I should make a short clarification before beginning this installation of the series: ‘class system’ refers to a structure commonly found in games–mostly video games–rather than any other possible definition.

If you’ve ever experimented with fantasy or social games (World of Warcraft immediately comes to mind), you may have noticed that every person who plays the game builds their character a slightly different way. Selecting different ‘classes’ of character like Thief, Warrior, or Shaman starts you out with different strengths and weaknesses. These strengths and weaknesses help a player determine what partners they need to make, what quests they need to go on, and what skills they need to practice to progress in the game.

In a nutshell, the game differentiates the experience based on the player’s skills, allowing them to use their strengths and shore up their weaknesses to keep up with the game’s demands.

This, my friends, is exactly the kind of differentiation teachers dream about! When thinking about differentiation, the focus is often on shoring up student weaknesses; giving students with IEPs easier assignments is an example that easily comes to mind. While not inherently bad, we want to focus on student strengths, and create an environment where students can use what they’re good at to learn instead of following a rote path. Gamification can provide these opportunities within a context that students already understand, and eliminate the shame that can come with being treated differently from their classmates. After all, in a gamified classroom, getting a different type of assignment doesn’t mean they’re inferior; of course a Thief would get a different mission than a Knight!

While this type of differentiation can start as simply as a change in the teacher’s vocabulary, the next step comes in platforms that help make the differentiation experience richer.

One class management platform called Classcraft is already taking major advantage of this kind of system. I’ve already mentioned the platform once before during this series, to commend it for its ability to translate student work and behavior into tangible rewards. However, what makes it utterly unique is in its skill in differentiation. On the surface, Classcraft looks like a swords-and sorcery fantasy game (once again, think World of Warcraft), but with teachers setting the student’s ‘player’ build based on in-class skills. Students who excel in cooperative skills may be classified as Mages, for example, while students who aren’t afraid to volunteer answers may be better Warriors. These skills can then help a teacher build teams of students that can take on assignments as ‘quests’ together. Students can level up certain skills to strengthen their character, and make themselves into a stronger member of their ‘team’ by gaining in-class abilities. Over time, more successful quests means more benefits for the team (which can include those real-world rewards like homework passes or take-home tests)—and more motivation to work together to learn.

Another great platform that can use game principles to differentiate is the Mangahigh platform, which uses manga styling and game challenges to help improve engagement. Teachers can browse through assessments or math games, setting challenges for their students to complete within a limited timeframe. Students can work towards their own high scores, or compete with other users in other classes, who can range from all over the world!

While the customizing of student accounts doesn’t extend to skill sets like Classcraft does, teachers can use student progress in various challenges to separate them into groups based on their high scores and quiz grades, then assign following challenges accordingly. Teachers can assign Mangahigh’s challenges to entire classes or to individuals, letting educators customize the student experience based on what they’re ready to handle.

If you want to retain the idea of using class systems, I’d recommend developing separate ‘tracks’ of challenges, then setting students onto one of those tracks as they progress through your curriculum. These tracks can serve as your classes, geared towards different types of games or mastery of different in-class skills. Overall, if you’re a math teacher, I’d definitely give this one a shot. It’s one of the first platforms I’ve covered that both uses real gamification and game-based education, mixing their differentiation capability and competitive edge with actual games that students enjoy playing!

SMARTamp can also be geared towards gamified differentiation. While not strictly an educational tool designed for gamification, SMARTamp’s structure allows teachers to create different platforms or workspaces for different groups of students, each with content better suited to their own work style. You can use these differentiated spaces to create strongly differentiated tasks, ranging from similar assignments with different questions to entirely separate ‘maps’ of curriculum that students can explore.

As always, though, there are some possible pitfalls when it comes to differentiation using gamified platforms. Here’a a couple of rules of thumb:

1. Maintain high expectations, no matter the class. Even if your “Mage” and “Warrior” students are given options to take different paths to mastery, they should still both be expected to reach mastery of their content. As such, those paths should mirror each other in content, if not in presentation and approach. You don’t want to find yourself with one ‘weak’ class not progressing through the curriculum because they’re covering material more slowly or less rigorously than the others: You want them all roughly in the same place by the end of the year

2. Use different classes to help expose students to their ‘weak spots’. While it’s important to give a student confidence by giving them a chance to play to their strengths, we also need to be honest as educators. If we don’t give a child a realistic view of what they can’t do yet, they won’t see the purpose of developing new skills outside of their normal strengths, or or collaborating with people who do different things better than they can.

One of the best ways of doing this is through group assignments–take students who have been separated into different groups or classes, and put them together for a ‘quest’ or project. These projects will expose students to different kinds of strengths that they may have, and spur them to try new things and become better learners.

We hope you’ll continue joining us throughout this series on the applications of gamification in the classroom. For anyone interested in the minutiae of game theory and design, it’s a great resource!  As we go through the parts listed below, please provide your own ideas and experiences with games and gamification in the comments. After all, education is a community!

Part 1: Introduction
Part 2: Pavlov and Classroom Management
Part 3: Rethinking the Grading Process
Part 4: Class Systems in the Classroom
Part 5: Games and Curriculum
Part 6: Conclusion and Resource List