Last week I asked the students in this class some questions to see what their initial impression of the gamification of our classroom was. Here are their answers to the third question:

3. What type of student do you think might do worse in a class that has some gamification elements? Why do you think that is?

Students who would do worse are those who work less efficiently under pressures of any sort. Even though this system isn’t cutthroat, it still involves competition and some students would see this as stressful, hindering their productivity.. -a sophomore

The type of student I see doing bad it the student who doesn’t care. A type of student who wouldn’t try or anything, he would just try to pass the class. I think this because not many of the perks are great but then some of them are but they are hard to get. -a sophomore

I think that anyone who is not competitive and doesn’t care wont be affected by the game. If you don’t have a competitive nature you are just going to do the homework like any other class. -a senior

A student who is an “over-achiever” and always wants to be the best at everything would actually do worse with gamification. For that kind of student, getting an A is enough motivation to put forth lots of effort in a class. If gamification elements are added, this type of student might feel that they need to be the best in the game as well as in grades. This could possibly stress said student because they feel the need to put forth lots of effort for the game as well as putting forth lots of effort for just getting a good grade. -a senior

For a student who needs to be ace at everything this kind of stuff would be very detrimental to their performance. Seeing as they have a bit of them that needs to be the best at everything and if the leaderboards show anything it is that you have to really go above and beyond to get the best on everything. This could lead to them being overwhelmed and then shutting down all motivation completely. -a senior

People who just want a good grade, they might think that the game is getting in the way of an easy A. -a senior

People who are more into things like reading books about vampires and other non-straight stuff like that. mainly because they think differently than this kind of thing requires. -a junior

A person that doesn’t think video games are that great, in other words someone who never plays them because they may not understand or like the concept. It might not make them have a bad game but they may not do their best because of the concept. -a junior

Anything stand out to you from the quotes? You might note that I don’t have as many replies as I have students. I asked them to answer as many of the nine questions as they wanted, but they had to want to answer at least three.