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Gamification for improving student engagement and consolidation of learning

We had noticed in our Analytical Techniques in Biochemistry module that students were compartmentalizing their learning and not making connections between the various techniques. We had also noticed that student engagement tended to decrease throughout the module. Our solution was to create a Murder Mystery session synoptic gamification session to integrate and consolidate their learning with an activity that encouraged student collaboration and problem-solving skills (Hill and Harmer, 2023). We based our game on the well known games ‘Among Us’ and Mafia’ which have in turn inspired the popular TV programme ‘Traitors’.

Our aim was to create an activity that would require students to integrate their knowledge of four biochemical techniques that had been taught in the module: mass spectrometry, high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE), and Western blot.  In this presentation I will discuss the benefits of gamification and factors to consider when designing games for educative purposes.

Biography

Alison Hill did her undergraduate degree at the Australian National University and then moved to the University of Cambridge for her PhD, supervised by Prof James Staunton FRS on polyketide biosynthesis. She completed an 18 month postdoc with Prof David Cane at Brown University, where she cloned, overexpressed, purified and characterised casbene synthase. Alison joined Kings' College London in 1995 and started her own lab investigating the biosynthesis of soraphen. She moved to the University of Exeter in 2001, moving across to the teaching track in 2005. Alison's pedagogical research studies focuses on integration of maths into the curriculum and addressing the mathematics gap in biosciences, chemistry and beyond for those without A-level maths. This led to the development of bespoke resources embedded into the curriculum to improve confidence and competence in mathematics skills/data processing. Alison has pioneered the use of personalised data sets for online assessments and was the recipient of the RSC Excellence in Higher Education Prize 2022. She has also won LearnSci Teaching Innovation Awards in 2022 and 2023.