Reward and Recognition Features

Simulations and serious games developed within the Faculty all support a range of reward and recognition features to promote learning and skills development, as well as to inform teaching and evaluation practices.

Meters

Meters are used within the main Virtual Case Creator (VCC) simulation interface to help students to get a feel for their progress towards achieving the performance awards designated for a particular simulation.

Meters include:

• Resources – This indicates the number of resources that have been
  accessed across a range of sittings
• Correct Decisions and Number of Decisions – This indicates the number of correct decisions within a simulation
• Discrete Skills – This indicates the number of discrete skills that must be “passed” within a simulation.(in development)
• Time - This counter will count down the time available for students to complete a simulation. Using time as a metric is one way of promoting efficiency in skills execution within a simulation. 

Awards and Badges

All simulations use badges or 'Performance Awards' to indicate to students the range of cognitive skills the simulation is seeking to develop and their progress towards demonstrating these skills. Each simulation has a 'benchmark' number of awards set and this varies depending on the simulation and learning outcomes that simulation is contributing towards. .

Achievement of all benchmark awards allows the student to download a certificate indicating their performance within a simulation.

Current awards include:

• All Resources Award
• Correct Decisions Award
• Correct Order or Prioritisation Award.

More awards reflecting a wider array of skills will be available in the near future. Awards appearing next to each simulation thumbnail on the simulation selection screen light up when achieved.

Dashboards

Each learner has their own personalised dashboard so that they can see their progress towards the benchmark awards for each of the simulations they have access to. Meters help visualise progress towards each award and at the top of the page is a reminder of the number of awards they need to achieve in order to obtain their certificate.

This page also provides access to past submission results so that learners can reflect on their progress prior to and during further attempts.

Leader Boards

Each simulation provides students with an opportunity to create a pseudonym and use this to opt into a leader board. In this way students can safely see at any time how they are performing relative to the rest of their group. The leader boards rank students by the number of awards achieved and then the total points they have scored.

Students are told that they need to finish equal to or above a BENCHAMRK entry in the leader board for each simulation.

We are conducting some interesting research into the impact of leader boards and other reward and recognition features and are exploring the role that leader board size and population characteristics have on learner engagement. Look out for some exciting developments in this space in future sim. releases.

Certificates

Once students have achieved the benchmark number of Performance Awards associated with a simulation, a link appears within their Dashboard providing them with access to a certificate.

The certificate describes the simulation, the awards achieved and the skills they represent and often maps these to competency domains used within the relevant practice area. Within our adult nursing courses certificates are added to a dedicated insert within the students’ on-going record of achievement folder.