Sometimes, teaching looks like rows of distracted students. Sometimes it looks like the empty black boxes of disabled web cameras. For educators, maintaining students’ attention, interest and participation can be one of your hardest tasks.
We get it. In fact, our co-founder Mads Bonde was a biotechnology professor who was struggling with disengaged students when he created Labster with Michael Bodekaer Jensen.
Here’s how Labster’s use of game-based learning is still helping educators like Mads (and you!) motivate and engage students.
黑白斯特is as challenging as it is fun
Labster支持课程教学通过使用一些游戏元素来帮助学生更深入地学习。
“游戏的目标不能替换指示，而是改善它。”- Richard N. Landers（Landers，2014年）
Labster不是一个陈规定型的学习游戏，也不是“edutainment”。我们以不同的方式使用赌博学习。Labster的虚拟实验室适用于一些基于游戏的内在激励因子，同时保持学生专注于学习内容。
黑白斯特does:
Offer engaging experiences that foster mastery learning.
Facilitates students’ critical thinking problem solving, analysis, and synthesis of new knowledge.
Stokes students’ natural curiosity and desire to learn
黑白斯特does NOT:
通过显示顶级得分的排行榜推动社交竞争。
Encourage students to mindlessly collect badges.
激励学生完成一个虚拟拉b experience for the sake of winning.
Labster让你的学生参与其中
In a traditional classroom, students can sometimes find a way to sit at the back of the class and choose not to participate. Fortunately, it’s much harder for students to disengage in Labster’s virtual laboratory where nothing happens without their active involvement.
“They’re not sitting in front of the computer watching a video of someone lecturing to them. They’re engaged, they’re playing. It’s motivating, not boring.”
学生与Labster的每个互动都会影响他们在游戏中的进展。实际上，research表明，我们的虚拟实验室模拟唤起了高水平的浓度和参与。华体会赞助ac米兰
Labster增加了从游戏开发借来的技术的动力
We’ve spent years developing our virtual learning platform in collaboration with psychologists, learning specialists, and teachers, and we can see the positive impact Labster is having. Today, Labster students are motivated to learn cutting edge science by playing realistic, relatable virtual lab simulations like:
These storylines are just one aspect of Labster’s advanced learning engine. We also use action language, missions fraught with conflict and challenge, an immersive environment, game-based rules, embedded assessment, and 3D animations. Each dimension of gamification provides another hook that engages students in the learning experience.
使用Labster学习是集成的，而不是附加版
“Two categories of gamification have emerged over time. In the first case, someone makes a game and then tries to integrate learning, like “oh, we can add gamification to it.’ This can be a good stepping stone, but the true benefit comes from actually integrating the learning into the game so you learn as you play.”
让学生失败的自由
Offering students the “freedom to fail” (Tsay et al, 2018) is one of Labster’s most important gamified features. When students choose an incorrect answer to one of the embedded quiz questions, they receive immediate feedback (including an encouraging nudge to read the Theory pages) and a chance to retake the quiz at a slight reduction in point value.
学生还可以从头开始重复虚拟实验室模拟。当学生成功完成虚拟实验室模拟时，他们会接受识别和祝贺工作做得好。
Using Constructive Sequences and the Chunking Method
We want to help your students understand each concept by creating digestible chunks of active learning and presenting them in a constructive sequence that builds on prior knowledge. Every virtual lab simulation contains a series of missions that comprise a clear goal and tasks which work towards attainment.
Labster首先提供更简单的任务，因此学生可以学习模拟的基础和参数。随着重复和基于失败的学习，学生很快就能导航虚拟实验室。然后，Labster逐渐增加了复杂程度。模拟任务从概念探索，技能发展到知识申请是非常常见的。
Which gamified elements does Labster use?
如果你很奇怪，这张表总结了类似的游戏元素Labster格式化（尺寸通过Bedwell等，2012）。
行动语言
The student directly moves their avatar and communicates with the game (Labster’s Dr. One character) using a conversations-with-options approach.使用他们的头像得到“手”实践，学生能够在实验室技能和他们在模拟期间获得的新概念之间建立联系
评估
嵌入式测验允许学生衡量他们的成就和发展目标。他们用于允许学生在游戏中推进。
Conflict/Challenge
The student is given a mission to perform and is challenged by quiz questions as they play, prompting them to find answers by reading the Theory pages, making choices and evaluating consequences.控制The student can move and interact with available elements, however the freedom is limited to Labster’s linear flow of tasks.
游戏小说
The student’s role and mission are imaginary and challenges are fraught with uncertainty. Labster uses the context of a realistic story to involve students in a mission. They learn new information which is presented in the Theory Pages within the user interface.
Immersion
Imaginative environments and storylines create an opportunity for students to suspend their disbelief and immerse themselves in the information presented. The student plays the role of hero and is able to influence the outcome of events.
Rules
Labster建立在一系列任务上，具有明确的规则和目标，在活动开始和整个模拟之前传达。
Try Labster yourself
如果你是一个科学教练，寻找创造性的方式，进一步吸引学生的好奇心和动力学习，我们邀请你try Labster.
References in this post:
Bedwell, W. L., Pavlas, D., Heyne, K., Lazzara, E. H., & Salas, E. (2012). Toward a taxonomy linking game attributes to learning: An empirical study.Simulation & Gaming,43（6），729-760。
着陆器，R. N.（2014）。开发赌博学习理论：与学习的严肃游戏和赌博一起联系起来。模拟和游戏,45(6), 752-768.
Tsay, C. H. H., Kofinas, A., & Luo, J. (2018). Enhancing student learning experience with technology-mediated gamification: An empirical study.Computers & Education,121，1-17。
