Table 3
Description of the key elements of gamification.
| Narrative The general objective of the students, who were organised in groups, was to break into “The Royal Mint and The Health Care Centre” to make one million euros during the time they were inside and, as a result, escape to live in a paradise of money and health. To make this money they had to show evidence of healthy physical activity. This money accumulated throughout the DU was used to buy a plane ticket to Thailand to see the Professor (a character in the series), who was waiting for them on the island of Koh Tao. | ||
| Challenges and Missions In order to achieve their goal, the students had to overcome a set of challenges grouped into 4 different missions: • Mission 1: Seize “The Royal Mint and the Health Care Centre.” They had to create a good team and prepare to enter “The Royal Mint and the Health Care Centre” (examples of activities: passing fitness tests and initiating the construction of a task plan) (Sessions 1 and 2). • Mission 2: Let’s start the machines! They had to make as much money as possible to be able to buy the plane tickets to go to Thailand (examples of activities: creating and leading warm-ups) (Sessions 3 and 4). • Mission 3: Let’s build the tunnel. This consisted of digging the longest possible tunnel in order to escape from the “The Royal Mint and Health Care Centre” and not get caught by the police (examples of activities: conducting strength and speed training; developing and conducting their own training, etc.) (Sessions 5, 6 and 7). • Mission 4: Escape! They had to escape the country without being seen by the police and reach Thailand (Koh Tao island), where the Professor (character in the series) was waiting for them in order to live an idyllic and healthy life (examples of activities: see special event) (Session 8). All these missions are identified on the experience platform (Genially) (Figure 2): https://view.genial.ly/5dd9098751a61a0f71d7c123 | ||
| Teams, Players and Avatars Based on the initial physical assessment tests (speed and strength tests) and other criteria, such as gender, mixed groups of five were organised and stayed the same throughout the DU. Within each team, the students had to choose one of the characters from the series according to the one they felt most identified with: Berlin, Denver, Rio, Nairobi and Tokyo. There was also the character of the Professor, played by the PE teacher. | ||
| Rewards • Banknotes: These were rewarded through the daily steps recorded (outside school hours) with the app, Strava. Each step was equivalent to €1. • Gold coins: They were acquired in the different sessions through completing each session’s challenges. Each coin was worth €100. • Gold bars: These were rewarded for completing extra (non-compulsory) activities that were presented through Instagram. One bar was equivalent to €1,000. • Unlock codes: These were rewarded for completing each mission and allowed access to the next mission by means of a secret code. | ||
| Challenges | Rewards | Badges (mission keys) |
| Session 1 = Submit application and physical evidence | 10 gold coins | Mobile code (code 173) |
| Session 2 = Designing a task plan template | 10 gold coins | |
| Session 3 = Running warm-ups | 50 gold coins | Mobile code (code 27193) |
| Session 4 = Designing warm-ups | 50 gold coins | |
| Session 5 = Carrying out training sessions | 100 gold coins | Mobile code (code 548E) |
| Session 6 = Designing and conducting a training session | 100 gold coins | |
| Session 7 = Carrying out and assessing other groups’ training sessions | 100 gold coins | |
| Session 8 = Capture a million: Escape | 10,000 gold coins | Mobile code (code 8056) |
| Extra Activities Through the Professors’s Instagram account, extra activities were uploaded as “stories” and “posts” which the students had to perform and provide evidence of completion through photos, videos or screenshots in order to get some gold bars in return. These activities were as follows: a) Performing different strength exercises (examples: push-up challenge; plank and side plank challenges; squat challenge, etc.) burpees challenge; plank and side plank challenges; squat challenge, etc.); b) Recording a walking or running route with Strava (examples: routes of between 4 and 10 km; 15’ or 30’ routes, etc.). | ||
| Special Events A single special event was held at the end of the DU (relating to an assessment activity, in this case a summative one). • Capture a million! With the “Capture a million!” competition, all the money they had collected during the course of the DU was put up for grabs, through different theory-related questions about the content of the DU. At the end they had to buy a plane ticket to escape. To achieve this, the whole class had to finish the competition with more than 50% of the money they had to make, so that if the class contained six groups and each group had the goal of making 1 million euros (six million in total), the budget of the whole class to be able to get the airline tickets was more than three million euros. | ||
| Social Area – Board • Drive: An Excel file was created on Google Drive, shared with all the groups, and one of the members was responsible for ensuring that the rest of the group attached weekly screenshots of the steps taken that week, in order to keep track of the weekly activity and be able to exchange them for money in the last session of the DU. • Instagram: A private Instagram account was created where the teacher communicated with the students and gave them specific challenges. This tool was also used to share healthy lifestyle habits and the different content worked on in the sessions (strength, speed, warm-up, work plan, etc.), as well as the amount of money they had accumulated (Figure 3). • Genially: This is the platform that the students used to find out where they were in the game and to watch the videos of the missions and their objectives (board). https://view.genial.ly/5dd9098751a61a0f71d7c123 | ||
| Certificates: The Plane Ticket When the class as a whole achieved the final goal of raising more than 50% of the money set out in the initial objective (1 million per group), in recognition of their involvement and participation in the experience, they were given a plane ticket to Koh Tao so they could escape and complete the mission. | ||
