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Gamification
“Scenario: You have been given the task of running a short 1 hour class for new La Trobe University students to teach them how to use APA7 referencing. Because this content can be a bit boring, you decide to use a gamification activity as a way to make this class more interesting.”
Outwit, Outplay, Outlast: The APA7 Citation Hunt
A movement-based scavenger hunt for citations! APA7 references are hidden around the class (and possibly outside if the weather is lovely on such a day) with students locating, sorting and correctly assembling the references…
Against the clock!
Materials
- Printed citation fragments (authors, years, titles, journal names, DOIs etc.)
- Laminated “trap” cards with incorrect APA7 formatting
- Envelopes or baskets for each team
- Butcher’s paper or large poster paper
- Blue tack/tape for hiding clues around the room
- Whiteboard markers/pens
- Sticky notes
- Small prizes (stickers or little vouchers)
- Music optional (I’m envisioning Survivor-style ambience)
Learning Intentions
- Identify the different components of APA7 references
- Correctly construct basic APA7 references
- Recognise common APA7 formatting mistakes
- Work collaboratively to justify referencing decisions
- Build confidence using APA7 conventions
In essence, the classroom turns into a weird little citation scavenger hunt.
I got the idea from a morpheme/grapheme treasure hunt activity I originally designed for primary literacy. Students were physically building words out of language pieces. Ironically, APA7 referencing feels quite similar: learning the ropes, and assembling parts together in a certain order and trying to make meaning out of them.
Instead of sitting through a referencing lecture, students get moving, collecting fragments of citations hidden around the room (or outside, if it’s not too inclement).
Some examples:
- author names
- years
- journal titles
- DOIs
- punctuation
- italics cards
- intentional false citations to throw them off
Students work in small teams and have to:
- find matching pieces
- decide what belongs together
- physically build a correct APA7 reference on butcher paper
- justify why they arranged it that way
Some clues are intentionally wrong or misleading so they can’t just collect everything blindly.
Some fragments would be hidden in the most curious of places – like an Easter egg hunt meets hide-and-seek. For grown-ups!
Misleading clues might include:
- fake DOIs
- missing commas
- wrong capital letters
- “et al.” used incorrectly
The teams then compare answers and debate why they formatted things differently.
There is a points system, but it’s quite light to prevent overwhelm. They include:
- bonus points for catching traps
- bonus points for explaining corrections
- tiny prizes at the end (such as stickers… because who doesn’t want a gold star?)
To conclude, groups do a quick gallery walk, leaving sticky note feedback on each other’s references before we go through answers together as a class.
Outwit the citation traps
Outplay the punctuation errors
Outlast the APA7 chaos
Gamification Elements
- scavenger hunt
- teamwork (for I’ve heard it makes the dream work)
- hidden clues/traps
- points system
- competition
- movement around the classroom
- prizes/reward system
Reflection
The idea originally came from a morpheme scavenger hunt activity I designed for primary literacy, yet I realised APA7 references are quite similar in their own way: students are still assembling parts of language together.
As noted above, I’ve included the scavenger hunt itself, elements of teamwork, hidden traps (and clues), a points-based system, that sweet motivator of competition, and a reward system – ie. prizes!
APA7 can be quite intimidating for first year students, so I wanted to make it feel more playful and less lecture-heavy. The activity allows students to physically move about and engage their bodies and brains, compared with merely sitting silently and copying the formatting rules of APA 7th edition.
Its design goes beyond just memorising, as there are “trap” cards which encourage critical thinking.
Hopefully, the students’ collaborative discussion is seen as more important than winning (although there will always be those in the class who are in it to win it, and good on them). A challenging element I did find was to strike a balance between the game and university students actually learning how to reference in APA7 format. Likewise, keeping the activity achievable within the hour time slot! To address these, I made the scavenger hunt directly connected to constructing and correcting real references rather than unrelated gameplay. (As someone who loves her tangents, this was indeed challenging!)