Internet Learning Volume 3, Number 2, Fall 2014 | Page 46

Gamifying Course Content with SmashFact
Future Directions
Future versions of SmashFact will address
several learning challenges raised
by faculty members. The first issue is
related to scoring. Currently, students have
10 seconds to answer each question. For every
second that passes, students lose 10 points
from the allowable score for each question.
Missed questions are thrown back into the
“unanswered” queue. No additional points
are added for replaying a level. Future versions
will adjust replay scoring to allow students to
improve their score by practicing more.
In addition, future versions will offer
the ability for students and faculty to track
incorrect answers. Faculty members will be
able to customize game feedback to prompt
student to replay levels with a high number
of incorrect answers. This feature will also
help faculty identify poorly written questions
or course content for which students are experiencing
particular difficulty. In the next
version, SmashFact will offer adjustable font
size to increase the amount of characters a
question can contain. Currently the limit is
56 characters. Fourth, we will consider the
settings for previewing questions. Faculty
can currently press a button and see a preview
of how their question will appear in the
SmashFact app. However, in the next version,
a thumbnail image and speaker indicator will
be available in the Question/Answer settings.
Finally, faculty members will be offered
the opportunity to share their activity
with others. This feature may be particularly
useful as a kind of open source educational
solution. Faculty members can make available
their app for colleagues or teaching assistants
so they can begin the development
of the own version by building on an existing
activity. A “Duplicate” function will allow
faculty in the same program to share the same
root activity, and each faculty will be able to
customize questions or make an easier/more
advanced versions.
Conclusions
Higher education is facing new challenges
as a growing proportion of
higher education learning is occurring
online. In fact, as of Fall 2012, 7.1 million
students were taking one online course, indicating
that 1 in 3 courses are now occurring
online, and this number continues to grow.
In order to increase the success of student
outcomes, and increase degree completion
for online students, we need to employ educational
interventions that facilitate mastery
of key concepts, particularly in introductory
and “weed-out” courses — the most common
type that are taken online. SmashFact offers
one solution designed to decrease barriers to
learning for both students and instructors.
Reference
Allen, E. & Seaman, J. (2014). Grade Change:
Tracking Online Education in the United
States, 2013. Babson Survey Research Group,
Babson Park, MA.
About the Author
Britt Carr is the co-founder of Advanced
Authoring and developer of SmashFact, has
been developing interactive learning since
1992. In addition to helping solve teaching
and learning challenges for universities across
the country, he has served as a consultant to
interactive software giants Macromedia and
Adobe Inc. From 2008 - 2013, Britt was nominated
as a Higher Education Leader and in
2009 received the “Impact Award” from Adobe
for contributions to education. He lives in
San Martin, California with his wife and two
children.
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