Why Exams Don’t Light Up our Hippocampus and Video Games Do
Interactive Video games invoke positive emotions and stimulate the hippocampus part of our brain, which is essential for learning new information.
On the other hand, people often find the learning and assessment process daunting. Using gamification techniques in online learning courses keep students motivated and positive.
Attendees of this webinar learned the following:
- Ways to provide learners with goals, rules, feedback and voluntary participation
- Examples of motivation and progression loops in online courses
- Moodle Learning Management System tools best suited for each player type (KSAE)
Attendees had the opportunity to participate in a demonstration of Moodle courses using these techniques and saw first-hand how to turn basic Moodle courses into powerful, compelling narratives and fully explore the power of eAssessment. They also received a Moodle Tool Guide for Gamification”– which teaches you the tricks to create simple Moodle courses based on gamification. Finally, they also received a month's worth of enrolment in the demonstration courses and were entitled to download *.mbz backup files that were ready to use for their Moodle sites.
SPEAKER
Natalie
The speaker, Natalie, has found her niche in life is a combination of her technology skills and her passion for education as a tool for growth and empowerment. Her specialist areas are Moodle Learning Management System, Mobile Computing, Web Technologies, Google Apps and Indigenous Perspectives. She is currently managing two National VET Strategy funded projects that push the boundaries of technology and mobile learning. In these projects, Gamification elements are used to motivate disengaged learners. Natalie’s teaching methods are based on a constructivist approach to learning and exploring how eAssessment tools can transform traditional Assessment methods.
Natalie was bought up in the multi-cultural outer suburbs of Sydney. In 1984 her Maths class was not yet using calculators, yet she has watched the rapid expansion of computers, the Internet and Web 2 unfold the last 30 years. Natalie, now enjoys the slower paced small town life. Life is a balance between raising a family and envisioning how to harness the potential of new technologies.