Boss Fights

As I worked on the gamified course, I consistently came up with the thought that I would have to give up tests, for they did not fit the questing model. I was completely fine with this idea, but as a teacher hoping that others would want to pick up this model, I really wanted test to be a workable method for any subject.

At the same time, my students were failing as they were not able to knock out the quests quickly enough. I wanted to ensure that they were learning through projects, but the time needed to do these assignments was too extensive for my students. And then the solution to both of these problems came to me....

Boss fights!

I could create a test as a 1 day quest offering. Each student had one opportunity to tackle the test and the grade he received would contribute to his total experience points. I considered that surely no student would voluntarily take a test, but the key to motivation is incentive. I decided that the test was valuable to me, so it would need to be valuable for my students. I offered a maximum of 250 points for the boss fight. Students had learned that points come slowly, so the opportunity to get 250 points in one day was too much to pass up. And they all took the test and took it seriously.

Furthermore, if a student failed or missed the exam, he could always complete more quests to prove to me that he know the material. Essentially that is what we call corrections at our school, and students would always have the chance to prove knowledge of the material even if they were not a "good test taker."