Walking through the school corridors, I often overhear comments such as “I don’t like ——– (insert subject here) because it’s booooring” or “I love ——— (insert subject here) because it’s soooo fun, we play games all the time”. This post deals with making Moodle more interesting and engaging for students, especially the younger ones.
I recently conducted a student survey at my current school (High School only) and found out that “more games” is the most requested feature by the lower High School students.
The ‘Game‘ module for Moodle was first released in 2008 and has been actively maintained ever since. The idea behind it is to use some of the content already existing in your Moodle courses to create engaging activities. You’ll be able to make games in no time if you already have questions in your question bank, quizzes, or even better – glossaries. If you don’t, you’ll have to make create some first – I recommend glossaries as they are compatible with most types of games and quick to make. So far, teachers can create 8 different types of games:
- Hangman
- Crossword
- Cryptex (word search)
- Hidden picture
- Millionaire (a barebones version of ‘Who wants to be a millionaire?)
- Sudoku
- Snakes & Ladders
From experience, only ‘Crossword’ and ‘Millionaire’ appeal to older students (16+) while ‘Snakes & Ladders’ and ‘Hangman’ are most suited to younger students (<12). Middle school students are a pretty easy crowd to please and will happily play any of the games mentioned above.
Some of the games have a more obvious educational benefit, for example ‘Crossword’ or ‘Millionaire’ while some seem a little ‘gimmicky’ (Hidden picture). I have however been able to use all types of games to help students with their learning.
Although there are a few (minor) bugs, the developer has done a great job at listening to users’ feedback to improve his module. I recommend you strongly to download it and give it a try.