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Her game-related research interests include immersive storytelling, narrative design, Edu-larp, and gameful pedagogies; her other domain interests include propaganda and suggestibility, and Southeastern and Central European Studies.

Courtney Richardson, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Courtney Richardson (she/her) is an artist, archivist, and scholar working at the intersection of arts, archives, and African-American histories. She holds a PhD in Information Sciences from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and MFA in Art-Graphic Design from Wayne State University (Detroit, MI). Courtney uses artmaking to research and display historical information to broaden accessibility and representation of Black histories.

Alyssa Choi, Fordham University

Alyssa Choi (she/her) is a Counseling Psychology Ph.D. student at Fordham University, an Adjunct Lecturer in Social Psychology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, and a researcher dedicated to exploring intersectional identities and family relationships within the LGBTQIA+ Asian American community. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Clinical/Community Psychology with a minor in Sociology from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Jessica Cruz-Taylor, Duke University

Jess Cruz-Taylor is a PhD student in the Classical Studies Department at Duke University, specializing in archaeology. Her main research interests are in Iron Age and Classical Aegean archaeology, where she primarily studies how different iconographic programs demonstrate interaction, networks, and connectivity among marginalized groups, such as the enslaved and migrants. She is a graduate of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign with a major in Classical Studies.

David A. Hopping, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

David A. Hopping (he/him) is a PhD student in Informatics at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign. He is lead programmer on “the Dashboard,” an application designed for makerspaces, to foster collaboration and identity development. His research interests include fairness in education, and the classroom as a co-constructed world. He is a graduate of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign where he majored in Computer Science and Anthropology, with a minor in Game Studies.

Megi Mecolli, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Megi Mecolli (she/her) is a PhD student in Literary Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her research interests in Victorian literature include the critical intersections of the British Gothic, Balkan and Eastern European Studies, and European empires of the long nineteenth century. She holds a Master of Arts in English from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Rewo Oshe, Georgia State University

Rewo Oshe is is a PhD student in clinical—community psychology at Georgia State University. Her research interests include investigating the relationships between physical and mental health in African Americans, with a focus on sickle cell disease to explore how different factors of resilience and experiences of racism impact health and quality of life. She holds a Bachelor of Science from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.