Transform Your Teaching

What are some studies that have demonstrated the effectiveness of gamification? How can the work that others have done to gamify their classes help you? Join Rob and Jared as they discuss examples from five different gamification studies.

Please take this opportunity to fill out our end-of-the-year survey. This survey should take 5-10 minutes, and your responses are anonymous. If you would like to be entered for the Uncommon Sense Teaching drawing, you can share your name and email address at the end of the survey. Even if you enter the drawing, your survey response will still remain anonymous. 

View a transcript of this week's episode.

Resources

• Impact of Gamification on Students’ Learning Outcomes and Academic Performance: A Longitudinal Study Comparing Online, Traditional, and Gamified Learning - Lampropoulos & Sidiropoulos
• How Gamification Boosts Learning in STEM Higher Education: A Mixed Methods Study - Ortiz‑Rojas; Chiluiza; Valcke & Bolanos‑Mendoza
• Gamification during Covid-19: Promoting active learning and motivation in higher education - Rincon-Flores & Santos-Guevera
• Higher Education Students’ Assessments towards Gamification and Sustainability: A Case Study - Santos-Villalba; Olivencia; Navas-Parejo & Benitez-Marquez
• Stats Kwon Do: a Case Study in Instructional Design, Multimedia and Gamification of Instruction - Coffland & Huff
• Mayer’s 12 Principles of Multimedia Learning

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If you gamify your class, how do you ensure that students remember content, not just the game that they played? What would it look like if you wanted to integrate learning into a game? Join Rob and Jared as they chat with Dr. Daniel Singletary (EdD in Educational Technology, Boise State University) about how gamification can be used to motivate students.

Please take this opportunity to fill out our end-of-the-year survey. This survey should take 5-10 minutes, and your responses are anonymous. If you would like to be entered for the Uncommon Sense Teaching drawing, you can share your name and email address at the end of the survey. Even if you enter the drawing, your survey response will still remain anonymous. 

View a transcript of this week's episode.

Resources

• FOCUS Blog - Cedarville University CTL

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What are the differences between gamification and game-based learning? How can one small “gamifying” step increase student engagement and make content stick? Join Rob and Jared as they define gamification, consider the underlying frameworks associated with gamification, and share some easy applications.

Please take this opportunity to fill out our end-of-the-year survey. This survey should take 5-10 minutes, and your responses are anonymous. If you would like to be entered for the Uncommon Sense Teaching drawing, you can share your name and email address at the end of the survey. Even if you enter the drawing, your survey response will still remain anonymous. 

View a transcript of this week's episode.

Resources

• Self-Determination Theory - Deci & Ryan
• Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience - Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
• The Octalysis Framework for Gamification & Behavioral Design - Yu-kai Chou
• FOCUS Blog - Cedarville University CTL

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What do gaming, storytelling, and music have in common? Can they be used in innovative ways in our teaching practices? Join Rob and Jared as they begin a new series where they will explore how these seemingly uncommon applications in education could be used in innovative/common ways.

Please take this opportunity to fill out our end-of-the-year survey. This survey should take 5-10 minutes, and your responses are anonymous. If you would like to be entered for the Uncommon Sense Teaching drawing, you can share your name and email address at the end of the survey. Even if you enter the drawing, your survey response will still remain anonymous. 

View a transcript of this week's episode.

Resources

• FOCUS Blog - Cedarville University CTL

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• Contact us at [email protected] with any questions

How can teachers use brain science to design more effective lessons? What do metaphors, working memory, and even a “quadrapus brain” have to do with student learning? In this extended episode, Rob and Jared chat with Dr. Barbara Oakley, author of Uncommon Sense Teaching, about how metaphor and clear direct instruction help both “race cars” and “hikers” learn more deeply.

Please take this opportunity to fill out our end-of-the-year survey. This survey should take 5-10 minutes, and your responses are anonymous. If you would like to be entered for the Uncommon Sense Teaching drawing, you can share your name and email address at the end of the survey. Even if you enter the drawing, your survey response will still remain anonymous.

View a transcript of this week's episode.

