By: Matthew Baggetta
Christian Haschek, a teacher from Austria, has taken the ‘consider alternative modes of evaluation’ mantra to heart by creating and implementing his own unique XP-based grading system and custom designed e-Learning platform.
Christian has been using a home-brew XP based grading system with an e-Learning platform of his own creation, Socialcube, in the classroom for the past three years. With this system, students are awarded XP (experience points) for demonstrating various skills and competencies related to the curriculum. It’s similar to how a player in an MMORPG game (think Dungeons and Dragons and World of Warcraft) would “level up” as foes are defeated, checkpoints are passed, and achievements are unlocked.
Here’s Top Hat’s exclusive Q&A interview with Christian:
Has your grading system saved or cost you time?
Christian Haschek: All in all it’s saved me time. Especially in the end of the semester when most teachers sit together and discuss grades, I simply have to open my interactive digital teaching platform and see everything on one webpage while other teachers have to browse their notes to find student performance information. Teaching [this way] initially takes a few moments longer than traditional grading since I have to enter a reason and with the old system I just had to write “+” or “-” (the preferred method of noting a student’s performance in Austria), but after a week with the old method I wouldn’t know anymore what that was for. After class I don’t have to do anything since I took all notes while teaching.
What has the effect of your grading system been on your students? What differences have you seen?
CH: One of the things I have noticed is that students are starting to demand XP for everything they do and if I forget to enter it right away (because I’m walking around the classroom) they remind me every few minutes to enter the XP on the site! They do something positive and demand a reward.
What is the teaching experience for you now compared to before you implemented this system?
CH: I’ve noticed some students “race” each other to receive the next grade or the next achievement. For example, students can unlock achievements for bringing their completed homework on consecutive days, or for consistent in-class participation. Amazingly, the students who competed in this way were not previously the highest achievers in the class. I’ve seen a few remarkable turnarounds where some of the highest achieving students in my class were (almost) failing in other subjects. Since implementing my XP based grading system I’ve never had to fail a student that has regularly attended class.
How did you approach your local academic grading standards board with your idea? How did they respond?
CH: That was more of a coincidence. I had a meeting about an unrelated subject with a person close to the LBVO, and at the end of the meeting I mentioned my grading system. After learning about how to make my system LBVO compliant, I implemented a few small changes before launching the e-Learning platform. Since my system translates the XP into letter grades at all times, I didn’t need any permits or reviews for using my system. This was also important for me since I wanted colleagues to be able to easily use my system too.
How has your approach to grading influenced the quality and quantity of interactions between you and your students?
CH: One significant change is that students are begging for XP the whole year long, rather than begging for better grades at the end of each semester. I think this is a good thing because they think of their grades now as something that they are actively involved in producing, not something that a teacher rolls the dice on at the end of the semester. Some students have become so invested in the gamified classroom experience that they try to haggle with me for XP. This is very rare, but it does happen!
How have students’ attention in class been affected by the new evaluation method?
CH: My students are aged 14 to 18, so generally speaking their attention span is not very long. When I notice that participation is waning and students’ minds are wandering, I pause for a second and I say, “For 15 XP, who can tell me…” and in an instant, I have the attention of the whole class again. This is the most powerful response I have ever observed in any class.
What do you envision for the future of your grading system in the classroom?
CH: If a politician came to me and gave me complete control over the education system in Austria, I would probably create a system where all classes are evaluated using XP and achievements rather than letter grades. For example, in a year of mathematics there might be Discrete Math, Linear Algebra, and Geometry, and each section a student completes unlocks an achievement. If a section isn’t passed, it isn’t added to the achievement list and a student may repeat it any time. At the year’s end students wouldn’t see letter grades on a report, but a list of academic achievements completed. This method would allow students with specific interests to focus on them and excel. It would also allow potential employers to find graduates with specific, necessary skillsets instead of having to guess from a short job interview and the letter grades they are shown.
Real-time feedback is the pulse of dynamic teaching and learning
The problem Christian identifies and sets out to solve is how to make the process of learning evaluation transparent, accessible, and easily available to students throughout a term. Seeing as Christian is a computer scientist and passionate gamer himself, gamification of the classroom is a natural step towards increasing student engagement because, duh, games are fun. A key feature to gamified learning for Christian is the students’ ability to know their own progress in a class (quantitatively and qualitatively), as well as how individual achievements relate to their overall grade as the term progresses.
In one response to Christian’s system, someone pointed out the growing body of research done by educational psychologists over the past century that shows how focusing on grades and grading affects classroom experiences. The article linked argues that teachers who focus on grades and grading diminish students’ interest in learning course material, create a preference for attempting the easiest possible task, and reduce the quality of students’ thinking, rather than measuring how well students are learning (and how well teachers are teaching).
“[G]rades function as a mechanism for controlling students rather than as a necessary or constructive way to report information about their performance.” -Alfie Kohn
Trailblazers unite to untie the knots of tradition
Although Christian’s grading system was a grassroots effort, he is not the only one in the world to use XP gamification in the classroom to augment or replace traditional grading systems. Lee Sheldon’s Multiplayer Classroom: Designing Coursework as a Game chronicles a series of similar case studies orbiting around the heart of Christian’s independent endeavor. Much of their feedback supports Christian’s findings, while some takes different approaches to the same problems with even more interesting results. Who knows how next years classes will evolve?
Until recently, grades and grading were the only practical and reliable methods of evaluating and assessing a student’s academic performance. As digital technology (both hardware and software) becomes more affordable and pervasive in classrooms, gamifying the way lessons are experienced will become easier and more robust. The way students engage with course material, with teachers, and with each other is no longer limited to desks, chalkboards, raised arms, and classrooms.
The fact that trailblazing teachers like Christian are using their classrooms as hadron colliders for alternative modes of evaluation and engagement, and then sharing their mistakes, their challenges, and their triumphs with each other in online communities, nearly as they happen, bolsters the luminosity and promise of the future of teaching and learning.
At this moment, for better or for worse, technology is evolving the classroom experience. The question tomorrow’s teachers are already asking themselves is this: Which side of history do I want to be on?
This article originally appeared on the Top Hat blog. Top Hat is designed to connect professors and students in university classrooms. If you’re interested in learning how Top Hat can be used to create a more engaged and active learning environment, click here.
