Mitch Harrington
Gamification
This gamification activity will help La Tobe students understand and apply APA 7th referencing in their studies.
Humanities
Pre-service
Educator
APA7 Referencing Quest
an engaging activity where students compete in a scavenger hunt and reference battles to earn points and climb the leaderboard, all while mastering APA7 referencing rules.
Materials required
Paper and pens
Game tokens (lollies/stickers)
laptops
APA7 Referencing Guide
Prizes (bigger lollies / bigger stickers)
A whiteboard for the leaderboard
Timer or stopwatch
Intended learning outcomes
By the end of the activity, students will be able to:
- Identify and correctly format different types of sources using APA7 referencing.
- Apply APA7 referencing rules in various contexts.
- Demonstrate increased confidence in using APA7 referencing for their academic work.
Activity description
Introduction (10 minutes)
Briefly introduce the importance of proper referencing and an overview of APA7 style.
Explain the gamified activity
and how it will work.
Step 1: Scavenger Hunt (20 minutes)
Setup: Split the students into small groups
(3-4 students per group).
Each group will use their laptops,
paper, and a pen.
Task: Groups will participate in an
APA7 Scavenger Hunt.
They will search for specific types of sources
(e.g., book, journal article, website, etc.)
within a provided list of resources.
For each source, they must write down
the correct APA7 reference
on the paper provided.
The scavenger hunt will last 20 minutes.
Game elements: The team that completes
the list first will be awarded points
and they will go to the top of the leaderboard.
Step 2: Reference Battles (20 minutes)
Setup: each group nominates
a representative to participate
in the Reference Battles.
Task: Representatives face off in a
series of quick challenges where they
must correct improperly formatted
references shown on a screen.
Each battle lasts 1 minute.
Game elements: Combing the points from the
scavenger hunt and the reference battles,
teams will be added to the leaderboard.
Prizes will be awarded to the top teams.
Conclusion (10 minutes)
Wrap-up: Review key points about APA7 referencing.
Debrief: Discuss what students found challenging and clarify any misconceptions.
Prizes: Award prizes to the top-scoring group and distribute participation tokens.
Reflection
In my APA7 activity, I utilised points, quests and leaderboards as gamification elements. I selected these elements to create a dynamic and competitive environment that aligns with the learning objectives of identifying and correctly formatting sources using APA7 referencing. Points serve as immediate feedback, reinforcing correct answers and they are used to motivate students to strive for accuracy. Leaderboards foster a sense of competition and progress, encouraging students and teams to perform well. The use of quests, in this case, a scavenger hunt, makes the task of identifying and formatting references more engaging and adventurous. These elements enhance student engagement by introducing a game-like structure into the activity. By ‘gamifying’ the activity, students are more likely to immerse themselves in the task, improving their understanding and retention of APA7 referencing rules.
Finding the balance between learning and fun can be challenging. In this activity it was important that I ensured the gamification elements enhanced the activity without overshadowing the learning goals. The points system directly rewarded the correct application of APA7 rules, ensuring that the focus remained on learning and not just on winning. The leaderboard provided a visual representation of progress, competitively motivating continuous improvement. The quest format was designed to align with the practical application of APA7 referencing, ensuring that the fun element was seamlessly integrated with educational content.
A challenging component of the design process was ensuring that the competitive aspect did not discourage students who might struggle with the material. To address this, I added a short debrief session at the end of the activity to review key points, answer questions and reinforce the students learning. The using small prizes and game tokens were aimed to recognize participation and effort, not just performance, fostering a supportive learning environment. This balance between fun and educational content helped maintain focus on the primary learning objectives while enhancing student engagement through gamification.