Resources

• Uncommon Sense Teaching: Practical Insights in Brain Science to Help Students Learn – Oakley, Rogowsky & Sejnowski (Amazon)
• Learning How to Learn – Dr. Barbara Oakley (Coursera)
• FOCUS Blog - Cedarville University CTL

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How does someone remain a faithful educator over the course of their teaching career? What does it look like to invest in students beyond the classroom? How can you effectively pass the baton from one generation of teachers to the next? In this episode, Rob, Jared, and Wes Baker chat with our good friend “Mr. L” (Jim Leightenheimer, Former Associate Professor of Communication at Cedarville University 1982 to 2025) about his time at Cedarville and hear from former students about Mr. L’s influence on their lives and careers.

Please take this opportunity to fill out our end-of-the-year survey. This survey should take 5-10 minutes, and your responses are anonymous. If you would like to be entered for the Uncommon Sense Teaching drawing, you can share your name and email address at the end of the survey. Even if you enter the drawing, your survey response will still remain anonymous. 

View a transcript of this week's episode.

Resources

• FOCUS Blog - Cedarville University CTL

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• Connect with us via LinkedIn
• Contact us at [email protected] with any questions

How has flipped learning developed over time? What are the best strategies for pushing students towards higher levels of learning? Is there any place for AI in flipped learning? In this episode, Rob and Jared chat with Dr. Wes Baker (former Professor of Communication Arts at Cedarville University from 1977 to 2017).

Please take this opportunity to fill out our end-of-the-year survey. This survey should take 5-10 minutes, and your responses are anonymous. If you would like to be entered for the Uncommon Sense Teaching drawing, you can share your name and email address at the end of the survey. Even if you enter the drawing, your survey response will still remain anonymous. 

View a transcript of this week's episode.

Resources

• FOCUS Blog - Cedarville University CTL

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What is prompt engineering? How can you use prompt engineering to improve the output from Generative AI? In this episode, Jared Pyles reflects on his presentation at the Ohio STEM conference in June and shares CRISPE, an easy-to-use prompt engineering framework.

Please take this opportunity to fill out our end-of-the-year survey. This survey should take 5-10 minutes, and your responses are anonymous. If you would like to be entered for the Uncommon Sense Teaching drawing, you can share your name and email address at the end of the survey. Even if you enter the drawing, your survey response will still remain anonymous.

View a transcript of this week's episode.

Resources

• CRISPE — ChatGPT Prompt Engineering Framework - Denys Dinkevych 
• FOCUS Blog - Cedarville University CTL

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How did Dr. Thomas White move Cedarville University forward through the implementation of ChatGPT Edu across its entire campus? How will this campus-wide initiative make an impact on students, faculty and staff?  In this episode, Rob and Jared discuss these questions and more with Dr. Thomas White (President of Cedarville University).

Please take this opportunity to fill out our end-of-the-year survey. This survey should take 5-10 minutes, and your responses are anonymous. If you would like to be entered for the Uncommon Sense Teaching drawing, you can share your name and email address at the end of the survey. Even if you enter the drawing, your survey response will still remain anonymous.

View a transcript of this week's episode.

Resources

• FOCUS Blog - Cedarville University CTL

Chat with us!

• Connect with us via LinkedIn
• Contact us at [email protected] with any questions

What can an instructor do to seem approachable to students? How does an instructor’s enthusiasm or attitude affect how students interact with them or their class? What kinds of assessments seem to be most effective for learning from a student’s view? Join Rob and Jared as they discuss the instructor-student relationship, assessments and more with Lauren and Daniel.

Have questions about some of the topics we’ve discussed recently? Drop all your burning questions in our form for an upcoming Q&A episode!

Please take this opportunity to fill out our end-of-the-year survey. This survey should take 5-10 minutes. Your responses are anonymous. If you would like to be entered for the Uncommon Sense Teaching drawing, you can share your name and email address at the end of the survey. Your response will remain anonymous.

View a transcript of this week's episode.

Resources

• FOCUS Blog - Cedarville University CTL

Chat with us!

• Connect with us via LinkedIn
• Contact us at [email protected] with any questions