You are invited to attend the lunch time Auxin session offered by the Centre for Teaching and Learning.
Speaker: Benita Bobo
Topic: Gamification and social media as a catalyst for student learning and engagement?
??Date: 13 May 2025
Time: 13:10-14:10
?Venue: MS Teams: Join the meeting now?
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?Summary of the Auxin:
How do you keep 10 000 first-year students, who are 'forced' to do a compulsory module engaged? How can you leverage on digital tools to promote the attainment of module learning outcomes, graduate attributes, and critical cross field outcomes? One possible answer is using gamification and social media to keep students engaged while learning.
Gamification is the incorporation of game-like elements in learning activities, with the aim of increasing student engagement and learning. It draws on self-determination theory, which highlights the importance of autonomy, competence and relatedness. By providing clear goals, immediate feedback, and opportunities for social interaction, gamification can enhance students' sense of agency and engagement within large, impersonal classes.
In this presentation I also highlight how I draw on social constructivism as a learning theory and transformative learning as a pedagogical approach to frame the creation of authentic learning experiences. Social constructivism posits that learning is most effective when students actively construct knowledge through interaction and collaboration within authentic contexts. Transformative learning theory further supports this approach, emphasising the importance of critical reflection, which can be stimulated through interactive activities.
I ask the following question to promote reflection and discussion amongst attendees: how can academics leverage on gamification and social media platforms to enhance their teaching, learning and assessment? It is hoped that this presentation will spark interest and discussion and generate ideas on how academics may consider doing this in their own disciplinary contexts.
Benita is a Senior Advisor at the Centre for Teaching and Learning. Prior to this she has worked as a lecturer and coordinator for institutional General Education modules, as well as a Psychology lecturer and coordinator for institutional Service-Learning modules. Her teaching is grounded in the constructivism and social contextual learning theories. As such, she believes in drawing on the lived realities of her students in her teaching.
